I find myself most inspired to write reviews when I see wasted potential in a movie...the Shadow falls in that category though it doesn't fit quite as snuggly.
Set in 1930's New York, Lamont Cranston(Alec Baldwin)is a rich playboy who moonlights as a mysterious superhero known as the Shadow. He can turn himself invisible, hypnotize his enemies, is a crack shot with twin pistols and most importantly, "who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?" The Shadow knows. When a descendant of Genghis Khan arrives in New York after completing his training with The Shadow's own former mentor(and killing him), The Shadow seems to have met his match, but he's not going down without a fight.
As a feat of art direction, The Shadow is pretty damn close to a masterpiece. It's set in a world of comic bookish 30's architecture, and light and shadow are played with a whimsical sense of noir. The movie is based on the 1930's pulp novels of the same name and visually it hits the mark dead center. The story unfortunately only makes it there half way. There's a lot of fun stuff in this movie and the plot is full of cool ideas that invoke the pulpy feel it should. Unfortunately it can't quite find its footing on the line between camp and dark grit. There's enough goofiness in the movie to keep you from taking it too seriously but not quite enough goofiness to make it just pure fun. Because of this the camp comes off as unintentional...like they wanted this to be serious and just didn't get there. The set up in the beginning of the film in particular is a little hokey in its clunky handling...if it had been slowed down it could've been interesting and cool...but then maybe the movie wouldn't have been as much fun. I found myself unimpressed with the script and yet at the same time I was more and more engaged as the movie waged on...by the climax I was very interested to see how it would all turn out and now, the next morning as I look back at watching it last night I find myself smirking at some of the fun quotes and winks at the camera.
All and all I enjoyed the movie I guess, but I just found myself so enthralled by the visuals of it, and combine that with my love of pulp fiction and I really should've loved this movie...so I guess, as I've often said before it just didn't quite live up to its potential.
Set in 1930's New York, Lamont Cranston(Alec Baldwin)is a rich playboy who moonlights as a mysterious superhero known as the Shadow. He can turn himself invisible, hypnotize his enemies, is a crack shot with twin pistols and most importantly, "who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?" The Shadow knows. When a descendant of Genghis Khan arrives in New York after completing his training with The Shadow's own former mentor(and killing him), The Shadow seems to have met his match, but he's not going down without a fight.
As a feat of art direction, The Shadow is pretty damn close to a masterpiece. It's set in a world of comic bookish 30's architecture, and light and shadow are played with a whimsical sense of noir. The movie is based on the 1930's pulp novels of the same name and visually it hits the mark dead center. The story unfortunately only makes it there half way. There's a lot of fun stuff in this movie and the plot is full of cool ideas that invoke the pulpy feel it should. Unfortunately it can't quite find its footing on the line between camp and dark grit. There's enough goofiness in the movie to keep you from taking it too seriously but not quite enough goofiness to make it just pure fun. Because of this the camp comes off as unintentional...like they wanted this to be serious and just didn't get there. The set up in the beginning of the film in particular is a little hokey in its clunky handling...if it had been slowed down it could've been interesting and cool...but then maybe the movie wouldn't have been as much fun. I found myself unimpressed with the script and yet at the same time I was more and more engaged as the movie waged on...by the climax I was very interested to see how it would all turn out and now, the next morning as I look back at watching it last night I find myself smirking at some of the fun quotes and winks at the camera.
All and all I enjoyed the movie I guess, but I just found myself so enthralled by the visuals of it, and combine that with my love of pulp fiction and I really should've loved this movie...so I guess, as I've often said before it just didn't quite live up to its potential.