Crimewave (Ola de crímenes... ola de risas)

Finally seeing Crimewave now means that I have seen (and enjoyed, mostly) all of Sam Raimi's feature films. I'd been searching for this flick for a while, and was therefore delighted when it happened to come on TV! I'm glad it did, too, because if it hadn't, I'd have bought it (probably quite expensively), and I wouldn't say that this film is one that I'd be happy with purchasing. I see Crimewave as an enjoyable experimental film for the talented Evil Dead director and star. Sam Raimi implements several of his clever camera angles into the proceedings, and this bodes well with the over the top comic style of the rest of the film. Similarly, Bruce Campbell does what he does best; in a role that is an interesting prelude to his way over the top turn in The Evil Dead's sequel. The plot is all over the place, and starts off with a man on death row, protesting his innocence. His story is then told through flashbacks, and we find out that he really is in the innocent party in a story that features a couple of maniac rat catchers, a beautiful woman, a suave 'heel' and seemingly no end of madcap events.

The screenplay was written by two of modern cult cinema's biggest icons; Ethan and Joel Coen. Hot off their success with Blood Simple (which, incidentally, I didn't like much); this was the second film to feature the brothers' as writers. Despite them having the writing credit, this really doesn't feel like a Coen Brothers film; and that is testament to Sam Raimi's direction. Raimi perhaps goes a little bit too over the top at times, and the film does almost feel like a series of slapstick sketches threaded together by a thin plot. We get treated to some of his early directorial skill, with several really well implemented scenes; my favourite being the one where we see one of the rat catchers kicking a door in from both the inside view and on a TV screen showing the security camera. The unknown cast is decent enough, but it's only really Bruce Campbell that stands out, and that's more because of his later performances than because of prowess here. Still, it's always fun to see Bruce in a movie, and that remains true here. On the whole, this is a good film; but I'd only really recommend it to Raimi/Campbell fans, and people that will appreciate that it's more of a prelude to greater things to come than a great cult flick.

"Crimewave" is a bizarre film, written by the Coen Brothers and directed by Sam Raimi. The plot is just strange... two criminals kill the owners of an alarm company and then begin killing the witnesses to the crime. Done in slapstick comedy style...

This film has Sam Raimi written all over it. His crazy zoom camera shots, the inclusion of Bruce Campbell as "the heel"... and the very over-the-top silliness. The only other time the Coens really tread this path was with "The Hudsucker Proxy" (which is, in all fairness, the better film)... and that, too, had Raimi's involvement.

I suggest this film is worth seeing. While not the Coens' best, not Raimi's best, it's an interesting little film, bizarre, and a good showcase of early work from those involved.

An actress loaded on cocaine, demanding to do her own makeup, and doing a terrible job of it. An actor distracted by battling spectres of his ex-wife. An actor dubbed over. Soon to be Hall of Fame directors/writers battling the studio at every turn. B-list hero Mr. Chin forced into a background role. All of this combined to make a ridiculous movie, and yet, all that behind-the-scenes chaos added to the movie's Live Action Looney Tunes charm.

Bruce was supposed to have the lead role, but the movie would have had a very different feel and maybe less enjoyable. His scenes in a supporting role are a blast, but I would actually have liked to see him as the main baddie. That would have added some more oomph and brought in flavor from the more wacky parts of Evil Dead.

The plot is, who cares, they didn't. Watch for the silly violence, some enjoyable cinematography (the hallway of doors scene was like ASMR for the eyeballs), and some solid one-liners.

It did take me a bit to warm up to this film as I went into it not knowing anything about it, but once I accepted that it wasn't going for any one genre, and just being ridiculous wacky fun, I settled in and enjoyed the ride. It is also a pleasure to watch Chuck Norris's TV wife adding some gravitas when Bruce was absent.

This is a cartoon with real people instead of animations. At first, I didn't know what to make of this movie. Then, I realized that it was an excellent one-of-a-kind genre. The too-cute, trite story of a lowly security guard, Victor Ajax (Reed Birney), trying to impress a pretty, hard-to-get girl, Nancy (Sheree J. Wilson), isn't really as important as the craftsmanship that goes into the making of this cartoon movie whose main characters are Louise Lasser (Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman) and the two cartoonish 'exterminators' who will kill any size pest. Some may call this movie "campy." I call it great!!!

The colors and settings are vivid, like a cartoon. And, the characters are just as unpredictable and indestructible as they would be in your typical cartoon: getting hit in the head with a row of bowling balls, only to be just dazed and not dead; falling out of tall building windows, only to get up and continue on with the action of the sequence; falling down a chute and into a box to be sent off to South America, etc.

When I first saw this film, I neither knew nor cared who the Coen Brothers or Sam Raimi were.

Probably a good thing, really. I now identify the goofy, cartoonish elements with 'Raising Arizona' and the violence with 'Bottom' or 'Itchy & Scratchy', but I do remember laughing like a drain at this strangely unhinged melodrama.

The rodent-like Brion James and the brutish Paul L.Smith are excellent slapstick hoods, Louise Lasser has a brittle classic glamour and Reed Birney (who I've never seen in anything else) is the wide-eyed, hopelessly romantic loser who would be totally out of his depth in a puddle, let alone the troubles that come to him in this story.

Being a Sam Raimi film, Bruce Campbell is present, in a splendidly oily performance as a total heel. According to one of Bruce's books, making the film was a tough job for various reasons, but the result, while not a classic, is definitely worth your time.