Army of Darkness
Ash, you’re my hero!
This is actually the third movie in the series of ED franchise which Bruce Campbell was the star in as well. Originally the director/writer (Sam Raimi) wanted to call this picture either the static Army of Darkness: ED 3 or his clever turn of phrase Army of Darkness: The Medieval and then again in the credits it has a sub title of Bruce Campbell Vs. Army of Darkness. But whatever the name, this is a must see for any movie fan!
This truly is one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. If you like a good popcorn movie, this is the one. And the brilliant thing about Army of Darkness is that many people haven’t seen it so you can pop it into your DVD player, get a bowl of popcorn, and share it with a friend. By all means do not tell them it is basically a comedy as they will have a hard time figuring it out at first.
I saw Army of Darkness first in the theaters and then took my mom to see it with me. The first 15 minutes or so is slightly re-cap and exposition and gets to the meat of the story. It is very campy and people expecting a real serious movie will start to look at you funny as if to say, “What the hell did you make me watch?” About the time Ash lops off his hand with a chainsaw they might even want to turn the movie off and watch something else. But ignore them and say something like, “It gets better, trust me…” About 5 minutes later you will hear them start to laugh and enjoy the movie and tell you it is also one of the funniest movies they have ever seen.
The premise of the movie is your typical boy meets girl, boy loses girl to zombies, boy get transported back in time, boy battles more evil creatures, boy meets new girl, boy save the day. Million of those movies out there, right? But this one’s the best.
The special effects are decent although sometimes you can clearly see blue screen masking or staged skeletons that aren’t moving or literally tied on to a horse, but the dialog and action and plot line are so damn good you tend to forgive these glaring errors. With lines like this one from the lead character Ash, “Don’t touch that please. Your primitive intellect wouldn’t understand things with alloys and compositions and things with…ummm molecular structures.” How can you resist?
I know what you’re thinking. “Evil creatures? Campy special effects? Cheesy cornball dialog? No way I’m watching Army of Darkness!” But trust me, ok? If you want a great no message just fun to watch movie, you can’t go wrong with this treasure.