THE CROW (1994) REMEMBERING THIS CULT CLASSIC | YCFT
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- Опубликовано: 29 сен 2024
- With a new film on the horizon, and with it being the 30th anniversary of the original this year, we thought we'd talk about The Crow this week!
Music By Ben Walker: / benjaminwalkeruk
References:
The Crow - 1994 - Miramax
The Crow - 2024 - Lionsgate
The Dark Knight - 2008 - Warner Bros
Thank for ANOTHER Great Video about a GREAT Movie.
Rest In Peace Brandon Lee.
Glad you enjoyed it! This is a very special film for us, and it's one we were excited to talk about.
@@ycft ✅
I believe the band was nine inch nails.
Great review as always, and I've noticed it time and time again with art that's CLEARLY influenced directly by other things, the artists always shy away from acknowledging the one single obvious influence. Given that they're on the Crow soundtrack, I'll use Nine Inch Nails as an example. There were stacks of bands and musicians who jumped on the industrial rock bandwagon in the mid-90s after NIN broke big, including Bowie, and none of them would ever name-check NIN, even though it was obvious. Even Bowie, who co-headline toured with NIN, who had NIN remix some of his songs, said it was cult Swiss band Young Gods who were influencing him at the time. Or the designers of Cyberpunk 2077 downplaying Blade Runner as an influence when it's literally seared into its very DNA?
On the sequel front, I do have a lot of fondness for The Crow: City of Angels. It looks STUNNING at the very least. It has all of the gothic microcosm "snowglobe" vibe of the original, twisted into a dry smoggy LA for a parched palette all of its own. I concede the performances are rather eccentric throughout, but I'm certain a lot of that is due to the post-production. If you check out some of the great youtube deep-dives into it, the film-makers wanted it to be unique and different, and originally had a much longer running time. Harvey Weinstein thought it should be more like the original and demanded reshoots, whole subplots deleted, the ending refilmed and multitudes of changes that butchered the movie into being regarded as a lazy remake of the original. The end result was a film that looks stunning, with a fairly decent soundtrack, that's sadly rather chaotic and choppy with a very madcap performance from its lead. I'm certain there is a far more nuanced and sensitive performance from Vincent Perez in the Dimension archives somewhere, before most of it was chopped out. There's even whole scenes that don't make sense because of what they were forced to cut out. But if you can enjoy movies on a purely stylistic spectrum, whilst appreciating the cutting-room butchering it suffered, I think there's a lot to enjoy, especially as it continues the story of Sarah (and Gabriel). I HATED it as a teenager in 1996, it was too recycled, too frantic in its performances and too soon after Brandon's death, but watching it nearly 30 years later for the first time I was marveling at the sets and after learning of all the studio interference, it gave me an all new appreciation for the film. Much like the first movie, it has that gorgeous 90s NIN-music video gothic chic dripping from every pore that is worth watching for alone because they simply don't make movies that look like that anymore.
Second-sequel Salvation's ok I guess. The plot is fine, the soundtrack's fine, but it's the first time a Crow movie didn't *look* like a Crow movie. It's just a clearly made-for-DVD low-budget action thriller and the lead actor doesn't look even remotely threatening in his Crow-face. It's not a bad movie, just feels a bit cheap and devoid of style. Just compare the fetish clubs in City of Angels to Salvation; the former looks like a cutting edge 90s Marilyn Manson music video, the latter would struggle to even be included in Dee Snider's Strangeland on the bargain bin shelf. I honestly think more money went into the soundtrack than the movie.
Wicked Prayer however, that was simply a horrendous porn-parody without the sex. Absolutely pathetic in every single way. No redeemable qualities whatsoever, except maybe so-bad-it's-good hilarity, but I find it hard to enjoy that from franchises I love installments of with sincerity. It just hurts when the barrel is scraped this bad. Ugh and the moment the classic score was reworked in a mariachi style and Eddie Furlong stands around scowling like a 12 year old in his dad's old goth clothes he found in the loft... I can literally still taste the sick that rose in the back of my throat.
But as you said, at least the original 4 movies all had unique characters to give each movie some individual credit. Though do have to point out that Eric Draven was actually recast with someone else once before, in the 1998 TV series The Crow: Stairway to Heaven, where Eric was played by martial arts legend Mark Dacascos (and introduced us to our first female Crow in one episode)... though also tragically revealed that Hangman's Joke apparently absolutely sucked and should have been on coffee shop tours with Counting Crows (pun not intended) instead of recording 12 inches of manically-depressive dissonant shoegaze that the '94 movie hinted at. I concede I didn't watch the show past the first two episodes, it had that tacky Canadian "Highlander the series" sort of feel to it, and its remade moments from the original movie were absolutely awful, but there seems to be plenty of fans saying it improved as time went on.
However, I can't pretend I'm particularly intrigued by the new one and think they should have left the characters well alone. The whole franchise, across films, graphic novels and books has already proven the Crow is not a specific character and can take any form, so why go down the cynical route of direct comparison to the 1994 movie now? You can still tell your same story when they're Colin and Janet, so why rile up the fanbase of a beloved tragedy that I am of the firm belief will leave this film forgotten like the remakes of Robocop and Total Recall. If anyone from Dimension Films is reading this, it's not too late to overdub them to be Derek and Kelly, you don't even have to change the lip-syncing....
It may have been 30 years, but if the original's taught us anything it's that sequels can be made, franchises get rebooted, but real love lives forever.
Thank you for this incredibly in-depth comment! You've actually made David more curious about City of Angels, he's went and watched a few videos on it. City of Angels, and the other sequels are currently sitting on a hard drive waiting to be watched one day. Finding a DVD or blu ray of it is proving to be more difficult. We always like to try and get a hold of something physical for the special features and commentaries. It sounds like it deserves some proper research, and maybe even a video.
We feel so bad shitting on Edward Furlong, but when we did Pet Sematary 2 we had to, he was just so miscast and it's the same for Wicked Prayer, whoever thought that was a good idea should probably find another job
😂
We completely forgot to mention there was a TV series! Granted we didn't know much about it, other than that Eric was the main character. We have managed the first 9 episodes on YT, so we might, MIGHT, give a few of them a try 😂
It's so hard to judge how good The Crow (2024) will be, we're nervous to say the least, but all we can do is go in hoping to be pleasantly surprised, and worst comes to worst, it'll make Wicked Prayer look better.
David really wants a new Crow videogame, he never played any of the older ones, but the mechanics of Eric's abilities and his quest would lean so perfectly into well-written single player campaign.
We'll revisit this comment when we've watched some of the sequels, or episodes, to let you know what we think!
@@ycft My favorite review of Wicked Prayer was on TheSpool, who said, and I quote: "It doesn’t help that all the primary actors think they’re in different movies: Furlong is in a high school production of The Crow, Boreanaz and Reid are in an Asylum version of Natural Born Killers, and Dennis Hopper is just launched into space, floating among the stars in a different plane of existence from the rest of us." 😂
Sadly I doubt there'll ever be a proper reissue of City of Angels, it's almost certainly never going to get the Scream Factory restoration it deserves, it just doesn't have the love needed in the first place to warrant that. At best perhaps another upscaled budget package when the new one drops, just rehashing the same old DVD extras that accompanied the original release. What's most tragic is they show how passionate the cast and crew were to make something unique whilst they were making it in those BTS extras, but then later had the rug pulled out from under them by the time it was finished, making the end result feel like a second-grade clone, or perhaps more fittingly a "sophomore slump" (the musical term for a lackluster second album, given how tied to their soundtracks the first 3 Crows were). But its visuals feel like the same universe remade through the lens of Jean Pierre Jeunet, whilst I appreciate the stunt-casting of Ian Dury and Iggy Pop in a new entry of what was originally a very pre and post-punk-inspired franchise. Iggy Pop simultaneously has the worst performance in the film during his nightclub rant about his new tattoos, whilst subsequently dialing the insanity up to a deliciously manic 11 for his inevitable comeuppance "YOU THINK I'M AFRAAAAIIIID?"
It's set 10 years after The Crow, and its version of LA is decidedly more twisted, more gothic, more abstract from the real world than even the original's Detroit. Since it's technically set in an alternate "future", it almost has this semi-cyberpunk level of grime and gothic vogue in its unashamedly fantastical world. Like Nine Inch Nails meets the nastiest moments of 2000AD and City of Lost Children thrown into a blender. Then sadly butchered in post. I make no excuses for some of the weaker moments that remain on screen, but definitely think it's worth a watch and reevaluation if one can put into perspective how much Weinstein ruined a promising film.
I saw The Crow at the 30th Anniversary cinema release the other week and it was just wonderful. Seeing those sets, those models, that music, Brandon's performance, all on the big-screen for the first time (I was 12 when it was originally released and remember the infamy and morbid spookiness of its release, but had to wait until the VHS was released to finally see it and it probably changed my life in many ways; musically for one). For the first time in decades, I nearly teared up at the ending, just something about it being on the big screen just hit different than seeing it on disc or streaming for the hundredth time. After I got home, I stuck on my Oculus and watched City of Angels in Amazon Prime (it projects like a cinema screen in VR, even down to the seats and cup holders). I figured it was the only way I'll ever see the sequel on the big screen ever again. Watched it from start to finish, and even found more to enjoy seeing it in such a cinematic way. I'll try and stop recommending City of Angels now, it's not even that good, it's a bit of a mess, but do think it's an underdog and deserves some fresh love 28 years later when everyone's heart was in the right place (except Harvey's) when making it.
To be fair, I dare say I was a little soft on the TV series, mostly out of respect for Dacascos. I've rewatched some clips and it's absolutely the kind of cheesy syndicated 90s fantasy cop show I utterly hated at the time and still haven't developed any nostalgic affection for. 😬
I just feel that the new Crow will not have any cultural resonance regardless of how hard it tries, things just don't resonate like they used to in this world of insta-media and streaming; where fast-fashion reigns, rock stars are dead and you'll never see a musical movement based in a particular location again. It's deliberately visually targeting that Soundcloud rapper type, with the director literally saying he was influenced by Lil Peep (I actually hadn't ever heard of him, had to look him up.... I'm in my 40s, what can I say), whilst the Crow has always been tied to the grimy (and actually mostly-British) post-punk, goth and industrial scenes since the very beginning. Its entire fanbase has been mainly those of a black-clad disposition since the original graphic novel. The director has defended Skarsgard's look as being also inspired by Peter Murphy of Bauhaus and Iggy Pop, just as James O'Barr's original graphic novel was, yet he doesn't look remotely like either of them ever did. Instead it's Leto's Joker and Lil Peep and already dated by last Wednesday. Ironically enough, and in stark contrast, Iggy Pop himself was actually *in* City of Angels, basically playing himself and decidedly *not* sporting a dodgy 2024 mullet; instead writhing around to one of his own songs in a seedy fetish club adorned in rock-star leather trousers, a stainless steel codpiece and a snakeskin waistcoat.
My personal feeling is, if they really wanted it to be unique and more of a retelling of the original graphic novel, then set it in the early 80s, in the smoggy backstreets of an industrial English city like Manchester. Make the soundtrack entirely oldschool goth and post-punk just as James O'Barr was listening to when he wrote it (Joy Division, Bauhaus, Siouxsie, The Cure, The Fall, Virgin Prunes, PIL, Killing Joke etc.), after all, just listen to the band James O'Barr was actually involved with, Trust Obey and their album 'Fear and Bullets' which is dedicated entirely to the Crow graphic novels. TBH I'm not much of a fan of it, a little too dissonant for my tastes, but that's James O'Barr's actual musical world, so if you're going to suggest you're completely going back to the author's roots, then maybe actually consider his own contributions to music. Then make it be completely visually unique and dedicated to its influences, I'd love to see it look like the cover to The Damned's Phantasmagoria (courtesy of the late great Bob Carlos Clarke) in live action. After all, movies like Guardians of the Galaxy have proven that oldschool soundtracks can sell and introduce new generations to things that are long past.
This has all the feeling of a flash-in-the-pan reboot that'll be forgotten in a fortnight sadly, when they had the opportunity to really take the dark gothic fantasy worlds of the first two Crow movies into the stratosphere with how amazing modern movie effects can be. And don't get me wrong, the whole Skarsgard family are phenomenal actors I have immense respect for, and I would love nothing more than to have another Crow movie to love. However for me, as a fan of 30 years, I have little to no faith in the new one being anything more than another cynical reboot that'll go nowhere with no lasting cultural resonance whatsoever. Definitely think the Momoa test footage looked vastly more interesting and artistically unique than whatever we're finally getting in 5 weeks. But, ya know, I still hope I'm wrong!
That said, I totally agree on a new Crow game, that would be amazing! Just please don't ever let David ever waste money on the original City of Angels game (people are selling it for over £100 on eBay!), it was absolutely godawful haha! Wasn't worth a fiver when it was released, definitely not worth a hundred 3 decades later!
@@ReleaseTheCanines We love a creative review like that 😂 There's nothing worse than seeing a review that simply says "it's shit", a description like that tells us everything we need to know.
That's a shame about the prospects of a restoration, maybe if there was more hype for the new film the studios might have entertained the idea of doing a new blu ray boxset for all the sequels, but since it aligns with the 30th of the original it makes sense why they wanted to concentrate on that. It kind of reminds us of what Dark Shadows fans have been going through for Night of Dark Shadows, WB cut the original film to death and fans have been desperately wanting a restoration ever since, some have even assembled most of it themselves, all WB need to do is pay for some VO for some cast members who have past away, and restore the score for some segments. They did play with the idea around the time of the 2012 film, but alas it'll probably never happen. We've got a few blu ray restorations where deleted scenes have had to be ripped from the VHS delays because the studio destroyed the original negatives.
Looking into City of Angels, it does look like the colour pallet is what inspired the look of the Jason Mamoa test footage! Man that would have been an interesting adaptation! We're still nervously optimistic for the new film, however the recent poster looks truly terrible... We never like to go into the cinema expecting a bad time, but as we recently found out with The Exorcism, sometimes that is unavoidable 😂
We really wanted to go and see the 30th anniversary! But the stars just wouldn't align for us! We're really glad you had good experience watching it up on the big screen! Even watching City of Angels on the Oculus sounds like an interesting experience. We have a few independent cinemas near us that are consistently showing older films, which is fantastic, even if you've seen something a thousand times, nothing beats seeing it on the big screen, with a well-behaved crowd.
David will absolutely avoid the City of Angels game 😂If he can find some gameplay on RUclips he might settle for watching a playthrough of it (or maybe a speedrun).
I loved the new Joker movie. But I also love Heath Ledger's Joker.
We both really liked the Joker film, and we're excited for the sequel later this year! The joker is one of those roles that can be played in so many different ways and still work, it makes him such an interesting character.