Army of Darkness

Army of Darkness (1992)

Directed by Sam Raimi

Screenplay by Sam Raimi and Ivan Raimi

Stars: Bruce Campbell, Embeth Davidtz, Marcus Gilbert, Michael Earl Reid, Ian Abercrombie, and Richard Grove

I wanted to complete the Evil Dead trilogy with the last big screen entry. The series went of the rails wacky with this one to varying degrees of success.

After the events of Evil Dead II, Ash Williams (Campbell) is sucked into a portal to transports him back to an unknown land around 1300 A.D. Noticing this stranger person that fell from the sky, Lord Arthur (Gilbert) captures Ash to supposedly to usurp his leadership with Duke Henry the Red (Grove). Ash has to find a way to get back to the present.

I know the prerequisite to these movies is to turn off your brain. I tried to do it, but some things didn't make sense. How many rounds does a rifle have? My biggest question: where was Ash getting his shotgun shells from? I'm serious. Ash has the sawed off shotgun. Did he takes a big carton of them through that portal?

It seems that the central lore of Evil Dead has been completely lost. The first movie was about demons. The second movie was about demonic zombies? This movie is about revenants and skeletons. I don't know what is happening.

Did I laugh at the comedic beats of the movie? Yes. Did I think that the romance between Ash and Sheila (Davidtz) was out of left field? Yes. Were there many lapses in plot? Plenty. I forgave some of it. Not all.

I want to leave with a couple of last thoughts. The shaky cam action sequences were nauseating. The endless zoom in shots. Stop it. I hated it.

Rating: 7/10

Glengarry Glen Ross

Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)

Directed by James Foley

Screenplay by David Mamet

Based on his play of the same name

Stars: Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino, Ed Harris, Alan Arkin, Kevin Spacey, Jonathan Pryce and Alec Baldwin

I have seen a couple of David Mamet penned movies and sometimes I feel like the movies are just his plays on the big screen. The translation does not go as smoothly as it should. I have only heard about Glengarry Glen Ross from watching the Tonys. The film got its sole Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for Al Pacino. The film is good, but it does suffer from David Mamet Translation Syndrome.

Set in the world a real estate brokers, the movie tells the story of the hardworking at a brokerage firm. Times have been tough on the men without selling much property. Their supervisor, John Williamson (Spacey) has a speaker come in to light the fire under their asses, Blake (Baldwin). Blake makes an ultimatum for everybody to sale, sale, sale. The incentive is first place: a brand new car, second place: a set of steak knives and third place: a pink slip. The lacking of quality leads, Shelley Levene (Lemmon), Gary Moss (Harris), George Aaronow (Arkin) and Ricky Roma (Pacino) are trying to save their jobs by any means necessary. Their world changes when the office was robbed. Who did it?

The movie is enjoyable to watch. The acting were fairly solid. I loved the monologues some of the actors gave that were really good. The problem I had with the movie is that Mamet's dialogue doesn't translate that well to the big screen. Who actually says these words? The exchanges between some of the characters felt stiff like the one with Ed Harris and Alan Arkin. Their exchanges felt like they didn't have enough rehearsal time, especially Arkin.

I can understand why Al Pacino was nominated for his role here. Ricky Roma is a character that is very driven and wants to get that great sale. He lives and breathes sales. He will do anything to get that sale, even if he has to lie to a client like James Lingk (Pryce).

My Rating