Army of Darkness, originally titled "Midevil Dead" or "Evil Dead 1300AD", superbly blends horror, action and humor much like another one of my other favorites "The Return of the Living Dead". When this film was first released it wasn't exactly a box office hit, I think it was running for something like two weeks! What made this movie a classic is its video release. Yes I did say classic. I bet you didn't know that when Citizen Kane (The American Film Institutes number one movie ever) was first released it bombed and the only thing that kept the movie from disappearing into obscurity was its small cult fan following much like Army of Darkness.
Bruce Campbell is the ultimate man, a real man's man he's Dirty Harry, John McClane, and Indiana Jones all rolled up into one. The star of all three Evil Dead's has got to be the best deliverer of one liners anywhere. He's a charismatic actor who is addictive to watch. All this makes it even harder to explain why he's not a household name, sure he's got his fan following and is a star in his own right but lets face it 80% of movie goers wouldn't know who he was if he just kicked there ass. Maybe he's the kind of actor who does lots and lots of work and only gets recognized after like a generation of acting, sort of like Denzel Washington. He's certainly not the kind of actor who's a household name after one film like Hugh Grant. I personally think that he's only one big film away from stardom, just one big break that's all it'll take.
Best Lines
Interesting Fact
Movie buffs look out for references to some of the greatest movies ever in The Army of Darkness, so far I've managed to spot four:-
Army of Darkness is the third film in Sam Rami's trilogy of Evil Dead films, and the second in a two story arc that runs from the second film, "Evil Dead 2" - a remake of the first, into "Army of Darkness. The first two films, "Evil Dead" and "Evil Dead 2" are more horror orientated films while "Army of Darkness" focuses largely on the humor aspects of the trilogy. All three are primarily spoofs of the horror genre, although Army of Darkness is more of a spoof of the Action/Adventure genre with Horror thrown in for good measure.
Evil Dead is a hard core horror film that's definitely not for the light hearted one scene in particular involving a tree is especially tasteless. The film, which was shot for a meager 300k, stands as a horror classic because of its innovative style of blending humor with horror, a film I would recommend this film to horror fanatics. One the other hand I would recommend the second film, Evil Dead Two, to anyone who likes the first or third film. This film is more of a remake than a sequel, the plot is basically the same with the exception of a couple of hitch hikers, who are thrown in as deadite bait. The ending to this one is extremely powerful and leads into the second. Although you don't have to watch the second film to understand the third I would recommend it as it has some terrific scenes.
What makes the Army of Darkness so good? Well firstly its the directing, Sam Raimi is one of the most innovative horror directors in Hollywood today. the man created the 360 pan, low floor view (used extremely well in Evil Dead) and has single handedly brought the Horror genre back from the depths of Elm Street 10,000. Secondly the writing is amazing I've never seen a movie with so many great one liners, forget those cornball one liners from Batman and Robin I'm talking about the kind that even James Cameron would be jealous of. And the last, maybe most important, reason is Bruce Campbell.
A little known fact, outside the internet anyway, is that Sam Raimi's original ending to Army of Darkness was cut and a new one was shown in the US theatrical release. The "alternative" ending is available on the Japanese laserdisc, Hong Kong VCD and some UK videos. In the original ending Ash is given a potion which will put him to sleep, one drop for one hundred years. Too bad for Ash he drinks six drops and wakes up in a post nuclear earth. Although the biggest difference is the ending the alternative version has a number of other surprises i.e. in the middle of the movie, after Ash just has shot his evil counterpart, he says "Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun", but in some versions of the re-edited release-version, he says "I ain't that good".
Ash: Honey, you got real ugly.
THIS... is my BOOM STICK!
Wise man: Again.
Ash: Klaatu borada nikto.
Wise man: Again.
Ash: I got it, I got it. I know your damn words, right?
Ash: Oh that's just what we call pillow talk baby, that's all.
Ash: Nope. Just me baby... Just me.
Ash: Come get some
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