User Reviews

Sam Raimi's inventive, wild action film is a difficult one to define. Part tragedy, part melodrama, part horror, part science fiction and part horror, there is even a broad streak of humour, which, as Raimi fans will no doubt guess, owes much of its inspiration to THE THREE STOOGES. DARKMAN is a highly entertaining film, made all the more remarkable when one considers what has been done with the low budget.

Every penny has been spent on bringing the visual effects to the screen, and they're all present and correct. Much of the SFX is unrealistic looking, which is to be expected from the budget, and back projection figures predominantly. I have no problem with this, however, as all effects are at least passable. There are a number of early and impressive computer graphics too, mainly in the shape of synthetic noses and faces, as well as lots of explosions at the end of the film in an exciting action sequence. Indeed action fans are advised to watch this film alone for the helicopter 'ride' at the end. This sequence is very entertaining, and other shootouts and gun battles add to the action score.

When watching the film, it soon becomes clear that there are many, many inspirations and references to other films, such as PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, DOCTOR X, HOUSE OF WAX, ROBOCOP, THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME, THE ELEPHANT MAN, BATMAN, many more too. It just adds to the fun as you see these visual references. Speaking of visuals, expect the film to be chock-full of Raimi's trademark wacky stuff, such as POV shots from gun barrels and many bizarre psychedelic sequences.

The cast is a dream come true for the cult fan, featuring just about anybody who knows Raimi and a whole lot more. In fact there was hardly a single person I didn't recognise. The female lead, Frances McDormand, is better known to audiences for her role in the Coen brothers' FARGO, while the evil villain, Larry Drake, has appeared in dreck like DR GIGGLES. Both cope well with their respective roles, with McDormand the more believable of the two, Drake acts more in a comic book way, especially with his special cigar cutter (a great device for some truly wince-inducing sequences). Liam Neeson is the surprise hero, and it's good to see Neeson in a role like this before he was famous and he acts very well, conveying pathos and feeling as well as some choice comic dialogue. I loved the way he had a hoarse throat after the explosion.

The rest of the cast is basically star studded. Bruce Campbell gets to make his expected cameo appearance in a very clever way at the end of the film, while Jenny Agutter also puts in a surprise appearance. Criminals making up Drake's gang include Nicholas Worth and Dan Hicks (INTRUDER), as well as Ted Raimi as a young, mean, sadistic pervert.

DARKMAN may be both clichéd and too over the top, with an out of place melodramatic score, but somehow all the ingredients gel together very well to produce a startling, inventive minor classic of the genre, with lots to watch and look at and many innovative scenes. Better than its origins, definitely. I can only wish Raimi had kept making films like this instead of rubbish like FOR LOVE OF THE GAME; stick to what you're good at, man!

In this day and age, when Sam Raimi is best known for a certain trilogy in which a sarcastic everyman battles evil spirits (going so far as to tell "primitive screw-heads" about his "boom-stick" in another movie with "dark" in the title) and the "Spider-Man" movies, we almost seem to have forgotten "Darkman". In a way, it seems like another superhero story, but Raimi always has some neat ideas. In this case, scientist Peyton Westlake (Liam Neeson) is blown up by some gangsters, but survives and seeks revenge by wearing fake skin and masquerading as different people.

I wouldn't say that this is Raimi's best movie, but it's a neat idea. The part about the fake skin only lasting a certain period gave it a neat touch. As for the rest of the cast, Frances McDormand plays his hubby. A pretty interesting idea.

I don't write reviews, i'm open minded about all films and was excited to check this out, from a perspective of someone watching it twenty years after release. Liam Neeson has come a long way since this and thankfully so because I even googled him saying this was one of his less desirable movies on reflection. Firstly the plot is riddled with humorous holes, though the first fifteen minutes play out actually well, the film isn't sure whether Darkman is a superhero or not. The fact he can set up a lab so quickly by himself with no money in a couple of days is debatable, inconsistencies often occur with masks and how long they last for, we're told 99 minutes, yet other scenes show him with a cupboard full of these things. Cut to end scene where everyone is shooting guns at nothing, even the bad guy in the end is 2 feet from Darkman with a big gun and after a dozen shots still misses him. One scene has him lose it over a pink elephant, whether it's supposed to be humor is uncertain, if it was serious then it's sooo dumb. As I said after a while you cringe and feel embarrassed for the actors. With Sam Raimi behind it there is a huge Xena feel to it with its silly action, then it's confused with making it dark and almost horror like in other scenes. The 'Quick and the Dead' by Raimi is a far cry better than this. In the end I was disappointed and kind of glad I watched it by myself. There's nothing I can really save from this movie, again twenty years ago it was probably the bomb but I doubt it, Godfather, Rocky, Star Wars all pre-date that and they were much better. Batman and Robin is less stupid, and sadly that's saying something.

Raimi had wanted for years to adapt and make a film version of The Shadow. However, the studios he shopped the project around to balked at the idea: He was still somewhat unknown at the time, and there wasn't much confidence behind the comic strip's popularity.

Raimi, in response, chose the next best thing--he created his own version, blending elements of the original comic book hero, Phantom of the Opera, and even a little of The Elephant Man for pathos. What came about from it--spawning two very bad sequels in the process--was a film demonstrating a filmmaker's inspiration, but one pumped through his own vivid, wild imagination; and it makes for one of the most original entries into the comic-book movie canon in the last 25 years.

Still the studios had no love for this film in its finished form. They slated it for release in August 1990 at the end of the summer release cycle. You know, the same month of the year they released "Coyote Ugly"? But the film was a success garnering almost 50 million on a 16 million dollar budget.

Liam Neeson plays Peyton Westlake, a scientist on the verge of inventing synthetic skin from a series of photographs of the subject. Thus disfigured people could wear his synthetic mask and be moved toward a more normal life. Peyton's girlfriend, Julie, a journalist, has found a memorandum indicating a developer she knows made a Mafia payout in connection with a development he is building. She makes the mistake of telling said developer that she has this proof of his crime, but that she doesn't have it on her. So evil developer has his psychopathic buddies go to Peyton's loft/lab, blow up the place while taking the memorandum, and in the process Peyton's assistant is blown to bits. Peyton is burned beyond recognition but lands in the nearby bay.

With no ID, as a John Doe, Peyton is given really good treatment by the hospital which takes the drastic step of severing nerves that allow him to feel pain, else he would spend all of his time screaming in pain from the burns. He escapes from the hospital, and meanwhile his assistant is buried as Peyton. You'd think family or friends would come looking for the assistant, but I guess that's another film.

So Peyton continues his work on skin regeneration, with his lab now acting as a kind of batcave, and things are urgent because Peyton needs this cure for himself as his face and hands are horribly disfigured. As things are he has only 99 minutes before the artificial skin decomposes. And this works for some good fun for the next part of the film, because Peyton wants revenge on top of a cure. Plus he needs money. He finds a chance for revenge and money by posing as the different people who "killed him" and then just counting on the worst instincts of these thugs - and they have plenty of them - to turn on each other.

But then a mistake - Peyton lets Julie know he's alive -wearing artificial skin of course - and that memorandum that was the whole point of ruining Peyton's life? It turns up on a desk, with the coffee stain Julie put there herself at Peyton's loft, right before he died. And now Julie knows Peyton's "death" was no accident. I'll let you see how things work out from here.

The real revelation here was Larry Drake as evil Robert Durant. He strokes a small furry pet wearing gloves and an apron that says "Kiss the Cook" while maintaining his collection of human fingers he has taken from people who do not pay their debts to him. The reason he was a revelation? For years before this he had played a mentally handicapped man who has been working at the law firm showcased by "LA Law". It was a kind of last request from his dying mother to the firm so her son would have a purpose in life. To go from that gentle persona to a heartless monster shows Drake had range most people did not think he had.

Give it a try. The special effects have aged a bit, but the human factors make it still relevant.