Army of Darkness - (7/10)

[The Delfonics]

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NOTE: Viewed the 96 minute cut on the Bootleg Edition DVD

Army of Darkness - (7/10)
Info: (1993) R, Bruce Campbell, Embeth Davidtz, Marcus Gilbert
Genre: Fantasy/Comedy/Action
Comments: The thrid installment of the Evil Dead trilogy is a more comedic take on the Evil Dead story. Some people still consider this a horror movie, but the horror-esque scenes are few and far between. It's more of a midevil fantasy/comedy than a horror film. It's slightly disappointing in that aspect but after watching the movie and listening to the commentary, I began to like it more. Army of Darkness starts off where the last one ended. Ash is sucked into a time portal and is sent into midevil times. The only way back is to recover the Necronomicon and to say the three words. However, Ash messes up the third word and all hell breaks loose. The thing that really makes this movie shine is the hilarious dialouge. Bruce Campbell is so funny, he reminds of Jim Carrey a bit, although he's not a comedian. Sam Raimi's direction is as good as always. Tight zooms and the signature "force" camera. The biggest problem I had with AOD is that it starts to get a tad drab down the stretch. The last 30 minutes or so of the battle aren't that entertaining. Perhaps the 15-minute shorter cut of the movie was better. However I did enjoy the first chunk of the movie as it was hilarious and I also like the S-Mart ending. All that put together you have a solid edition to the Evil Dead triogy.

Acting - 7/10 (The midevil accents were done well by everyone. Bruce Campbell is top notch as always)
Violence/Gore - 6/10 (Even in the cut version there really isnt much gore. We get some black stuff thrown on the wall after a hag is sliced in two.)
T&A - 2/10 - (Rob Tapert's shot of 2 naked women getting pushed around by skeletons lol.)

[Jon Lyrik]

from my hollywoodbitchslap.com review...

Army of Darkness (or Evil Dead III, or The MediEvil Dead, or Bruce Campbell Vs. Army of Darkness) is very, very funny. Actually, it's hilarious, and almost as side-splitting as the second. But it's missing a little something. It's missing the frantic energy, grubby feel and spirit of the original films. While the first film had a creepy atmosphere and grainy look; and the second film had non-stop humor, a frantic energy, some moody scenes and grainy look; this film looks a lot slicker, has bigger sets, and non-stop laughs, but is missing the semi-moody scenes, the wonderful low-budget feel (and type of cheese), and the over-the-top spirit of the previous. But still, it's hilarious, it's fun, and Bruce Campbell's Ash is still the coolest idiot around.

The very thin story picks off right where the second one ended, only that this time the knights still want Ash (Bruce Campbell) dead. Mistaking him for one of Henry the Red's soldiers, they drag him and the soldiers to their doom to a Deadhead-infested well.

Narrowly escaping a horrible death by slaughtering several Deadheads, he is then well-treated by the "primitive screwheads", until he wants to get back to his time and is summoned by Wiseman (Ian Abercrombie) to get the Necronomicon that has caused Ash so much trouble from a graveyard, and then he will be able to bring him back and defeat the world of the dead.

Along the way, he falls for hottie Sheila (Embeth Davidtz), and being the screwup he is, awakens an army of skeletons.

As an intentionally cheesy movie, it will be useless to discuss the quality of acting and script (though the acting is actually pretty good).

The comedy here, while it completely overshadows any of the horror (which is a slightly bad change of direction), is still hilarious. While not as energetic as Evil Dead 2, it still remains funny as all hell and Bruce Campbell is definitely the best physical comic in the industry.

The special effects and make-up are all intentionally cheesy, though I wonder why they would make an intentionally cheesy horror-comedy with $30mil.

The sets are great, undoubtedly the best in the series. I wouldn't be suprised if the sets were what the $30mil went to.

Sam Raimi took his direction completely towards comedy here a bit for the worst, but the direction is still fine.

I almost forgot to mention the great one-liners!

I own both the director's cut and theatrical cut, but this review goes to the (better) theatrical cut DVD. The extras are minimal though ok for what's there, the sound is great, and the picture quality good. There is a new DVD of it coming soon called the Boomstick Edition, containing both the theatrical cut and director's cut, though missing one (small) extra from the theatrical cut. It's a severe case of double-dip, but if you own no DVD version yet, I'd say you should pick this version up, because you won't have to pay $40 dollars for both versions separately like me. Theatrical cut-8.5/10. Director's cut review pending.