'90s Fun: The Shadow (1994)

 Wow, this takes me back to my childhood.  I last saw this Film in Theaters (possibly on Cable later too).

This is 1994's The Shadow, a Comic Book Film that is barely mentioned.  After Batman revived the Genre in Cinemas, others were soon to follow.  This one was also aided by Dick Tracy, another Film I have on the DVD pile to revisit.

The Plot involves a man who fights crime using mental powers and just generally acting like a dick.  He drives them crazy and then beats them.  When his arch rival comes to America, can he stop him?  When he meets someone who can match him, what are his chances?

The Film is notably made by Russell Mulcahy, the Director most famous for Highlander.  It Stars Alec Baldwin, an Actor who I like, but sure makes it hard for some people to do the same.

Is this one-and-done a forgotten classic or a '90s relic?  To find out, read on...

A man- Alec Baldwin- is a criminal in, let's just say Asia and make it simple.

He's confronted by a Mystic who teaches him a better way to live.

Seven years later (isn't that how long Bruce Wayne was gone in Batman Begins?), he returns as The Shadow.

He can make himself invisible to the naked eye via telepathy, is sneaky and packs a pair of big, chrome guns.

Yes, watching Aled Baldwin shoot people is a bit awkward to watch now.  Thanks for asking.

A strange artifact arrives at the Museum (ran by the Dad from ALF!) and opens to reveal Shiwan Khan.

He has the same powers as our Hero, so I guess I have to retroactively add this Film to the list of Mirror Image Villains from my Morbius Review.  BRB.

As a bonus, he claims to be the last descendant of Genghis Khan.

According to modern genealogy, he has *does math* 3-5 MILLION of them today.  Oops.

We get a pair of Scenes where Baldwin hangs out with his Dad- Jonathan Winters- who is the Police Commissioner and against The Shadow.

They don't amount to anything in the long run.  Maybe it was a Sequel setup thing.

This does introduce Penelope Ann Miller as the Love Interest though.

The guy he saved in the 2nd Scene agreed to help The Shadow whenever he could be called upon.

He calls in that favor- while the guy thinks that Baldwin is another helper and not The Shadow- to diagram a coin he found left behind by Khan.

It turns out to be bronzium that could be mixed with beryllium, so I guess they can fix the engine from Galaxy Quest.

That or make an atomic bomb.

He romances Miller, but the problem is that she seems to have a latent, untrained mental ability.

He tries to use his powers on her, but it has no effect.

Is this love?

Despite our hero's best efforts, he can't find Khan's lair and he uses his Scientist to make a bomb.

He's so evil that Tim Curry works for him and not the other way around!

There's Tim now...and he just jumped out the window...

He eventually realizes that Khan has used his powers to hide AN ENTIRE BUILDING from everyone in the City.  I just hope that no planes fly by it...

He takes out the goons and ends up in a Hall of Mirrors.

This was apparently going to be a big sequence that would call back to (and show) Lamont's dark past...but an Earthquake wrecked the set before they shot it.

He conquers Chekhov's Living Dagger and sends a shard of glass into Khan's head.

He ends up in a mental hospital and learns that his powers are gone, due to part of his frontal lobe being removed.

Our Hero vows to keep up the fight...but that wasn't ever made.  The End.

An enjoyable Film, even if many parts of it feel familiar.  In many ways, this is like when I finally watched the original 'Ghost in the Shell' and it can seem 'derivative.' 
That's because so many people have copied it over the years- it's not the Film's fault.

That's a similar issue here as The Shadow was a Character created back in 1930.  Batman debuted in 1939.  So just bear that in mind.

The premise is pretty silly when you think about it- an evil Khan plans to nuke NYC- and the Film doesn't lean into it.  It's just a Pulp Story.  There are no jokes about how odd the story is like you would probably get now.

Baldwin is quite enjoyable here, as is pretty much everyone.  The obviously fake beard the villain has is a bit distracting though.  Curry shines in his small role, as does Sir Ian McKellen.  Yes, he's in this (see below).

On its own, the Film is an enjoyable romp.  It's not perfect, but it does have some great people in small, but notable roles.  Here are two examples...

Here's James Hong AND Al Leong- in the same shot, no less!

***

...and yes, that is Ian McKellen too.

Next up, a special look at the Extended Edition of yet another Superhero Film.  Will it be an improvement or not?  Stay tuned...

Holiday Rip-Off Flix: Resurrection (1999)

There are least Se7en reasons that this Film exists.  

Today's Film is Resurrection, a 1999 Thriller in the vein of that 1990s Classic.  David Fincher is indirectly related to the look of a lot of Films post-1995.  In this case, it is a pretty direct connection.  This is basically to Se7en what Die Hard is to Action Films post-1988.  Just like how there are many Die Hard, but... Films out there- even being made to this day! -, there are quite a few 'Se7en, but... Films too.  

This one is pretty shameless.  Throw in a Music Video Director and a man who made a few odd choices in 1999 (Beowulf) and you have this Movie.  

The Director- Russell Mulcahy.  

The Star- Christopher Lambert.  It is a very Lambert Easter!  

As a bonus irony, they aped the Style of the Director of Aliens 3, while naming the Film after the subtitle from Aliens 4!  I don't think it was intentional, but I find it funny all the same.  

The Story involves a mysterious killer committing a bunch of crimes related to Jesus Christ and Easter.  I'm going to Hell for this Review, aren't I?  

As the gore escalates (apparently cut down to avoid an NC-17!) and the tension rises, can Officer Lambert save the day?  To Find out, read on...

In Chicago (actually Toronto), a mysterious murder occurs involving a rich guy found dead and missing an arm!

 I guess in this Version the Morgan Freeman part is Lambert.

Seriously, just look at some of these shots without thinking about Se7en- I dare you!

 As we later learn, the killer wrote this in Lamb's blood.  

So, while this is ominous and all, we also have to imagine him going to a Farm to buy a lamb, don't we?!?

As the victims wrack up and the limbs go missing, Lambert is super-serious, yo!

Incidentally, did they ever catch that guy from Pieces?  

It may be him!

Right out of you-know-what, they nearly catch the killer at one Scene and chase him through an alley.

Unlike that Film, one of the Cops gets shot and loses a leg!

This FBI guy seems to be trying to help, but anyone who's watched Scooby-Doo knows not to trust him!

Plus, the Actor, much like a Billy Drago or Bill Oberst Jr, seems to always play bad guys, so...

The killer tries to get personal by targeting Lambert's wife, but he ends up killing someone else.

Incidentally, we get 2 Scenes of a Priest.  

He's played by David Cronenberg, moving down in the world from running that Prison in Jason X.

Just like John Doe, they catch him.  The hook here: trying to get evidence to stick.

Sorry, but you're not quite Kevin Spacey. (2023 Update- That's kind of a compliment now)

After the killer is free again, he appears to be done with his masterpiece- a Pieces-style sculpture of Jesus.

Of course, he also somehow made the Partner's missing left leg into a right one!

Lambert eventually confronts the killer one last time (a la Last Action Hero) and has to save a baby.  Somehow John Doe's final revenge seems more dark and ironic.

Either way, he gets shot and the baby lives.  Happy Easter!

Not your usual Holiday fare!  The Film has some really good points, but so many are just straight-out lifted from Se7en.  I know I've mentioned the comparison a few dozen times, but it is hard not to.  This is by no means The Asylum's Se7en- which would probably be Ei8ht- though.  

The people involved do their parts pretty well.  The Director throws in some of his favorite camera tricks to distract you from how much this looks like Fincher.  Lambert does his usual routine here- nothing more, nothing less.  He seems to be pretty invested here and doesn't appear to be high like he was in Absolon.  The Film doesn't allow him *too* many opportunities to do his trademark smirk, but he works it in still. 

 

The Film's two roadblocks: the Religious Theme and the Gore.  

The former is laid on pretty thick, but filtered through the idea that this guy is just plain crazy too.  There is a half-hearted subplot about Lambert losing his faith, but it mostly just moves him to the next piece of evidence.  

The Gore is pretty prevalent, even in her Version- which is apparently shorter.  If you don't like the stuff, you will have some hard times with this Film.  To be fair, it isn't played off as commonplace by the Characters, so it does have dramatic impact.  

Resurrection is a pretty blatant Se7en knock-off, but it's still alright.  It just isn't mind-blowing though...

Considering it is a copy of a more famous Film, the Movie still does alright.  It is about as subtle as, well, a sculpture of Jesus made out of body parts though.

Poor Bastards of Cinema: The Curse of King Tut('s Tomb)

After a short vacation, Poor Bastards of Cinema is back!  I have to do the folks over at Cute Baby Hulk proud after all...

In this scene, the villain has gained a bunch of power from doing service for Set, who he is trying to free.  He discusses his power with a lackey, who is a dead ringer for a guy from Time Chasers...

How does he show off his power?  By randomly grabbing a henchman by the throat- after calling him in, no less- and...

...pretty much just eating his soul Mortal Kombat-style!  That will teach you...to come when called.

What was the point of this death?  Granted- it led to one person turning against the guy and helping our heroes, but I think his summoning of sky demons would have sufficed too!

Next up, a glimpse at a Poor Bastard from a recent DVD/Blu-Ray release.  Does this fate just bite for the Poor Bastard this night?  Stay tuned...

Russell Crows: Razorback

* Just pretend that it's still November*

After all of these years, is it finally worth it?  For those of you who may not know, Razorback is a film that has taunted me with its existence for years.  It's by the Director of Highlander- his debut film, in fact- and is about a giant, killer pig.  Unfortunately, Netflix- my main source for films- has never had the film available.  Well, I finally broke down and just bought the film.  I'd have done it a long time ago had it not been for my worst 'blind buy' ever- Jaws in Japan.  Well, this film is not nearly that bad!  Of course, the time that I had to get two injections into my gums was not nearly that bad either!  The thing about this movie is that I shouldn't have raised my hopes up.  What was I really expecting?  It's a pretty formulaic movie, although the Australian influence does cause it to veer off into crazy territory a la Howling III.  To find out just what this film really has going for it, read on...

A man- Jake Cullen- has his life ruined when a giant Razorback pig wrecks his house and takes his granddaughter.  Naturally, the police think that he did it- ignoring the GIANT HOLE in the wall of his house.  Silly Aussies...

A couple years later, a reporter famous for covering cases of animal abuse goes out to cover a story about the rampant killing of koalas and kangaroos.  She runs across the not-convicted Cullen, setting up the plot for later.

She gets too close to the truth and gets attacked by some men at the plant that processes the kangaroo meat. The attack is interrupted by the Razorback, which proceeds to kill her instead.  Ouch.

Her husband goes to Australia to find out what happened to her.  He runs into Cullen- what a coincidence!

He gets separated from the hunters- who he is spying on- and wanders through the desert.  Say hi to Gerry for me!

He ends up back with Cullen and his niece- I think.  She's played by Arkie Whitely, who played 'Baby Spice' in The Road Warrior.  I just found that interesting, that's all.

Cullen gets his shot at the creature- literally- but it manages to escape.  Damn you, Terminator Razorback.  Fate turns against him, however, as he's left for dead by the hunters later.  Live by the Razorback, die by the Razorback.

All of this is just build up to our hero and the Niece battling the pig at the factory that makes kangaroo meat.  Seems fitting.  Insert Kool Aid Man joke here, by the way.

After a violent game of Cat and Mouse...and Giant Razorback, our hero tricks the creature into falling into the giant meat grinder.  This does foreshadow Highlander II, by the way, as it is made up of two giant fans.  The End.

Here piggy-piggy!  The plot of this movie is good, but could be a bit more focused.  The tale has a lot of distractions and sub-plots in it.  Mind you, it does a pretty good job of blending them together, but it still bugs me a little.  Plot points coincide in odd ways too.  The hunters injure Cullen because they think he knows that they attacked the reporter, when in fact he was talking about the Razorback.  That's kind of silly, since they know that the Razorback killed her!  They were there!  These guys were never that bright, but still.  When one of them has a big plan which involves hiding in a well and stabbing our hero once...and that's it, I kind of realize that maybe there might be a reason for their stupidity.  Getting past the plot aspects, this movie does have some good action and effects.  I could have done with more shots of the creature and, more importantly, ones that weren't Edited dramatically.  I do realize the technical limitations of the era, but this has been done better in other films- i.e. Xtro II, The Fly II.  That said, the shots you do get are pretty good, especially the freaky shots of the mouth near the end.  If you like these animal attack films, you'll like this one.  It's a bit experimental at times, but it's good.  With this and Shock Waves available, I'll turn my obsession to another film- White Buffalo.  Give me that DVD by next Thanksgiving, world!

Next up, December begins with a two-part look at films I've meant to review for a while.  Full Moon gets in more shot with this tale of Roman crap.  Stay tuned...

Russell Crows: The Curse of King Tut('s Tomb)

Because Russell Mulcahy loves Egypt.  Seriously, this is the second Egypt-themed movie from Mulcahy- the first being Russell Mulcahy's Tale of the Mummy.  That's not even counting The Scorpion King 2, the prequel to a prequel to The Mummy Returns, which is itself a sequel to The Mummy.  See how I did that?  Aside from the title confusion (why add the Tomb part for the DVD description?), this movie's plot is simple...in theory.  Two men are competing to find King Tut's Tomb, but for different reasons.  One of them wants to share the treasures with the world, while the other wants to rule the world- of course.  How does it help?  You see, there's a really silly back-story involving a magic piece of rock, Set taking over the Earth and King Tut getting Hawkman wings.  No, really.  I should mention that this is actually a TV mini-series (times weren't always good for Russell) and, as such, I have to gloss over quite a bit.  You can deal with it, I'm sure. To find out how a film can have an awesome opening, a cliche middle and an awesome ending, read on...

In a seven to ten minute exposition dump, our hero (Casper Van Dien) explains that King Tut fought demons led by Set.  The Gods gave him super powers, including these kick-ass wings!

Set is one bad mofo, even if he looks like that monster from The Golden Child.  He gets locked away alongside Tut- body, what body?!?- and waits for a magical tablet to be reunited for him to come back...

After that, you can say good-bye to any awesome stuff for about 100 minutes and say hello to Casper Van Dien...playing Indiana Jones...in the time of Young Indiana Jones.  Confused?

This evil dude is part of a cabal of rich people that seek to rule the Earth in various ways.  His way- the tablet, of which he has three out of the four pieces.  This means war!

Malcolm McDowell has the most important billing here- last- but only shows up for a handful of scenes.  His role- sitting in a chair and talking...before he eventually dies.

Our heroes eventually open Tut's Tomb by the end of Part 1 and film themselves looking around  Nice touch with the old-school film, but it just kind of randomly occurs the one time.  Weird.

All of this is a build-up to the villain using the tablet to give himself power.  Doesn't it open the portal for Set?  Apparently not this time as it just gives him powers like the ability to create CG fireballs to kill McDowell.

In the last fifteen minutes, the movie gets pretty crazy.  They go through the portal and end up in the weird Limbo-style dimension.  Set is there and wants 'One More Match.'  Get in there, Tut- it's for the title!

Tut and Set have another match-up...for about two minutes.  For a God, Set 'goes out like a bitch.'  We get a Status Quo Ante ending undoing all of the deaths in the film, as well as freeing up our leads to end up together.  The End.

Well, some of it is interesting.  The plot of this movie is good, but it is definitely stretched to fill out about two hours.  That was pretty unnecessary.  The fact that the movie spends half of the run-time just getting the Tomb open should tell you a whole lot.  On top of that, even with a lot of extra time, a lot of stuff is still never quite explained.  How does that super Greek lock work?  Why do they gloss over so much time when lingering on other moments?  How does this cabal work in secret for so many years without ever being seen?  The film is not bad, but it is pretty sub-par at times.  Van Dien and company lack the acting ability to really keep this thing going properly throughout.  Good actors can sustain a run-time this long.  Van Dien is pretty much here for his looks and his attempt to have as much swagger as Harrison Ford.  He doesn't.  If you're willing to forgive the movie for being a cheap, silly mess, you can have a good time though.  I've seen far worse films than this.  Take us away, Random Giant Snake...

Up next, I finally get to review a film that has eluded me for years.  Here, piggy piggy piggy.  Stay tuned...

Russell Crows: Ricochet (1991)

Is one scene worth seeing a whole film?  Today's film is one of the early works by a man who has made a career out of just doing whatever.  The man- Russell Mulcahy.  His Resume is full of random films, including two Highlander films, a Jules Verne adaptation and a Resident Evil sequel.  The only things you can really pick up are that he likes Christopher Lambert (Highlander 1-2, Resurrection) and he likes the desert (Razorback, Tale of the Mummy, Resident Evil: Extinction, The Curse of King Tut's Tomb, The Scorpion King 2).  Other than that, it's random crap like 3: The Dale Earnhardt Story, The Shadow and even MTV's Teen Wolf show!  Pick something!  I mention all of this because the first film in Russell Mulcahy 'Week' is a 1991 Made-For-HBO film starring John Lithgow and Denzel Washington.  It's essentially Cape Fear, but with some little tweaks throughout.  It has one really, really silly scene that happens in the middle of it to boot.  To find out what more this film has to offer, read on...

 

Alongside his Basketball-Double, Denzel plays 'hoops' with Ice-T and a comic.  He's on his way to becoming a big-time cop, but he needs a big break...

Conveniently enough, Lithgow's character pulls off a hit job right next to A FAIR where our hero is doing security.  Through a bit of undressing and deception (don't ask), he stops Lithgow and gets famous, thanks to a man filming him.  Career transition!

In Prison, Lithgow is paired up in a cell with...Jesse Ventura.  He ain't got time to...ow shit, he just got his ass beat!

About thirty minutes in, we get a sword fight between Ventura and Lithgow, including them wearing phone books as armor.  That's...random, but this is by the guy who made Highlander!

Oh yeah, something like this never happens again.  RANDOM!

After escaping from jail far too easily (who lets prisoners hold power tools within 20 feet of a Judge?!?) and faking his death (because nobody does DNA tests in 1991), he begins an elaborate revenge scheme.

First up, framing his friend as a child molester and faking his suicide, even leaving a note.  Somehow, they match his hand-writing, because logic doesn't exist in this world!

He eventually kidnaps Denzel and frames him as being crazy & dopes him up on drugs.  You can test him for marks and even tell by the angle of the needle if he injected himself, but we need to have a plot here!

Through more plot contrivance, he makes Denzel look more and more irrational.  To be fair, Denzel makes this way too easy.  To be critical, Lithgow has the omniscience of Vin Diesel in The Chronicles of Riddick!

After hitting 'bottom,' Denzel reunites with Ice-T, now a drug dealer, to set up his own, convoluted plan.  First step, fake his suicide to draw Lithgow out.

 The movie's climax takes place on a radio tower, since the solution to a man seamlessly-ruining your life step-by-step is just impaling him on a spike.

Thankfully, Denzel is, well, Denzel and everyone apparently believes his story about the framing.  No, really.  The End.

Mind the plot holes!  The plot of this movie is certainly interesting in theory.  The problem: they already made this movie...twice.  It's Cape Fear!  Given the timing, it's safe to assume that this movie was HBO's answer to the remake with De Niro.  Is it comparable?  No, not really.  Even changing out a Lawyer for a Cop and modifying the revenge scheme, the movie just feels redundant.  On top of that, the gray area of the Lawyer character- him being corrupt- is gone here.  Subtext- who needs that?!?  My big problem is that the revenge scheme hinges upon people accepting facts at face value, never checking evidence and jumping to conclusions.  If they did any investigation, the plan would fall apart.  If they gave anyone the benefit of the doubt, this plot would fail.  If they would simply believe Denzel after years of honest servitude, this would be a short movie!  I would love to give this movie the benefit of the doubt and maybe forgive some of it's offenses, but I decided to just act like people in this movie.  Guilty!  Even Jesse Ventura thinks that this is silly...

F