A One Mann’s Movies review of “The Crow” (2024).
The version of “The Crow” from 1994 is famous for being the film where its star, Brandon Lee, son of Bruce Lee, was accidently shot and killed in a scenario scarily similar to the recent death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in the film “Rust”. In Lee’s case it wasn’t a live round in the chamber that did for him. Instead, equally carelessly, a bullet fragment left uncleared in a gun barrel was fired out by the blank charge used after it. Given this legacy, there’s a lot of love for that original film (which I’ve not actually seen): it has an IMDB rating of 7.5. So this remake was bound to upset a lot of fans who were pre-programmed to hate it. Me? I thought it was just “OK”.
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
Plot Summary:
Eric (Bill Skarsgård) and Shelly (FKA twigs) meet and fall in love while in a rehab centre. But Shelly is running from a dangerous crew led by the mysterious Vincent Roeg (Danny Huston). When she is murdered, Eric swears to exact revenge: but he’s in no normal setting to achieve that.
Certification:
UK: 18; US: R. (From the BBFC web site: “Strong bloody violence, injury detail”.)
Talent:
Starring: Bill Skarsgård, FKA twigs, Danny Huston, Josette Simon, Laura Birn.
Directed by: Rupert Sanders.
Written by: Zach Baylin & William Josef Schneider. (Based on the comic book series by James O’Barr.)
Running Time: 1h 51m.
“The Crow” Summary:
Positives:
- Dark and moody, the film does have a great atmosphere in its best scenes.
- Some of the action scenes are immensely violent which should please lovers of gore.
- I liked the music score by Volker Bertelmann.
Negatives:
- Bits of the film are just plain slow and boring.
Review of “The Crow”:
Dark and brooding
There are many scenes of Bill Skarsgård, dressed in black, with black make-up smearing his face, moodily pacing the streets. A crow is inevitably flying along with him. These are all really well shot (by cinematographer Steve Annis) and establish a sombre and brooding atmosphere. The scenes at the “intermediate” location, like some sort of overgrown industrial sidings, are also very effective and a long way from the gleaming white of ‘God’s waiting room’ in “Heaven Can Wait”!
Man, it’s violent
When you see the violence (albeit cartoonish violence) in “Deadpool & Wolverine“, and knowing that that got a ’15’ certificate from the BBFC, then when you see an ’18’ for “Strong bloody violence” and “injury detail” then you can expect it to be extreme. And, man, this is! There is a scene set (wonderfully) in an opera house entrance that is REALLY extreme. It has some wince-inducing moments. (You will never use a toothpick again without an image coming to mind!) But overall, I thought the action scenes were exciting and well done.
Get on with it!
I appreciate that you have to believe that Eric and Shelly are madly in love to make the story really work. But, boy, do they take their merry time with it. After the cute-meet in the rehab cafeteria (it looks like Paddington does all of the laundry there!) we spend ages working through scene after scene of the couple travelling and swimming and carousing until the obligatory (and necessary) sex scene back in the city. A simple montage would have done the job.
The acting is fine
Both Bill Skarsgård and British songstress turned actor FKA twigs are fine in the lead roles (although twigs is perhaps punching in the role given her limited feature experience). The love story between these two damaged souls is quite sweet. However, this is another entry in my catalogue of ‘people unrealistically having clothes on’ (this time, post-sex).
Danny Huston has a lot of fun in his role as the villain of the piece.
Non-intrusive score
I didn’t particularly notice Volker Bertelmann’s music during the film (which is generally a good thing), but I sat through the whole of the end-titles (there is no “monkey” by the way) and the themes were really nice.
Summary Thoughts on “The Crow”
I have no baggage associated with the brand on this one, so I’ve watched this as a simply horror/thriller. And I thought it was fine, without being anything special. I thought I was being a bit mean with my 2.5*’s, but I note that it has a rating of only 4.7 on IMDB so there are clearly a lot of fans who have their knives into this one. Let’s hope the knives won’t kill it either.
Where to Watch it (Powered by Justwatch)
Trailer for “The Crow”:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djSKp_pwmOA .
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