The Crow

Well if you though it was wet on "Blade Runner" (1982) then welcome to a ruined city where the torrential rain never seems to stop. A series of flashbacks tells us that two graves hold the bodies of a young couple about to be married. That's before local kingpin "Top Dollar" (Michael Wincott), who had designs on their building, sent his henchmen to "coax" them out. A year after this tragedy a crow alights on the grave of "Eric" (Brandon Lee) and enlivens his corpse so that he may avenge the brutality visited on his fiancée and himself. What now ensues is a dark and menacing revenge thriller that, though fairly predictable, sees this former rock musician develop some astonishingly lethal ninja skills as he identifies and then rather entertainingly despatches a variety of drug dealing undesirables whilst retaining a sense of the decent by befriending local cop "Albrecht" (Ernie Hudson) and re-connecting with the young "Sarah" (Rochelle Davis) whose mother is another of the addicts in this dismal and hopeless city. It's the enigmatic "Myca" (Bai Ling) who spots the Achilles heel of our hero and so sets a scene with her menacing beau as "Eric" hones in on the final stage of a challenge that will hopefully allow him to return to his own grave in peace. Lee is really is in his element here and Alex Proyas and cinematographer Dariusz Wolski use the grim, sodden and ruined environment to depict as physical a corruption as the story does a societal one. What dialogue there is is largely left to an engaging contribution from Hudson, who has his own mini axe to grind with his police colleagues who saw him busted from detective for trying to investigate the activities of "Dollar" before. When you watch this film, you can't help but think on the number of other characterisations it has spawned, and it shows how revenge horror can work without resorting to endless special effects and jump-scenes. A cinema screening is best - a big dark room that makes you hear that relentless rain fall all around you.