MIRAMAX / DIMENSION FILMS

The Crow: City of Angels

Crow Rating: 3 Crows

Released: August 1996

Director/Screenplay: Tim Pope / David S. Goyer

Score: Graeme Revell

Starring: Vincent Perez as Ashe Corvin, Mia Kirshner as Sarah, Iggy Pop as Curve, and Richard Brooks as Judah Earl

Film Premise
This Crow tale gives us a new avatar, Ashe Corvin. Ashe and his son Danny are murdered after witnessing a drug gang execute a man near the shop in which Ashe works. Sarah, from the first movie, is grown up and living in the City of Angels (LA). She works in a tattoo parlor. Haunted by dreams of Ashe and Danny's deaths, Sarah is drawn in by the Crow to help Ashe understand his mission to set the wrong things right. In his course to get revenge, Ashe falls in love with Sarah, putting his soul in turmoil. Judah Earl, the leader of the gang that killed Ashe and Danny, discovers the way to sever Ashe's connection to this other world is through the destruction of the Crow. Ashe must complete his mission before his feelings for Sarah consume him and Judah's deed is done.

Personal Thoughts
I make no apologies for saying that I enjoyed this movie. However, I feel that production was rushed and important elements were not examined thoroughly enough. The theater run-time of only 84 minutes speaks loudly to this. The filmmakers never explored the Sarah/Ashe relationship in detail. Expansion of that element would have set COA apart from the first movie and given it more emotion. A better use of the flashback scenes between Ashe and his son Danny would also have improved the film. The majority of flashbacks concentrated on their murder, not their love. I thought Vincent Perez did an excellent job in his portrayal of Ashe, as did Mia Kirshner who played Sarah. In my opinion, fans that could not distinguish between the fact that Perez's Ashe Corvin was a totally different character from Brandon's Eric Draven, judged Perez too harshly. There is so much about COA that is very good. The yellow/green tint, used throughout the movie, was both original and effective. It gave the feeling of a barren, dry, dream-like Los Angeles. The premise of an avatar falling in love, after coming back, was very intriguing. The attempt to make a different movie was there, but somewhere along the way, originality was compromised for the sake of staying with a known successful formula. The following quote is from Frieda Noone who does reviews for Cinescape. I saw this quote on the site "A Dead Man Visits You", and I think it sums up COA perfectly: "If you accept that the CROW: City of Angels is not really a movie, then it's quite possible to enjoy it. More a visually intense tone poem than a film, City of Angels resembles a lavish picture book - which is the medium from which the CROW films sprang." Very well said indeed.

Where to find this movie
You can find "The Crow: City of Angels" at any retail store in VHS and DVD formats. If you do your shopping by the net, you can find it at Amazon.Com (click on logo below). You can check eBay online auction at www.ebay.com , for new and used copies. It will be part of the reissue DVD boxed set available March 20th, 2001 (special edition can be purchased separately as well).