Darkman

Stumbled upon this movie backtracking Liam Neeson movies. Frances McDormand & Sam Raimi upped my hopes.

Otherwise an average movie of the 90s, I found these 2 absolute steals by the Mission Impossible franchise from this 1990 movie:

1. The hooking of helicopter so that it crashes - MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 1

2. The henchman kills his own mate thinking it to be the hero but its actually his mate who is taped behind the hero's mask - MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 2

What do you think guys??

Sam Raimi's "Darkman" is a highly entertaining and energetic combination of science fiction,action and horror!The performances are good,especially Liam Neeson is really believable as a disfigured doctor Peyton Westlake/Darkman.It's nice to see also an underrated Larry Drake("Dr Giggles")as a main villain.There are some huge gaps in logic,but I don't care.The score by Danny Elfman is fantastic and there are some nice visual effects!So if you have enough time to waste-check it out.7 out of 10.

At the time Darkman was an oddity. It was an R rated film in the superhero genre (dominated at the time by Batman) which was for kids/families. Along comes Sam Rami to make an "adult" superhero movie with horror overtones. Those of us who knew Rami was involved checked it out and at the time, I wanted it to have MORE horror and less superhero. At this point I can appreciate it for what it is and its a solid superhero movie that would fit much better today than it did at the time bc the adult audience for this genre exists today. Its a very ambitious movie for the time. Still a solid watch. The fx are adequate and the characters are top notch. The bad guys are hissable and the humor is amusing. The plot is clever and the violence and fx are solid. This is a movie worthy of rediscovery.

Of all the super-hero movies around, "Darkman" is my favourite. An original creation from Raimi, and not based on any comics, "Darkman" follows the story of Dr. Peyton Westlake, a scientist about to make a breakthrough in synthetic skin. Peyton's girlfriend, Julie Hastings is a hot-shot lawyer who gets on the wrong side of Robert G. Durant. Durant and his henchmen destroy Peyton's lab, and leave him for dead. Horribly burned and scarred beyond recognition, Peyton uses his uncompleted and synthetic skin to get revenge on those who wronged him - he becomes Darkman.

Darkman has no real super-powers - apart from some increased strength and his inability to feel pain - he uses the synthetic skin to assume the alternate identities, and fights his battles that way. Darkman is not a real super-hero. He makes no pledge to rid the world of evil-doers. He is just out for revenge, and every time Darkman acts, Darkman's dark-side claims just a little bit more of Peyton.

Others have mentioned the parallels to 'Robocop'. I'd like to mention the parallels to Sam Raimi's recent efforts with 'Spider-Man' - the two are very similar style-wise, but Peter Parker/Spider-Man is generally pretty happy and cheerful, where as Darkman finds sadistic pleasure in the way he toys with his enemies before finishing them off. 'Spider-Man' is family-friendly, 'Darkman' is not the sort of movie you would want to show to parents or younger-siblings.

'Darkman' is original, and yet another under-rated classic from Sam Raimi. Check it out if you like Sam Raimi, but avoid if you enjoy the family-friendly nature of 'Spider-Man'. Definitely my favourite super-hero movie, and nearly up there with Tim Burton's 'Batman' and 'Batman Returns', the best super-hero movies ever.

7/10

For a Class-B type movie and feel to it, it's pretty good....better than I anticipated. I've seen it twice and enjoyed it more the second time. I had forgotten how stylish-looking it was and it was fun to see.

What I did remember were a couple of wild scenes, such as "Darkman" (Liam Neeson) being swung around in the sky on the end of a chain from a helicopter, and the big fire scene early on which turns Neeson's character into the masked hero.

The villains in the movie are over-the-top, leading with Larry Drake's character "Durant." There also is some outrageous Rambo action which stretches way past credibility, such as people shooting from five feet away and missing our hero!

Overall, not as good as the critics would have you believe, but still entertaining. At least it has two quality actors in Neeson and Frances McDormand. Drake went on to play the infamous "Dr. Giggles." If you liked this crazy film, you'll love that one.