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 %