David Galindo
Screenwriter
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2003
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[c]The Crow (UMD)
Region 1 • R • Dolby Digital • Available October 25th
[/c]
Aside from a bland video transfer, this is yet another UMD that is sure to please fans of the film.
Thoughts on the Movie
I had never seen The Crow up until now. There were many things in my mind watching this movie, such as how many claimed it to be the best comic book movie ever made up until a few years ago, and that Brandon Lee died during filming.
It’s interesting, watching this movie now, and feeling as if the movie is a bit tame compared to, say, Sin City. In one scene a girl is hovering over a dead naked body, contemplating on whether to cut their eyes out. Then later we cut to the eyes rolling across the table, which was the only real gory scene in the movie...tame compared to today’s standards.
Oh, I’m not complaining at all...in fact, it was nice to go back to the way things used to be. There are shots in the movie where we fly around the city skyline, and it’s obvious that they are small miniature sets. The thing is, I liked the miniatures and found them to be twice as convincing as some CGI elements these days. I liked how the main hero (Eric) basically rose from the cemetery grounds, had some flashbacks on what happened to him, and was ready to dice out the revenge. And I really enjoyed Michael Wincott as the main villain named Top Dollar, who only needs a few words of dialogue to let you know he is one tough bastard.
The Crow is something that needed to be seen back in its original 1994 release to really be appreciated. I liked the movie, but I get the feeling I would have enjoyed it much more had Dark City, Sin City, and Batman Begins never existed...or, even better, didn’t exist at the time I saw the film. Them’s the breaks, I suppose.
Video Quality
The Crow is kept in a 1.85 ratio, which will fill your PSP screen up aside from some extremely tiny bars on the top and bottom. The cinematography (talked about in the bonus material) is completely black and gray for most of the film, and the flashbacks Eric has are in vivid colors and bright, blown out hues.
Unfortunately, the black levels in this film are not good. They are very gray, so much so that it can sometimes make the film muddy and hard to view at times. When the crow flies over the city for example, the grayish blacks bleed over into other colors of the buildings and make it nearly impossible to see the detail of the screen (not to mention the slight motion blur the PSP LCD refresh adds to the screen already).
While the flashbacks look amazing and extremely rich in color, they total maybe two or three minutes total in the film. The rest of the movie does look good however, aside from the aforementioned black levels.
3/5
Audio Quality
The volume is loud, and the movie sounds great. There were some great audio moments in the film, such as the rain pouring in the cemetery (great separation and fake surrounds) and the many gun battles. The audio is just fantastic, and definitely does the movie justice.
4.5/5
Extras
Buena Vista brought over almost all the bonus stuff from the two disc “The Crow” special edition, with nearly thirty minutes of goodies. Woo!
First up, the presentation. The menu is a cemetery with the burning city behind it, and really sets the mood nicely. There is a chapter selection as well as a forced Sin City trailer, which you can skip with the square button.
First on the bonus features is a sixteen minute Behind the Scenes Featurette that has some old Brandon Lee interviews mixed with the comic book inspirations and cinematography. Next is a Deleted Scenes Montage (5:26) that are just some bits and pieces cut from the film. Finally you get a choice of three Extended Scenes (12:31) that are called the Arcade Bombing, the Fun Boy Fight, and the Shoot-out at Top Dollars. These scenes looked like they were trimmed for the violence more than anything else, which is interesting.
Overall you get a pretty nice selection brought from the special edition DVD...in fact, the only thing missing is an interview with the comic creator James O’Barr and the commentary by the producer and screenwriter. Still, nice features overall.
3.5/5
Overall…
The Crow is a good UMD that is only marred by sometimes bad black levels, which is a shame since video quality is the absolute most important thing about a UMD (since the PSP lacks any kind of adjustments for us to change the colors, picture, etc.) Aside from that, I can recommend this to fans of the movie that could use some Crow to go.
3.5/5
Region 1 • R • Dolby Digital • Available October 25th
[/c]Aside from a bland video transfer, this is yet another UMD that is sure to please fans of the film.
Thoughts on the Movie
I had never seen The Crow up until now. There were many things in my mind watching this movie, such as how many claimed it to be the best comic book movie ever made up until a few years ago, and that Brandon Lee died during filming.
It’s interesting, watching this movie now, and feeling as if the movie is a bit tame compared to, say, Sin City. In one scene a girl is hovering over a dead naked body, contemplating on whether to cut their eyes out. Then later we cut to the eyes rolling across the table, which was the only real gory scene in the movie...tame compared to today’s standards.
Oh, I’m not complaining at all...in fact, it was nice to go back to the way things used to be. There are shots in the movie where we fly around the city skyline, and it’s obvious that they are small miniature sets. The thing is, I liked the miniatures and found them to be twice as convincing as some CGI elements these days. I liked how the main hero (Eric) basically rose from the cemetery grounds, had some flashbacks on what happened to him, and was ready to dice out the revenge. And I really enjoyed Michael Wincott as the main villain named Top Dollar, who only needs a few words of dialogue to let you know he is one tough bastard.
The Crow is something that needed to be seen back in its original 1994 release to really be appreciated. I liked the movie, but I get the feeling I would have enjoyed it much more had Dark City, Sin City, and Batman Begins never existed...or, even better, didn’t exist at the time I saw the film. Them’s the breaks, I suppose.
Video Quality
The Crow is kept in a 1.85 ratio, which will fill your PSP screen up aside from some extremely tiny bars on the top and bottom. The cinematography (talked about in the bonus material) is completely black and gray for most of the film, and the flashbacks Eric has are in vivid colors and bright, blown out hues.
Unfortunately, the black levels in this film are not good. They are very gray, so much so that it can sometimes make the film muddy and hard to view at times. When the crow flies over the city for example, the grayish blacks bleed over into other colors of the buildings and make it nearly impossible to see the detail of the screen (not to mention the slight motion blur the PSP LCD refresh adds to the screen already).
While the flashbacks look amazing and extremely rich in color, they total maybe two or three minutes total in the film. The rest of the movie does look good however, aside from the aforementioned black levels.
3/5
Audio Quality
The volume is loud, and the movie sounds great. There were some great audio moments in the film, such as the rain pouring in the cemetery (great separation and fake surrounds) and the many gun battles. The audio is just fantastic, and definitely does the movie justice.
4.5/5
Extras
Buena Vista brought over almost all the bonus stuff from the two disc “The Crow” special edition, with nearly thirty minutes of goodies. Woo!
First up, the presentation. The menu is a cemetery with the burning city behind it, and really sets the mood nicely. There is a chapter selection as well as a forced Sin City trailer, which you can skip with the square button.
First on the bonus features is a sixteen minute Behind the Scenes Featurette that has some old Brandon Lee interviews mixed with the comic book inspirations and cinematography. Next is a Deleted Scenes Montage (5:26) that are just some bits and pieces cut from the film. Finally you get a choice of three Extended Scenes (12:31) that are called the Arcade Bombing, the Fun Boy Fight, and the Shoot-out at Top Dollars. These scenes looked like they were trimmed for the violence more than anything else, which is interesting.
Overall you get a pretty nice selection brought from the special edition DVD...in fact, the only thing missing is an interview with the comic creator James O’Barr and the commentary by the producer and screenwriter. Still, nice features overall.
3.5/5
Overall…
The Crow is a good UMD that is only marred by sometimes bad black levels, which is a shame since video quality is the absolute most important thing about a UMD (since the PSP lacks any kind of adjustments for us to change the colors, picture, etc.) Aside from that, I can recommend this to fans of the movie that could use some Crow to go.
3.5/5
