Seems like a good time for this, any 'DARKMAN' fans here? (1 Viewer)

[Inspector Hammer!]

Now that everyone is all hyped up for 'Spiderman', myself included, I thought it was a good time to talk about Sam Raimi's OTHER superhero movie 'Darkman'.
Personally, I think this is a very underrated movie and it's one of Raimi's best films IMO. Liam Neeson turns in an appropriatly tortured performance as the horribly scarred scientist 'Westlake', and Larry Drake is cold to the touch as his nemesis 'Durant', theirs even a cameo by my man Bruce Campbell, which isn't surprising if you've read his book, Sam likes to torture the poor guy.
I love the way Raimi combined the frantic, and insane shooting style of his 'Evil Dead' films, with a superhero plot, the end result is very effective I think. It also boasts one helluva stunt, with Darkman being suspended from a helicopter and flown around the city like a fish on a hook. One thing I can't remember though is who did the score for this film? I keep thinking Danny Elfman, but i'm not sure, ether way, it's great.
I've been thinking about Sam Raimi a lot latly. See, I just got through reading Bruce Campbell's book, and I was captured during the chapter when Bruce starts to talk about the sheer hell they all went through to make 'Evil Dead', and how they weren't even sure they could make and sell a movie that would make money. While reading this, I kept thinking "Man! This same guy has one of the biggest films of the summer coming out soon!" He's come a long way, and i'm pretty proud of the man, he's earned it.
So, any fans of this fantastic movie in the house? And please, feel free to talk about Sam Raimi too if you'd like, this thread is also for him.
Hell, I even liked 'Crimewave'!

 

[Terrell]

Absolutely! I loved Darkman. I agree that it was underrated. The stunt with him hanging from the helicopter is every bit as good, if not better than the one in The Matrix. And the explosion in Westlake's lab throwing him out through the window and thus creating him, was also fantastic. This movie has a certain style about it. And I think you're right, it was similar to the way he shot Evil Dead. But it's been so long I didn't remember Campbell's cameo. Count me in as a fan.

 

[Brad_V]

I haven't seen the movie in awhile, but I do remember it being SO corny it was hard to take. Corny is fine, but it seemed like they were trying to be serious at the same time. The movie presents the story with a "comic book" attitude, only problem is comic books are generally much better and more believable.
A couple main things that bugged me: while the helicopter scene was pretty cool, just because the guy can't feel pain doesn't mean he gets to live through being thrown through glass and everything else that happens to him. Even if I don't feel the pain of someone shooting me, I'm still gonna bleed. A lot.
Also, Larry Drake's character I remember as being evil just for the sake of being evil. "Why is this guy so evil?" "I dunno... he just is!"
All that aside, I enjoy most of the rest of what Sam Raimi has done a lot. Despite how popular Xena: Warrior Princess was, I still say it was very underrated in many regards. I don't think the show was ever even nominated for "best costumes" or anything.
btw, if anyone cares but didn't know, the guy who played Aries on the show died last month in a movie-stunt accident of some sort.
And now because of this thread and not being able to fully remember how good/bad it was, I'll be renting Darkman again this week.

 

[Matt Pelham]

I loved the first Darkman, and I'm still holding out for the special edition DVD. Very underrated, it's a shame the sequels weren't nearly as good (although Arnold Vosloo is pretty cool).

 

[Scott Weinberg]

Hear hear, John!
Darkman is a damn fine flick! Your enthusiastic descriptions have me itching to see it again soon! (It's been years...) I also saw both of those cable-TV sequels, but since they're not Raimi's (and they both suck to varying degrees), let's ignore them.
The music was indeed by Danny Elfman - who I'm sure we all agree is an awesome movie composer. (The little tidbits I've heard of the Spider-Man theme are great.)
Here's something a little funny. One of the screenwriters on Darkman was a guy called Chuck Pfarrer. This guy makes Akiva Goldsman look like Tom Stoppard. Aside from the wholly entertaining Darkman, Pfarrer has written Navy SEALS, Hard Target, Barb Wire, The Jackal, Virus and Red Planet. Heck, Ed Wood didn't make that many bad movies!
Oh great... John got me all hyped up and now I've got to go order this DVD.
Thanks a lot!

 

[Richard Smith]

I'm another Darkman fan. Not been able to see it in the cinema when it was released(been 12 at the time), I remember waiting for it to hit the shelves at the local video shop and loving every minute when I finally did get to see it. Everytime I see a clip for Spiderman it makes me want to watch Darkman again instead. I remember reading an interview with Raimi a couple of years back where he says that the current version is not his cut. I wish Anchor Bay would license this from Universal and release a director's cut like they did for Army Of Darkness.
Richard
PS The carnival scene in Darkman contains Liam Neesons finest piece of acting. "Take the fucking elephant!"

 

[Andy Sheets]

Absolutely an excellent movie, underrated even by Raimi fans, who often are *only* about the Evil Dead movies and nothing else. Darkman is such a fun movie, equal parts superheroes and Universal monster movies. And I think Elfman's score is still one of the very best he's done. Stylistically, it's probably more than most mainstream viewers can stand but I still hope that Raimi has been able to give Spider-Man a little bit of that same energy and style he used with Darkman as it's one of the only films I can think of that tried for a "comic book" feel and actually succeeded in nailing it.