Screening Log

This new site feature is a collective effort to summarize our viewing habits. Occasionally, you will find titles here that are coming to a theater near you, in addition to films viewed on television, and even films viewed in piecemeal. The screening log is archived each month; to view past entries select a month in the menu below.


February 2006 activity

Total Log Entries: 47

Total Comments: 35


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Darkman / USA / 1990

Darkman is an amalgamation of Evil Dead II’s manic cinematography and Danny Elfman’s score for Batman, which is to say: pretty awesome. Here, the infamous eyeball shot from Evil Dead II is replicated with the same wild urgency in an iron rivet (which, I should note, does not land in someone’s mouth), but the finale isn’t as great a leap in plausibility as in the older film. But this is a Sam Raimi film, so we find the hero (Liam Neeson!), his woman (Frances McDormand!), and the second villain jumping around gridiron studs somewhere around the sixtieth floor of an unfinished building. It is for the viewer’s immense pleasure that none of the involved stopped to consider the safety of this location.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Sundance Channel
10 Feb 2006 11:24 AM | Comments (2)


Comments / 2 total / Submit Comment

  1. leo / 10 February 2006 / 8:49 AM / URL

    This movie blew me away when I saw it upon its theatrical release 16 (!) years ago. Its tasteful, even sympathetic, use of gore and a heartfelt, maniacal, and literally self-effacing performance by Neeson easily eclipse the occasionally rudimentary special effects in a manner similar to that found in Robocop, another film which Darkman mirrors in obvious ways. And the near-fascistic total-immersion of modern special effects makes me yearn for this more humble, running-in-the-backyard-with-toy-pistols variety.

    But the one thing I don’t get about Darkman is how he pronounces p’s and b’s.

  2. Rumsey / 10 February 2006 / 9:32 AM / URL

    No idea, and you just reminded me of this film’s most obvious Evil Dead II reference: compare this to this.

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