Thursday, March 29, 2012

LAMBs in The Director's Chair Series Spotlight (Sam Raimi): Darkman

Darkman (1990)

Directed by Sam Raimi

Written by Chuck Pfarrer and Sam Raimi & Ivan Raimi and Daniel Goldin & Joshua Goldin

Story by Sam Raimi

Stars: Liam Neeson, Frances McDormand, Colin Friels, and Larry Drake

I have heard of Darkman, but I have never seen the movie until yesterday. Truth be told,  I tried to watch the movie earlier this week, but I knew that I was going to hate the movie, that I stopped watching it after ten minutes. I went a little farther this time, but I couldn't stand the movie.

The story centers around a scientist, Peyton Westlake (Neeson) who is developing a way to make liquid skin that can help people with various disfigurements. His experiment works, but only for 99 minutes. After that, they dissolve into mush. Then, he discovers that the skin can hold up after 99 minutes if no light is exposed to the liquid skin.

Meanwhile, Peyton's girlfriend, Julie (McDormand) is caught up in a case where a ruthless land developer named Robert Durant (Larry Drake), who would go to any lengths to get what he wants including bribery and murder. An incriminating memo sets into motion the events that leads to Peyton's accident in the hands of Durant's henchmen. Peyton seeks revenge.

First, I want to say that the "bad guys" in this movie are ridiculous. Really? A land developer? This guys that cuts his victims fingers off with a cigar slicer. Come on.

I was laughing so hard at this movie. What is supposed to be take seriously? Was it supposed to be like Evil Dead? Was it supposed to be campy and low budget? Either way, I thought the plot was trash. I didn't care about what was going to happen. You can only suspend your disbelief so much.

The "action sequences" were so staged. Nobody will believe it. This guy, Peyton is going to impersonate the people that have wrong him. Boring. I couldn't stand watching the movie anymore. I stopped halfway through it. It was my intention to finish watching it, but why? I hate the movie. It was a waste of my time.

I wonder if Mystery Science Theater 3000 has done a commentary on this movie. It might make it more enjoyable to mock it.

My Rating:

2 comments:

  1. Wow, I was going through the different LAMBs in the director's chair posts for this movie and I thought mine was going to be the one that looked the least favorable until I saw this review. While I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as Bill's Movie Emporium or Radiator Heaven, I also didn't hate it nearly as much as you did. I thought it had some redeeming qualities, but I didn't find the appreciation in the Evil Dead style cheese factor.

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  2. I couldn't stand the movie. I have to be brutally honest here. That is what my site is all about. Not sugarcoat it.

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