 Recently on the channel I talked about Sam Raimi's quick in the dead. A nice little gem you can watch on Netflix at least for the time being until it's inevitably taken off in a week or the day that you decide, you know what? I want to watch that today. It's gone. We're back with another Sam Raimi. It's not because I'm like a huge massive fan, although I do appreciate his work. It's because patrons keep requesting I watch them. So here we are again with a movie I absolutely adore, Army of Darkness. This review request comes from Emmanuel Santiago over on Patreon.com slash Adam does movies. He's a Mithril member over there, so he gets to decide what I watch, how I watch it, where I watch it and what I have to say about it. That's not true. All he gets to do is say, Adam watch this movie and I will tell him if I like it or not. It might be a total piece of crap and he might love it. So he's brought to tears once he sees this video come out or we're in agreement. Either way, become a Mithril member. You get a movie review. Let's get started with this one. I'm going to hit you with a couple facts right out of the gate that are going to tickle your fancy. That's what people say now in 2023. Number one, the Army of Darkness is a sequel to Evil Dead 1 and 2 and it takes a much lighter, more comedic approach. I like it. It's refreshing. It's different than the previous two entries. It's a good time. Number two, this movie is a speedy, fast one hour and 21 minutes. Could you imagine anything sweeter than that? You got a life. I kind of have a life, not much of one, but I want to cherish the moments I have, which means a shorter movie, a quick runtime is just what this doctor ordered. Number three, it features Bruce Campbell in his ultimate glory. This is peak Campbell. Sarcastic, hilarious. He steals every single moment. He captures it and makes it his own and I love him to death here. Although let's be fair, Bruce Campbell is great in every single thing he does. Criminally underrated actor. How do you summarize Army of Darkness quickly? Well, let's just say a hardware store worker in present day America is transported to the past 1300 AD where he must retrieve the necronomicon. That's a word. I think I said it right. From an army of dead, the army of darkness as it were. Bruce Campbell's ash is like Princess Jasmine. He's in a whole new world. That was a stretch. That was a weird comparison, but I went with it so you can go with it too. He's stuck in a time period that knows little to nothing about him and he knows little to nothing about them. King Arthur's in the mix. There's freaking knights here. It's medieval times. There's dead creatures running around flying. It's a nightmare. It's an absolute mess and he has to retrieve this book in order to get back to the future. Marty McFly style. Samurai Jack style because along the way shenanigans are going to take over. He's gonna fall in a pit filled with these zombie like creatures, these demons from hell. He's going to have to battle little versions of himself in a scene that's kind of funny, but also a little bit ugly. The green screen is not held up well. I will jump into production in a second because it is a mixed bag, but I will say for a movie that came out like 30 plus years ago, it still holds up really well. Even though this movie is short as hell, it's got so many quotable lines jam packed in here, you'll make your friends annoyed within a day because you won't be able to help yourself from repeating them over and over again. This is my boomstick. He announces to a society of people scared out of their minds when he holds a shotgun up in the air. It also may be a tad intimidating that he brandishes a chainsaw on one of his arms. He has a very Elvis style demeanor to him with the hair and the catch phrases like groovy, just a boss all around. And this is full bore Sam Raimi. That camera is all over the place. Whether it's tilting at bizarre angles or just flying through a POV shot of an arrow. He loves the POV here. And I have to say it's it's it's not utilized enough anymore. I like being the shot of a spike going at the lead character or an arrow or a sword. It's just creative and wonderful all around. And the effects really do hold up for the most part. There's puppets going on. You got skeleton armies that are stop motion. Sometimes they're practical effects. They got the bones that they're playing music on. They got wind pipes. It's freaking awesome. There's so many great moments in this flick too. I talked about the pit battle, still a highlight for me. There's also the sequence where he's rebuilding his arm now making it more like a knight. The the camera zooms in with every single new shot. Just king zoom in. King zoom in reaction of another person on looking. Huh? King zoom in. Later in the film when he gets his hands on the book, he's supposed to utter a series of words. I mean, it's only three. And he of course forgets the final word after telling the dude countless times. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I remember. It's not a big deal. So it's really funny because he does kind of a George Costanza where he slurs the final word because he can't remember it. So he's like flabbin, flabbin. This unleashes hell on earth. And now our little army of people have to take on an army of darkness. Ash could cut and run, but he decides to stay back. He decides to be the leader these guys need. And the flick ends with him getting transported back to his time working at S smart, but there's one final boss, one final villain comes in and it's this she bitch demon taking over the body of a human. And this leads this is the best scene in the movie. He throws the gun in the air, jumps on a table with wheels. So it's moving along, catches the gun that he threw so completely pointless there. And then he just unloads shot after shot into this woman afterwards. He gets the girl who he naturally dips, gives her a kiss and states, hail to the king, baby chef's kiss. It's perfect. And that's the army of darkness, a movie that I treasure. I saw way later in life too. I was probably in college the first time I watched it, didn't really know what to expect. And I was very pleasantly surprised by the dark comedy, the hilarious antics, the bizarre setting, and just how the movie keeps getting more and more zany as it goes on. I mean, Bruce Campbell fights little versions of himself. He gets one attached to him who he's punching in the face. Some of it works. I mean, most of it works. Occasionally, I do think you probably could have even cut this, Raimi, or maybe we didn't even have enough material for a full movie yet should have let it cook a little longer. But Ash slash Bruce Campbell makes everything work so well. It's just a it's just a lovely little flick. One that everybody should at least try. I want to thank you, Emmanuel Santiago, for recommending this one. I haven't seen it in a long time. I'm so glad I watched and I'm actually going to rewatch with my son Connor. I was going to watch with them originally. I couldn't remember how scary it was for a 10 year old. I couldn't remember like how well the effects. Let's be honest. It's an old flick. A lot of the ones we grew up with don't hold up anymore. But this one hits all the right notes. He'll love it. All right, there you have it. My thoughts on Army of Darkness. Let me know if you've seen it in the comments below and your thoughts. Like the video if you had some fun. 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