Conference bookie::movies

    
    The lead probably always wore it.  The Crow comic, as I recall, had a
    rather bizarre looking lead character.
    
    
    
    Cheers,
    
    
    kim

    
    Hrm.  I'm wondering if it's based on the short story by Harlan Ellison
    ( a long shot - it was only one short story ) - in the story, The Crow
    was a nephew of The Shadow - 4.5 feet tall and a master of many
    unpronounciable martial arts.  Good story - hilarious . . .
    
    	On second thought, it's probably not, huh? :-)
    
    					- Jim

    
    No, it's based on the comic of the same name.
    
    Very dark stuff, as I recall.
    
    DFW

    On  Entertainment Tonite  7:30 Channel 4, they previewed THE CROW and
    showed some footage, also showed an interview they did with Brandon Lee
    just before he died. He was talking about the movie and also he
    was excited about his planning to marry his fiance right after the
    movie wrapped....it was sad   I think I'll wait for rental 

    oops  This preview was on Last nite    did anyone see it??

    They also had a double for Lee to finish the end of the picture  
    and  re-wrote the ending  a bit....thats what they said last nite

    I never want to see this movie because the way that he was accidentally
    killed during filming makes it just too creepy for me.
    
    Lorna
    

    
    
    It's kind of weird!  After I saw Dragon, the Bruce Lee Story and then
    to hear that Brandon Lee was killed on the set of his movie, it kind of
    made me wonder about the "curse" that was supposedly on the Lee family. 
    To see in Dragon that Bruce's father tried so hard to protect him and
    then Bruce doing the same when Brandon was born in the movie.  It's
    interesting to see the comparison's in Bruce's real life and that of
    Brandon's life.  I don't think I believe in curses but after what
    happened to these two, kind of makes you wonder.  It's all really sad.
    
    

    
    I wouldn't say curse I'd say murder. 
    
    Sorry but I have a hard time believin' that Bruce's death was
    "accidental" as for Brandon's I DOUBT that as well... Sorry a 
    prop gun having real bullets in it ????? Paaahhhleeezzze... 
    
    Murder is more like it and the reason why there isn't a huge 
    investigation is because of someone with very deep pockets. 
    
    20 years from now we may hear the real story... 
    
    
    Rp 
    

    Re: .9
    
    The prop gun didn't have any real bullets; it was the tip of a dummy
    bullet.  The gun wasn't cleaned properly.  Also, the actor handling the
    gun was not supposed to point it at Lee but off to the side; the camera
    angle would make it look like he was shooting straight.
    
    The whole business just annoys me because so many people had to screw
    up for this to happen.
    
    
    Re:  The Crow
    
    The lastest issue of _Entertainment Weekly_ has a story on how they
    finished the movie.  Lee had something like a week of filming left, so
    they didn't have a lot to cover.

    
    Kind of strange, huh?  The movie is released today....
    	
    			Friday the 13th!
    
    
    Hmmm........

    Got a great review in the paper today.
    
    NAZZ

    
    Caught this one earlier today -  Wow.  Great movie, although not for
    everyone I think.  Not being familiar with the comic book, I'm not sure
    how faithful it was to its source, but the product was well worth the
    admission price.
    
    	I couldn't get over how much it reminded me of Tim Burton's work 
    ( any of them, really - but the Batman movies in paticular ).  The
    city, which is never named in the movie, is quite alot like Burton's
    vision of Gotham City.
    
    	Brandon Lee does action *very* well - we lost a good talent, there. 
    He looks sufficiently creepy in the white face paint, but is most
    interesting when not in his indestructable-angle-of-death mode ( there
    actually are parts in the movie when he was somewhat normal
    conversations with other characters ).
    
    	I'd recommend it to anyone who likes dark intelligent action films,
    with a bit of humor in them ( my favorite line : "Ouch." )
    
    						- Jim

    For those that saw it....
    
    Was it obvious when they used a double?  How well did it mix?
    
    I'm still thinking about waiting until this hits video.  Do you think
    much will get "lost" on the small screen?
    
    Just curious...
    
    

    
    
    This movie has a wonderfull opening scene in which a camera seems
    to be flying over a dark and gloomy suburb of a city. You would not
    have know it was a miniture unless you knew how movies are made.
    The whole movie has a dark/rainy/gritty feel to it which I think
    owes a lot to Blade Runner/BATMAN. I kept thinking boy this city looks
    a lot like Gotham (Siskel+Ebert thought the same thing). The look of the 
    movie is great, but!!! It's problem is the story is just another 
    vigilante movie with a twist.
    
         -=-=-R~C~W-=-=-
    

    RE - Double . . .
    
    	Well, *I* couldn't tell when the double was used, and when it was
    actually Brandon Lee, and I was looking for it.  But, I'm not familar
    with Lee's work - and there was that face make-up.  IMO, it was pretty
    seamless . . .
    
    					- Jim

    
    I wasn't able to detect the double, either.  However, I seem to recall
    that the few scenes left over after Lee's death were done in part with a
    computer generated image of Lee's face melded with footage of a body
    double.
    
    Heaving all that aside, this is a good movie.  Tightly written, good
    closure on the plot, competently acted all around, nothing too
    overblown.  Once you believe in revenants, everything else comes quite
    easily.  A couple of moments that might disturb the squeamish,
    particularly if you've got a thing about eyes.  Fast and hard enough
    for action fans, contemplative enough for the more introspective among
    us.  About the only thing it lacks is romantic moments, although the
    very end might qualify.
    
    Worth seeing on the big screen, worth paying evening theater prices.
    
    Alas, for Brandon Lee.  There's little consolation in observing that he
    went out on an up moment.
    
    DFW

    I was not a big Brandon Lee fan after the horible movie Big trouble in
    Little china(or whatever it was) with Dolf Lungren. But after his newt
    movie Rapid Fire I thought he had proven himself, and i look forward to
    seeing the Crow.
    	Now there are to many similariries between the lives of Bruce and
    Brandon not to think about the curse.
    Both died before the opening of a movie that would bring them definite
    stardom.
    	Bruce died two weeks before the opening of Enter the Dragon
    	Brandon died before the opening of the Crow(Obviously).  Although
    	Rapid Fire was a decent sucess i feel the Crow would have been his
    	big break.
    Both die near the end of filming a movie.
    	Bruce-Game of Death
    	Brandon-The Crow
    Both movies involved being in showbiz
    	Bruce was an Actor
    	Brandon was(although i have not seen the movie I have heard) a
    	musician.
    Both come back from the dead to avenge their death
     Bruce comes back after being shot while FILMING A MOVIE.  Although his
    character does not realy die he fakes his death in order to be able to
    more affectively fight the bad guys, After a little suposed plastic
    surgery
    	Brandon As i understand dies(for real) and comes back to avenge his
    death
    They both died before filming was complete and neede a double to finish
    	Bruce- his double is easily spoted in the motorcycle scene.
    	Brandon- his double is reportedly no easily seen
    They both died under questionable circumstance
    	Brandon was shot with a screwed up blank from a gun that wasn't
    suposed to be pointed at him.(everyone learned not to screw with blanks
    after that one actor shot himself in the temple while playing around
    faking suicide)
    	Bruce died by sliping into a mysterious como.  Not What I have
    heard. Info from the rumor mill.  While working at a Chinese resteraunt
    i was talking with the owner one day.  He told me that mishaps were
    often covered up in Hong Kong, Especialy posibly embarising ones that
    involve famous people, Not hard to believe. The last thing Hong Kong
    would want would be to find out anyting bad about a big figure from
    hong kong like Bruce Lee.  well any way he said that Lee was found with
    a hooker after overdocing on drugs.  Although I am not sure if i
    believe this story i know I don't believe he just slipped quietly into
    a comma for no reason

    Well my 14 year old son wants to see this flick. Can anyone who has
    seen this movie give me some guidance as to whether or not I should
    allow him to see it?
    
    Mike

    re -.1
    
    	Depends on how mature you think he is, Mike - this film isn't
    exactly Disney :-)
                                             
    	There's a bit of gore, not *too* extreme, quite a bit a profanity,
    brief nudity and some drug stuff.  And the nasty bit with the eye, but
    you only see the end result ( I don't want to spoil it for anyone who
    hasn't seen the movie. )
    
    	The best advice, i think, is see it for yourselfa and decide . . .
    
    					- Jim

    Jim,
    
    >>>The best advice, i think, is see it for yourselfa and decide . . .
    
       Except that he wants to go tonight.
    
       He's a good kid...pretty mature...saw The Terminator Movies.
    
       I wouldn't have this problem if the theaters got together with 
       the schools and somehow put out some type of card that tells the
       age.
    
       The problem is that the theaters let these underage kids go to these
       R-Movies.
    
       Arrrrghhh!
    
       Anyone else out there have any thoughts on letting a young teen see
       this movie?

    I, also, expected Brandon Lee to develop into a marquee action star
    until the tragedy.  Seeing him in Rapid Fire convinced me of that.  His
    acting skills were much improved compared to previous movies I'd seen
    him in.  And the fight scenes are incredible.   There was something
    that made Bruce Lee better, on film, than any fighter I've ever seen and
    Brandon had it too.  He was AMAZING to watch.
    
    I thought "The Crow" was excellent in a depressing sort of way. 
    Brandon gave a very convincing performance, although there was not
    as much hand to hand martial arts fighting scenes as I was hoping
    for. The director could have spared a few bullets, and maybe Lee's life. 
    It would have made no differnense in my impression of this film.  
    Brandon's 'crow' gets shot more times than Arnold in both "Terminator"s
    combined.
    
    I would not recommend this film for children.  It's no more brutal than
    The Terminator but I'd have a hard time giving the "it's just a movie,
    its not real, noone really dies" speech to my kid knowing Brandon is dead.
    
    jc
    
    
                                                    

    I saw this movie opening night (fri 13th). I would rate the movie like
    this (1=worst -10=oscar) in each subject:
    Plot:	 3	Simple revenge/vigalante. Dark mood.
    Acting:	 5      They didn't appear to be reading their lines.
    Sets:        5      Looked like a city.
    Makeup:      5      Lee's mime/kiss look was good but easy to do.
    Action:      7      Moved along, but very violent (ever see the ending
                        to Bonnie and Clyde?)
    Effects:     7      Looked real, but again not unusual.
    
    Summary:     6      As good as batman, but I think both could have been
                        much better.This movie was darker, too. An early-
                        teen interest level, with adult violence/rape theme.
    
       The Phantom Critic

    
    Ouch!  My ears!
    
    	This is an obligatory helpful hint for the novice noter :
    
    	Typing in all caps is considered SHOUTING and is pretty tough on
    the eyes to read.  Unless you're really *that* excited about the
    subject, please, please, PLEASE use lower caps (see how it works? :-))
    
    					- Jim

    I got to see the movie with Mr. Cameron and his rather powerful lungs.
    (his shouting and that's it).  I thought that the movie used the
    darkness and the choppy editing to do a rather good job but I would
    like to have seen the bad guys a little move devoloped.  You know why
    Lee's charcter wants revenge but the whole reason the bad guys are
    there is a little confusing.  Both the girls who went with us also
    liked the move although I'm not sure of what they were expecting.  I
    was also disapointed in the amount of martial arts used in the movie. 
    There were some obvious chances to use Lee's abilities.  I don't know
    at what point Lee was killed so that may be one reason for the lack of
    martial arts.
    	The movie aslo appears to be shot in Gothom City and I expect to
    see Batman at any moment.  Any way the movie wasn't that bad and I
    liked the way the charcters were handled although it had some
    wishy-washy parts to it.  I'd say it's a 7.5 outta 10.
    
    			Andy
    
    

    WHOOOOOPS SORRY I HEART YOUR EARS.  Thats what i get for being lazy
    won't do it again.  I liked the movie, but not that much. :*)

    In my previous reply I was lazy and wrote it in caps.  I apologize for
    the pain to anyones ears and eyes.  I just wanted to say that all
    though i felt that the movie was very dark it worked better for The
    Crow than it did for Batman.  In Batman it seemed to emphasize the
    darkness while in the Crow it was just the setting for the movie and
    was basicaly just an effect, and not a basis for the plot and the
    characters.
    	I was realy impressed with the ability to cover up the loss of
    Brandon lee near the end of filming.  I looked hard for possible scenes
    where they had to film without him, but I didn't find much more than a
    few possibilities where the face was well shadowed, or there seemed to
    be a strange aura around Lee's character, like he wasn't realy in the
    scene.  Also his voice seemed like it was sometimes spliced in from
    earlier in the movie and sounded a little chopy.  But I WAS looking
    pretty hard.
    			Scott
    
    p.s.  SORRY ABOUT THE EARLIER MESSAGE, IT HAS BEEN ERASED AND I WON'T
    LET IT HAPPEN AGAIN. ;*)

    RE: .23  by MPGS::WALTHALL 
    
    >An early-teen interest level, with adult violence/rape theme.
    
    Uh, 'scusme, could someone expand on this?  I think the adult
    violence/rape aspect would dissuade me from taking my 14-yr old.
    

    The rape is shown via flashbacks, with very quick cuts and nothing
    particularly graphic.  The violence throughout the movie *is* graphic,
    though.  
    
    I wouldn't call the rape a "theme" of the movie.  It was an incident in
    the movie which is over quickly.  The theme of the movie, in a
    nutshell, was revenge.  Batman with a lot more grim and grit.
    
    It was a dark movie, it was violent, it was done well for the genre.  I
    probably wouldn't have trouble taking my 14 year old to it, had I a 14
    year old to take, but parents, you know your own kids better than I do. 
    If you've taken your kid to see, oh, Terminator I and II, Predator, Die
    Hard or any other particularly violent movie, and neither you or they
    were bothered by the violence factor, then you shouldn't have too much
    trouble here.  Unless you think your kid might have trouble with the
    morbidity factor of watching a leading man who died while filming the
    movie and all the attention that's been paid to that.
    
    
    kim
    
    kim
    

    I realy don't think a 14 yr old would have any problem with the movie. 
    At the age of 14 I loved movies like this, still do. 

RE             <<< Note 543.29 by 3270::AHERN "Dennis the Menace" >>>

>    >An early-teen interest level, with adult violence/rape theme.
>    
>    Uh, 'scusme, could someone expand on this?  I think the adult
>    violence/rape aspect would dissuade me from taking my 14-yr old.
    
  The note said that teens would be interested, not that parents would want
to take their teens to the movie.

  I'm not sure if you've noticed, but on occasion teens are interested in
thing that drive their parents nuts ... 

  :*O}

  George

    RE: .32  by 7361::MAIEWSKI 
    
    >I'm not sure if you've noticed, but on occasion teens are interested in
    >thing that drive their parents nuts ... 
    
    Yeh.  Andrew has found the perfect way to drive his Dad nuts.  After 14
    years of taking him to "Alexander Nevsky" to "Zulu", he refuses to go to
    anything except the latest B-movie being hyped on TV.
    
    Although, he did enjoy "La Belle Epoque".
    

    
    	Give me a week with him, Dennis, and he'll also be listening to
    	Metallica and The Village People.
    
    	Just one step closer to perfection, I'd say.
    
    	8^)
    
    							GTI

    We just got the Crow over here in the uk this weekend and  must admit
    I thought it was quite good - The Character looks are actually based 
    on Robert Smith from the Cure - Hence some Cure in the film and various
    other dark sounding bands.
    It is destined to be a cult film for a number of reasons if not solely 
    because of Brandon Lee's death.
    If you want to watch an alternative view on a familiar story then this
    is worth the admision fee.
    And if you have seen Robocop and Batman then don't be too surprised
    by the story.
    8/10
    
    G.

If you want all the details on how the movie was completed, there's a good
article in the latest issue of Cinefex.  The trickiest scene was one where
Brandon is looking in a mirror and smashes it; they had to adjust the
reflection in the mirror to match the breaks in the mirror.

    
    This movie is out on video. And it's worth renting. A very good film.
    It appears a lot of teens have seen this film. I would have paid
    to see this at the theater. Entertaining, it is does have a lot
    of violent scenes....but hey what the heck. If you don't like violence,
    don't rent it. 
    
     
    
    Dave
     
    
    

    When 'the crow' will be available to buy in the U.K,you can order it
    but it's #40!!!!