Army of Darkness (1992)

               “Army of Darkness” is the third in the Evil Dead series. It was directed, co-written (with his brother), and co-edited by Sam Raimi. In a tonal departure from the previous two films, this one is more of a comedy horror movie. It was a box office disappointment, making only $22 million with a budget of $11 million. It has since gained cult status. Although it got mixed reviews, it did win the Saturn Award for Best Horror Film. It was a weak year for horror films. Raimi’s script drew on a variety of sources for inspiration, like “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court”, “Gulliver’s Travels”, and  “Jason and the Argonauts”.

               Ash (Bruce Campbell) is time portaled back to medieval England. He is immediately captured by the army of Lord Arthur (Marcus Gilbert) and is part of a slave march back to the castle. (The march is to music that reminds of the scene in “Ben Hur” when Judah first meets Jesus.)  Ash is thrown into a death pit that evokes the garbage room in “Star Wars”. We meet the first of the cheesy monsters the movie will unapologetically foist on us. Ash is reunited with his chainsaw. And is united with a love interest in the comely Sheila (Embeth Davidtz who won the role over Tuesday Weld). The resident Wise Man tells Ash that for him to be able to return to his own time, he must get a book called the Necronomicon. It’s not going to be easy as the arrogantly IQ-challenged Ash resurrects an evil version of himself and a skeleton army. (The skeleton’s are the Jason homage.) The army of the dead lay siege to the castle and mayhem ensues. Not caring about upseting the time continuum, Ash introduces the knights to dynamite so the movie can have explosions. This builds to the inevitable duel between Ash and Evil Ash.

               If you expect a scarefest similar to “The Evil Dead”, you will be disappointed with the tongue in cheek vibe of this film. But you will not be disappointed if you are a Bruce Campbell fan or a fan of mock horror films. Campbell is clearly having a great time chewing all the scenery. It looks like fun, but parts of the shoot were hard on him. Specifically, the fight scenes against special effects to be created later. Campbell had to memorize the choreography steps. One sequence took 37 takes with Bruce swearing profusely throughout. His friend Sam Raimi enjoyed torturing him. It does not appear that Campbell was tortured by the hammy dialogue. The film is definitely low brow. At least, in this horror movie, the laughs are intentional.

The special effects are from the Ray Harryhausen school of stop animation.  Unlike Jason’s skeleton foes, the skeleton’s in this movie are a variety and bring smiles rather than scares. The long battle is amusing with the choreography surprisingly good. Unlike many horror movies, there is no reason to fear for the protagonist. At least not in the theatrical release. In the original ending, Ash time travels to post-apocalyptic London. The studio deemed this too jarring for audiences. It was probably right.

Is it a war movie? Well, we have an army and a castle siege. Obviously, it is not a documentary on how to capture or defend a castle. Swords clang and battering rams ram, but dynamite arrows blow up skeletons. There is a melee inside the castle that would fit in many medieval warfare movies. If war movies are characterized by unlimited ammunition, then it qualifies. Ash’s two-barrel shotgun makes mockery of that trope. If you want to watch a movie that makes fun of horror movies and war movies, check it out. You can watch it late at night, alone. With your grandkids.

 

GRADE =  B

Six Minutes to Midnight (2020)

  

            “Six Minutes to Midnight” was directed by Andy Goddard. He directed some episodes of “Downton Abbey”. The story was written by Eddie Izzard and Celyn Jones. It made only $2.4 million. The title refers to a code used by the British agent played by Izzard.

            It’s August, 1939 in Great Britain. War is on the horizon. There is a finishing school for girls from Nazi families. A British agent is working undercover as a teacher. When his cover is blown, he tries to alert his handlers, but is killed first. British intelligence replaces him with Capt. Thomas Miller (Izzard). He finds out the German government is planning to bring the girls home. When he tries to pass the news on, a female teacher who is actually a German agent kills his handler and frames him for the murder. Miller goes on the lam. And it’s a race against time before the girls will be flown out secretly, along with the woman agent.

            “Six Minutes to Midnight” has too many contrivancies. More than your typical espionage thriller where the hero is accused of a crime he didn’t commit. It breaks the envelope of realism that these kind of movies have.There are plot developments that make no sense. Why don’t the British want the girls to go back to Germany? Holding them hostage surely would cause the German government to retaliate by holding British citizens caught in Germany when the war begins. Besides, if the Germans send a plane to pick up the girls, isn’t that a warning that war is imminent? Seems like that would come in handy for the British government to know.  There are some interesting plot twists that make it fairly entertaining. Izzard is solid as the protagonist. It was a pet project of his so he gives his all. He wouldn’t be my first choice for a secret agent, but he doesn’t distract. Having Judi Dench as the head of the school adds some gravitas to a film that would be even more of a trifle if not for her.

GRADE  =  C-

Redacted (2007)

 

            “Redacted” was directed and written by Brian De Palma. It’s a companion of his “Casualties of War”. This time the war crime occurs in Iraq. He based his screenplay on the Mahmudiyah killings in Mahmudiyah, Iraq. The movie cost only $5 million to make and it flopped, making only $782,000.

            PFC Salazar (Izzy  Diaz) enlists in the Army with the goal of eventually going to film school. He plans on making a documentary that he hopes will get him into the school. He carries a videocamera when he goes on patrols and other duties. One day when on duty at a checkpoint, Salazar is filming when an Iraqi car comes speeding up to the check point. PFC Flake opens fire, killing the pregnant woman who was being rushed to the hospital by her brother. Flake did not fire any warning shots, but the killing is declared justified by the rules of engagement. Flake shows no remorse, even when interviewed by Salazar for his film. Later, a popular sergeant is killed by an IED which puts the platoon on edge and looking for payback. Flake and another soldier make plans to visit a house where they noticed an attractive teenage girl. Salazar goes along to film even though it is apparent a war crime is likely.

            De Palma’s “Casulties of War” is a good movie with a similar plot about an actual war crime in Vietnam. This movie is nowhere near as good. It lays it on much thicker than the earlier film. De Palma has lost his game. The screenplay is ham-handed and shrill. The acting is amateurish by an unrecognized cast. It is supposed to be all footage from Salazar or a French documentary crew, but clearly some of it is not. So much for the gimmick. The raid is hard to swallow. Salazar comes along to film and Flake allows him to!

            Clearly, De Palma was trying to shine a light on American mistreatment of Iraqi civilians. God knows there was some, so the story is not clearly fictional. However, the execution dilutes the message with overt anti-Americanism. It doesn’t help credibility that the movie ends without a conclusion. It is not a surpise the film made no mark at the box office.

 

HISTORICAL ACCURACY:  The actual incident was worse than the film depicted. Flake was based on PFC Steven Green who was just flatout evil. He and four others raped the girl and killed her family. The story was passed on secondhand by a soldier who heard it from a soldier that Green told the story to. In a scene reminiscent of “Casualties of War”, the soldier was reamed by his commanding officer for ratting out other soldiers. He was told to drop it, but didn’t. The five were eventually arrested and all got long prison terms. Green committed suicide in prison.

            De Palma was criticized for depicting American soldiers in a poor light and conservatives encouraged Americans to boycott the film. The movie certainly is not pro-American, but it does not exaggerate what bad soldiers did in Iraq. And it is based on an actual incident. De Palma did not make up the incident. He used it to shine a light on American actions. Were Green and the other four typical? Of course not. But neither were the soldiers in “Casualties of War”. The big mistake De Palma made was not mentioning that justice was served in this case. Unlike in “Casualties”. And he may have had blood on his hands because of that. Because one result was a gunman killed two American soldiers in Frankfurt in 2011. He claimed he was getting revenge for a YouTube video he saw of American soldiers raping a teenage Iraqi. The video was a clip from the movie.

 

GRADE =  C

Sisu: Road to Revenge (2025)

 

                 Three years ago, I went to see a Finnish movie called “Sisu” in a local theater. I was surprised a foreign film like it was playing near me. This time I was surprised that a Finnish movie was playing at the same theater and doubly surprised that the original had a sequel. It turns out “Sisu” did unexpectedly well at the box office (if you can call $14 million as good box office with today’s inflation), so a sequel was in order. Encouraging the sequel was the positive critical response to the original. In fact, the response was astounding. The film ended up with a 94% on Rotten Tomatoes. To give you an idea how insane that is, here are some of the war movies that did not reach that level: Lawrence of Arabia (93), Spartacus (93), Last of the Mohicans (88), Zero Dark Thirty (91), Letters from Iwo Jima (91), Full Metal Jacket (90), Downfall (90), and Patton (92). If that is not mindboggling enough, I have read articles claiming it is one of the best war movies of the 21^st Century!  I have to assume whoever wrote those articles has seen very few war movies. I rewatched it last night to confirm my opinion that it was not anything special. I gave it a C-. It’s fairly entertaining in a mindless way. I did not have high hopes for the sequel.

                 “Sisu: Road to Revenge” is directed by Jalmari Helander again. Both movies were influenced by Indiana Jones, James Bond, and Buster Keaton movies. However, the most obvious link is to Rambo. Jorma Korpi plays Aatami Korpi who is a veteran of Finland’s Winter War with the Soviet Union. In the first film, he is a gold miner living a simple life after the Nazis murdered his family and after he avenged them. This movie occurs two years later, in 1946. Korpi’s home is now in Soviet territory, so he decides to rebuild in Finland. To do this he takes down the house and carts off all the lumber in a truck. The war is over, so this should not be a problem, right? Right? In order to get his sequel (instead of the wiser decision to do a prequel), Helander comes up with the idea of the Soviets wanting Korpi dead. They decide the best way to kill this unarmed old man is to release a Nazi war criminal from prison to finish the job he started when he killed Korpi’s family. Draganov (Stephen Lang adding some juice to the sequel’s cast) is sent after less than a minute of set-up. Hey audience, just roll with it. In fact, that is good advice for everything coming up.

                 The sequel follows the same template as the original. It is divided into chapters that give you an idea of what kind of mayhem is coming up. The set pieces include a motorcycle chase reminding of Mad Max, strafing fighter planes, a tank (this time driven by Korpi), and a train. In the first film, Korpi is being chased for his gold, in this one he is trying to get his lumber to its new site. Of course, it’s just an excuse to see Korpi kill bad guys in a variety of gruesome ways. And survive a variety of deaths. I made a note every time Korpi should have died. I counted 11. There were eleven times that either Korpi should have died or the bad guys should have easily killed him. This is the kind of movie where an opponent passes up the chance to simply shoot this killing machine in the back in favor of tackling him. Or Korpi escapes certain death through some amazing forethought. Don’t bring logic to this movie, if you want to enjoy it. If you liked the first one, you can expect this one to top it in ridiculousness. And graphic violence. And torture. And body count. And Korpi’s ability to hold his breath under water.

                 I predict film schools in the future will debate whether the Sisu movies are comedies. As part of a larger discussion of whether combat porn films are supposed to make you laugh. I can’t speak for Helander. He might be offended by the suggestion. However, there is a scene where Korpi walks barefooted on broken glass, then rolls on it with his bare, flogged back, and then gets his hand caught in a mouse trap. Hilarious! And Draganov suffers a death that Bart and Lisa Simpson would laugh at.

                 Is it better than the first one? It does have a 95%  on Rotten Tomatoes, so whether you think that is incredibly overrated, it is considered to be equal to the first in the minds of critics. If you want more brain rot, this one tops the first. They have equal amount of dog. The hero is even tougher to kill and even more creative in his killing. However, if you care about plotting (I know, just humor me here), chasing a man and risking grisly death for gold is more compelling than watching a guy try to get lumber across a border. The first had more and better villains. If you are into dialogue, Korpi had one line of dialogue in “Sisu” and zero in this one. Speaking of zero, there are zero women in this one. I think most would agree that the female subplot in the first movie was a nice touch. So much for giving machine guns to chicks who have more reason for revenge.

                 Should you go see it? Yes, if you liked the first one. Or if you think the critics are good judges of war movies. No, if you are more interested in movies that make sense.

GRADE  =  C