TotalTelly.co.uk

Devoted to Popular, Cult and Retro TV

Bruce Campbell vs. Army of Darkness: The Director's Cut - Official Bootleg Edition [1993] (REGION 1) (NTSC)


Our Price: £17.43 (subject to change)

Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review

It's hard not to feel there's something wrong when Army of Darkness, the third entry in Sam Raimi's lively Evil Dead series, opens with a 15 certificate. And indeed, this is not quite the non-stop rollercoaster of splat we're entitled to expect.

Like Evil Dead II, it opens with a digest-cum-remake of the original movie, taking geeky Ash (Bruce Campbell) back out to that cabin in the woods where he is beset by demons who do away with his girlfriend (blink and you'll miss Bridget Fonda). Blasted back in time to 12th century England, Ash finds himself still battling the Deadites and his own ineptitude in a quest to save the day and get back home.

Though it starts zippily, with Campbell's grimly funny clod of a hero commanding the screen, a sort of monotony sets in as magical events pile up. Ash is attacked by Lilliputian versions of himself, one of whom incubates in his stomach and grows out of his shoulder to be his evil twin. After being dismembered and buried, Evil Ash rises from the dead to command a zombie army and at least half the film is a big battle scene in which rotted warriors (nine mouldy extras in masks for every one Harryhausen-style impressive animated skeleton) besiege a cardboard castle. There are lots of action jokes, MAD Magazine-like marginal doodles and a few funny lines, but it lacks the authentic scares of The Evil Dead and the authentic sick comedy of Evil Dead II.

On the DVD: Army of Darkness may be the least of the trilogy, but Anchor Bay's super two-disc set is worthy of shelving beside their outstanding editions of the earlier films. Disc 1 contains the 81-minute US theatrical version in widescreen or fullscreen, plus the original "Planet of the Apes" ending, the trailer and a making-of featurette. Disc 2 has the 96-minute director's cut, with extra slapstick and a lively, irreverent commentary track from Raimi, Campbell and co-writer Ivan Raimi, plus yet more deleted scenes and some storyboards. The fact that the film exists in so many versions suggests that none of them satisfied everybody, but fans will want every scrap of Army in this one package. --Kim Newman


The Two Missing Evil Dead Movies
Review date: 2008-05-15 Rating: 10 out of 10

SAM RAIMI & BRUCE CAMBELL

FREDDY VS ASH VS JASON

The next Evil Dead film was going to be Freddy vs Ash vs Jason with
a necronomican in Jasons house ash hears the crystal lake legend
opening a new S-MART at crystal lake after the avents of the freddy
Vs Jason film Ash is convinced Jason is a Deadite sets out to Kill
him and the necronomican but freddy wants its power to become whole
again using Jasons mother as an image tells jason to get the book to
be rid of freddy and as a reward Freddy uses it on Jason to make him
smarter ash by this time has the surviving S-MART team fighting for
in and out of there dreams ash has a close shave in a dream
realising what freddy can do he then see's a friend get sliced open
while asleep Ash finally beats them afer hes the only 1 left reading
from the book he open a portal pulling Freddy in and a car knocks
Jason back into the the lake ash leaves and it was left showing
Jasons 1 eye open in the Lake or it would if they made it they had
all the plans set out but never went to film


WITHIN THE WOODS 1978
Groovy Quotes
Bruce: You want to know something interesting?
Ellen: For a change, you mean?
Bruce: You know this place we're staying? Used to be part of an old
Indian burial ground.
It's very sacred and holy.
Ellen: Ooo scary! What is it cursed or something?
Bruce: Yeah. As a matter of fact, it is.
Bruce: You're only cursed by the evil spirits if you violate the
graves of the dead.
We're just gonna be eating hotdogs.
Possessed Bruce: You have violated the ancient ways, and so must die.
Ellen: Three sandwiches? You pig!
Bruce: Thank you dear. I like you too.
Scotty: [Monopoly's] for fat old spastic people who don't know any
better.
Girl: Who's there?
Evil Bruce: JOIN US!
Intermission! [some sources: Within the Woods]

This 32-minute film was shot over one weekend for $1600 in Marshall,
MI.
The shooting location was a farmhouse provided by Rob Tapert's family
(incidentally the same farmhouse was used to film the cellar
sequences in The Evil Dead).
It premiered to the public in August 1979 at a Detroit cinema known
as `The Punch and Judy'.
It ran before The Rocky Horror Picture Show on consecutive Saturdays.

The film helped raise $90,000 toward the shooting of Evil Dead 1
inturn we got Evil Dead 2 "Dead By Dawn" and Evil Dead 3 "Army Of
Darkness".

Why won't we ever see Within the Woods as a DVD extra or a
standalone?
Mostly due to legal tangles, and the use of unauthorized music.
Copies of Within the Woods are fairly common on the internet and
downloading services.

The scene in which Bruce Campbell gets his wrist cut, leaving his
hand dangling,
then he proceeds to bite off the rest of the hand was improvised.
The hand was meant to have come completely off, but didn't.

Due to not having rights to the music, Raimi and Campbell donated the
film's
entire gross of less than $20 to the American Cancer Society.
Didja Notice? [some sources: IMDb]

The several connections to Evil Dead, including: the haunted
porchswing,
the trees coming alive, EvilCam, the lopped off hand holding a knife,
chopping up the possessed with an axe.
Definitely sounds amateur
Bruce Campbell with a bowl cut
Bruce knows a lot about Indians
Way to go, violating the graves of the dead like that, Bruce
Apparently Indians put crosses on their graves, too(?)
"What's [the dagger] doing here?" Having a picnic? Checking out stock
options?
How many possible answers are there to that question?
TINGA! The Indian Spirit of the Woods! I love Tinga.
Monopoly makes people mad
She'd get a lot further if she wasn't turning around every three
steps to scream
If the dying body of one of your friends is blocking the door,
you have every right to keep slamming it aside



Similar Products

Reviews


The Medieval Dead
Review date: 2007-12-22 Rating: 6 out of 10

Having abandoned genuine scares in favor of all-out slapstick, Army of Darkness, the third entry in the Evil Dead series sees Bruce Campbell lost in time, low on gas, surrounded by evil and facing the Medieval Dead with only a chainsaw, a '73 Oldsmobile, his trusty boomstick and a lot of attitude in a film that owes more to Ray Harryhausen than George A. Romero, albeit with an R-rating (it's one of the last films to use stop-motion extensively, with more sword-wielding skeletons than Harryhausen managed in his entire career). Never quite as much fun as you'd like it to be, it's certainly aged much better than expected - initially regarded as a disappointment, today it stands up rather well, especially when seen away from its two more small-scale predecessors. Joe LoDuca's unapologetically old-fashioned epic score is a lot of fun too, particularly cues like `Manly Men' and `Building the Deathmobile.'

Seeing the two versions of the film side by side on Anchor Bay's 2-disc DVD - the US theatrical version with the S-Mart ending and the longer director's `Bootleg cut' with the original `Planet of the Apes' ending, the differences in the longer version are mainly extended scenes rather than deleted ones, though the use of a few alternate takes means that some of the most quotable lines from the shorter version are lost ("Good, bad, I'm the one with the gun." "Maybe my men can hold them. Maybe I'm a Chinese jet pilot." "Hail to the king, baby.") and the picture quality is a lot softer. It has to be said that both versions have their merits: there's a bit of repetition in the long version (Marcus Gilbert's every other line in the last half hour seems to be "We are deserted!") and while a lot of good stuff was lost when the film was trimmed for the US, the shorter version IS a lot snappier and the S-Mart Dedite ending is quite fun even if it doesn't set up the will-it-ever-get-made Evil Dead 4 promised in the original ending.


A FUNNY ENTRY INTO THE EVIL DEAD FILMS
Review date: 2007-08-06 Rating: 8 out of 10

Arriving out of the wormhole, Ash, (Bruce Campbell) his car and a tree find themselves in the middle of a battle during the crusades. After the battle is over, Ash is taken prisoner by the victorious sides' leader, Lord Arthur. (Marcus Gilbert) believing him to be a mercenary for the losing side's leader, Duke Henry the Red, (Richard Grove) Ash is forced into a battle pit and barely survives, due to an unlikely helper (Ian Abercrombie). convinced that Ash is from the future like he claims, they let him stay in the castle overnight, where he beds local wench Sheila (Embeth Davidtz) and is told that he must quest for the powerful Necronomicon, the Book of the Dead that can return Ash to his time period. Along the quest, Ash accidentally raises the Deadites, an undead army of skeletons that also want the book. Fighting them off and returning the book to castle, Ash quickly trains the remaining soldiers how to fight off the Deadites so that he can return back to his time.

The Good News: I simply cannot say enough about how funny this movie is. It is funnier than most of the comedies made during that time, which was no small feat. Ash really comes across as a smart-alek here, even more than in the previous installments. His constant barrage of one-liners and put-downs are hysterically funny. What adds to the laughter is that Ash speaks like his is from his time to people in the ancient times, so Ash's slang use is totally wasted on them. Too many lines are funny, so I won't reveal them here. Even better for the film, is the very high slapstick humor moments in the movie. Two of them immediately come to mind: Ash is running in the forest away from a demon, and stops inside a windmill. He thinks that something is not right, so he checks outside. Convinced nothing has happened, he goes back inside and smacks into a mirror and breaks it. Each chard of glass contains a little miniature Ash. What follows is five minutes of pure slapstick that would make the Three Stooges proud. Hitting his head on a steel pipe three times, each time being believable hit, having barrel of soap dumped on his head, then slipping and sliding on the slippery floor, and many other implements of physical comedy that are used as torture throughout the scene left me and my friends on the floor in stitches after watching that scene. Keeping in mind that scene was over five minutes gives one a great respect for the scene. The second one is just as funny. As Ash is in the graveyard with the Necronomicon, he mispronounces a spell that is required to prove that the seeker of the book is in good intentions. By mispronouncing it, Ash awakes the undead army of skeletons, who proceed to perform another Three Stooges routine on Ash, this time as the world's greatest slap fight. There are many other great, funny scenes in this movie, but I don't want to spoil more than I already have. Just know that this is easily the funniest of the Evil Dead movies. Also present again is Sam Raimi's traditional 'demon eye-view' shots, where we follow the arrow or the monster chasing after Ash or another person. I was also very impressed with the amount of actual FX work went into making the movie. The Deadites are very well done, and they look like real skeletons that have come to life. They don't look like regular CGI creations, which would've destroyed any threat that they had. Well done.

The Bad News: Fans of the Evil Dead movies are sort of expecting the movies to always be pushing the limits of the MPAA on violence, but this is one is the driest of the other movies. We do see one very well done fountain of blood that looks like the famous 'bed of blood' from the original 'Nightmare on Elm Street,' so you should get an idea what that scene does look like, but that is the only gore in the movie.

The Final Verdict: Other than not enough blood and gore, this is a flawless movie. Fans of the series will plenty to love about in the movie, and horror-comedy fans will love to see one of the originals in the genre. It is highly recommended to all others as well.


Horror with a Comedy Twist
Review date: 2006-12-11 Rating: 10 out of 10

This film is absolutly brillient and i haven't seen it in 8 years, thats a long time but the movie have a way of sneaking back into the light.
I remember when i used to watch it all the time, especially the alternate ending.

i give this film top marks.

"Give me some sugar"
Review date: 2006-08-30 Rating: 10 out of 10

I loved this film. The last of the Evil Dead. It was excellant. The first film was a horror as the world horror fans know it. But, the third one was a comedy. I'm not sure Sam Rammi intended it to be one. After about thirty minutes one either loves this films or hates.The battle scenes in this are very good and differant.
Bruce Campbell does what he does best in this film, he is a comedian of sarcasm. I'll watch this film a 1000 times before I put it on the shelf to gather dust.
Happy sleeping..
Happy sleeps

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Bruce Campbell
Embeth Davidtz
Ian Abercrombie
Marcus Gilbert
Richard Grove

Creators:
Bruce Campbell (Primary Contributor)
Bruce Campbell (Producer)
Embeth Davidtz (Primary Contributor)
Bill Pope (Cinematographer)
Sam Raimi (Writer)
Bob Murawski (Editor)
Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)
Robert G. Tapert (Producer)

Director(s):

Recording label: Anchor Bay
Manufacturer: Anchor Bay
EAN: 0013131210194
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Anamorphic, Colour, Director's Cut, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen,
Release date: 2001-10-30
Universal product code (UPC): 013131210194
Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
Region code: 1
Running time: 81 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1993-02-19
Language: English (Original Language)

Add to Cart

© 2006 Darren Hester, DesignsByDarren.com, Some Rights Reserved.
Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional