Well, what good can I say about a movie where the best acting performance was by Iggy Pop? I certainly cannot compliment the star, Vincent Perez, who must have been hired for his uncanny physical similarity to Brandon Lee, and not his acting ability.

The movie is the worst kind of a sequel. One that is simply another retelling of the first story, but with different people. The main substance of the plot is that a major drug dealing bad guy orders a family of innocent people killed because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. The father comes back to life with some supernatural powers in order to avenge their deaths.

I know this movie is a fantasy, and therefore I don't mind implausibilities in the universe the movie takes place in. What I cannot forgive is implausabilities in the film itself. In the first movie I was bothered by the fact that a female villain somehow knew that the crow was the secret of Lee's power, and told the main villain that in order to kill him, you must kill the crow. In this film, there is a scene where the crow lands exactly in the 2 foot circle that has a bird cage suspended over it. This was a great laugh in a movie that really could have used a little better sense of humor. The biggest laugh by my friend who saw the film with me was when a row of palm trees started to explode into flames one by one apparently because the crow was flying over them.

The movie tries to have a gritty gothic look, just like the first film. This worked in the first film some of the time, in this film almost never. The city looked like any modern city, although I think they tried to make it look a little too much like the world of Blade Runner.

Another problem I think the film has is that the pornography hit levels that easily should keep it from network TV. There is a definite S&M theme with the lead actor (who was the black assistant district attorney on 'Law & Order' for several years). Most scenes with him in the foreground has someone in bondage attire or casually chained up somewhere in the background. There is a shoot-out in a S&M bar, and another in one of those places with women in glass booths. Trust me, I'm not against this, but this film didn't use this as a theme. It felt much more like an attempt at blatant eroticism to attract teenage viewers.

Overall, this movie failed on many levels to me. Some of the visuals are neat, but nothing in the story even comes close to what the original did, although only somewhat well.

Note that on my own review page I gave this film 1½ stars.
The original review was written on 9/10/96.



Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: None of the Above
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age
Special Effects: Well at least you can't see the strings