Army Of Darkness
1992/81 mins.
Released by Universal Studios
Rated R
Starring Bruce Campbell, Embeth Davidtz, and Ted Raimi
Directed by Sam Raimi
Format: Single Sided/Single Layered
Reviewed by Robby Cox
e-mail: koi@magicnet.net
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Opening Remarks: This is one of my favorite films of all time. I
thought that the posters for it looked awesome, but I never
actually saw this movie until about 2 years ago. I caught the
edited version on the Sci-Fi Channel and thought it was extremely
cool. I then bought the unedited VHS tape, and finally bought the
DVD. I was somewhat disappointed to hear that about a week after
I bought this DVD that Anchor Bay was working on an AOD: Special
Edition. Now, I'm really looking forward to it!
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Movie Quality: Army of Darkness is an amazing movie. If you
haven't seen this movie, please do. It is awesome! Anyways, AOD
is a movie about a guy named Ash. Ash is just an average guy who
went to spend the weekend with some friends at an abandoned cabin
in the woods. Strange things start happening after arriving at
the cabin. His friends start to become demons. This stuff
happened in the original Evil Dead film. In Evil Dead 2: Dead By
Dawn, the story is tightly focused on Ash and his girlfriend
Linda. Linda becomes possessed and Ash has to kill her. His hand
is bitten by her and it starts to get a mind of it's own. He then
cuts off his own hand with a chainsaw and finishes kicking ass.
At the end of the film, Ash is sucked into a vortex and ends up
in the Medieval times. That's the way ED2: DBD ends. AOD opens
with Ash in the past and it focuses on his adventures there. This
film at one time was called Medieval Dead. That's actually an
excellent way to describe this film. Ash has to help out these
villagers who need the Necronomicon, the Book of the Dead. This
book is written in blood and is bound by human flesh. They need
the book to save themselves from the Deadites and to send Ash
back to his own time. He goes on a trek to find the book and to
stop the Deadites. This film is super funny and has some
extremely cool action and special effects. There are a zillion
skeletons that Ash and his army must destroy and they are funny
and creepy at the same time. Anyways, this movie is a blast and
should be watched by every man, woman, and child on this Earth.
Okay, maybe not everybody, but just about everybody.
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Video Quality: The video on this disc is excellent. The colors
are bright and everything looks very sharp. The film is presented
in it's original Widescreen theatrical apect of 1.85:1. This
leads to a really nice looking disc.
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Sound Quality: The sound quality is excellent. The Dolby Surround
tracks are excellent. They're used nicely in that they're not
used all of the time. When a gun is shot, it will scare you
because you're not hearing loud noises all of the time. The music
is great. Overall, a great sounding disc.
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Extras: This disc is extremely lacking in this area. The only
real extra on this disc is the original theatrical trailer. There
is an alternate French Surround track, but that's of no use to
me. There are also Spanish subtitles. The trailer is cool,
though. I guess I will just have to wait on the Anchor Bay AOD:
SE which will supposedly have a Bruce Campbell commentary
track(!), a Rob Tapert commentary track, possibly a Sam Raimi
commentary track(!), footage cut from the movie, the alternate
ending which has only been available on the Japanese Laserdisc,
and the short film Into The Woods, which is the short film that
Sam and the guys made to get the money to make the original Evil
Dead film. Anchor Bay won't disappoint me, but Universal did.
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Improve: More extras.(See Anchor Bay AOD:SE)
RIYL: The Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn, AOD: SE from
Anchor Bay.
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Overall Opinion: This is a pretty good disc of a revolutionary
film. This movie is more than a cult classic. It's a hoot to
watch and this is the best way to watch it. That is until the
Anchor Bay SE comes out hopefully late this year(1999).
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Movie Quality: *****
Video Quality: *****
Sound Quality: *****
Extras: **
Personal Opinion: *****
Total: 22 out of 25
Final Score: 88 %