DVD Review
| The Crow: Wicked Prayer Reviewed by:Kage
Alan
The original “Crow” continues to hold up as one
of the darkest, most oddly tragically romantic films I’ve ever
seen. Something about it captivated me from the first moment I
started watching the screen and I was a fan from then on out.
Unfortunately, this means I’ve forced myself to sit through every
damn sequel since. “City of Angels” had some outstanding ideas,
only it was hampered with studio interference and very little
follow-through with those said outstanding ideas. “Salvation”
drifted further away the standards that creator James O’Barr
established and served as just another sub par sequel. And believe
me, he’s not the least bit impressed with where this series has
gone. I know. I’ve asked him. Now we’ve got “Wicked Prayer”.
Ex-con Jimmy Cuervo (Edward Fulong) has had
little to live for in life except Lily (Emmanuelle Chriqui), the
girl across a street of sorts. We’re talking about a street that
isn’t supposed to be crossed, one between a Native American
community and everybody else. Unfortunately, there’s trouble
brewing with the locals and a mine that’s about to be closed in lieu
of building a casino. Complicating matters even further is the
arrival of War (Marcus Chong), Famine (Tito Ortiz), Pestilence
(Yuji Okumoto) and their leader, Death/aka Crash (David Boreanaz).
Death has his sights set on becoming Satan and if his girlfriend,
Lola (Tara Reid), has anything to say about it, he’ll succeed. Who
wants to be with a loser who has delusions of grandeur when she can
be with the Prince of Darkness himself?
So, after all of these introductions are made,
it’s not much a stretch when Jimmy and Lily are brutally murdered in
order to advance Crash’s plans. It’s not the smartest thing that ol’
Bonnie and Clyde could have done, especially when Jimmy comes back a
few hours later as the next Crow. Yeah, a few hours later instead
of a year. Exactly when did that change again? Oh, that’s right.
“Salvation”. Between the townspeople looking for who murdered Lily,
Jimmy discovering why he’s been brought back and Crash’s upcoming
transformation, there’s going to be hell to play…literally.
“Wicked Prayer” is a cut above the previous two
sequels in that it changes locations and mood almost completely.
Edward Furlong manages to evoke all the right emotions, but when he
becomes the Crow, it’s almost difficult not to shout out “Holy
shit! It’s the attack of Eddie Munster!” Fortunately, he’s an
extremely reluctant avenger and that works extremely well for the
film. While David Boreanaz hams it up in all the right ways, the
final third completely lets him and us down with an absolutely
absurd turn of events. Dennis Hopper is wasted and as comedienne
Kathy Griffin has pointed out about Macy Gray (who has a small role
here) with some amount of sarcasm, is there anything more adorable
about a grown woman with a baby voice?
Dimension has released “The Crow: Wicked
Prayer” in its original Widescreen format. Video and audio quality
are quite good here, which I would expect since this was originally
meant for theatrical release. French and Spanish subtitles are
included, but apparently no English ones. Extras include a
commentary with Director Lance Mungia and another with the Director,
Cinematographer Kurt Brabbee, Film Editor Dean Holland and Sound
Designer Steven Avila, “The Making of The Crow: Wicked Prayer” (29 ¾
min) full of interviews with cast and crew combine with far too many
clips, “El Pinto” (2 ½ min), “Black Moth Bar Storyboards” (4 ½ min),
“Margaritas and Conversation” (3 ¾ min), 2 “Deleted Scenes” (4 ¼
min) with commentary, “James Attic” (3 ½ min) and 2 Galleries. With
the exception of the “Making of,” the other featurettes really don’t
add much and that’s disappointing.
“Wicked Prayer” almost doesn’t feel like a
“Crow” film during its first half and I think I liked that best.
The story collapses in on itself shortly after with lots of people
standing around not doing a whole lot of anything when they ought to
be reacting. It’s Furlong’s performance that ultimately salvages
the movie since they push Boreanaz off the deep end. This sequel
had stronger potential than it takes advantage of. If the producer
responsible for keeping the franchise going has a Lessons Learned
file, then the next one ought to be pretty spectacular. With a bit
more budget, a tighter story grounded a little more in reality (in
that let’s leave Satan where he belongs next time) and mythology,
“The Crow” series might still have some fresh blood left in it.
