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The Crow (Blu-ray)
Year: 1994
Rating: MA
Director: Alex Proyas
Cast: Ernie Hudson, Brandon Lee, Bai Ling
Release Date: February 02, 2011
Distributor: Roadshow
The Film: 3.0
The Disc: 3.0
FILMINK rates DVDs and Blu-rays out of 5"This particular Blu-ray transfer isn't friendly to the slightly iffy optical's and photographic effects..."
In an unnamed city on Devil's Night, young rock musician Eric Draven (Brandon Lee) and his girlfriend Shelley Webster (Sofia Shinas) are brutally murdered by a gang in their inner city loft. One year later, Eric's soul is shepherded from the underworld by a Crow. He returns to take revenge on those who have murdered him and his true love. He faces down a gang of hardened criminals, led by the seriously creepy Top Dollar (Michael Wincott). One by one, Draven visits the gang members, reminding them of their deed one year previously and taking violent revenge. At the same time, beat cop Sgt. Albrecht (Ernie Hudson) begins to piece together the murders and the identity of The Crow.
While largely being a stock revenge flick, 1994's The Crow does have James O'Barr's deeply gothic graphic novel to draw from (making this one of the first of the recent spate of comic book adaptations) as well as Alex Proyas's stylish eye amping up the visuals. It's hardly a flawless film (the editing is slightly jarring) but it does showcase Brandon Lee's talent, made altogether more tragic when the young actor was killed in an accident on the set. The event devastated Proyas, who returned home to Australia and didn't direct again until Dark City in '97.
This particular Blu-ray transfer isn't friendly to the slightly iffy optical's and photographic effects but it does showcase the pumping soundtrack. The extras are a travesty: just fuzzy, VHS quality behind-the-scenes press kit fluff kicked up a notch to HD from the original DVD release.
