Full Movie Reviews
Rating of
2.5/4
Liam Neeson's 1st action movie was not Taken!
Indyfreak - wrote on 12/07/2014
Back in 1990, "Spider-Man trilogy" director Sam Raimi gave curious audiences a superhero movie featuring a protagonist much more similar to the mad scientists of classic monster movies. Economically made at a time when comic-book films were rare (and rarely successful) "Darkman" is less interested in showing a hero rescue cats from trees or send criminals to jail but rather murder them in cold blood out of vengeance instead of justice. Again, harkening back to those monster movies, the hero is less concerned about others but more so for himself a good chunk of the movie. It is this and the gruesome manner he is transformed that would make Darkman a melancholy if not downright bleak film for some.
Still, there is an appropriately campy approach to the proceedings and Liam Neeson devotes …
Rating of
3/4
An Under-Rated Favorite!
MovieAddict - wrote on 02/11/2012
Peyton Westlake (Liam Neeson) is a scientist who has it all; a loving girlfriend, a good life and the chance to make a difference with his synthetic skin experiments which could revolutionize skin grafting, except for one minor glitch; the synthetic skin degrades after 100 minutes of exposure to light.
That is until Robert Durant (Larry Drake) and his thugs break into his lab one night and savagely beat him, leaving him for dead and blowing up his lab in the process. But Westlake does not die; somehow he survives being dunked in a vat of bubbling acid which turns him into a horribly deformed freak. As such he is afraid to face his girlfriend, Julie Hastings (Frances McDormand) and retreats into the shadows as a creature of the night, as the Darkman. He begins to seek vengeance against …
Rating of
3/4
"Darkman" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 02/09/2012
A scientist hideously disfigured during an attack on his lab utilises the synthetic skin he was working on to wreak bloody vengeance on the criminals responsible. Batman meets The Phantom Of The Opera in this superhero-horror hybrid from Sam Raimi that can be seen as the stepping stone from Evil Dead 2 to Spider Man. This is clearly where he learned the ropes of making the modern superhero film and although lacking the slickness exhibited by the Marvel franchise, Darkman still has plenty to commend it. It has a rather blacker heart than the usual masked avenger movie, Raimi exploring the idea of a "hero" that is more borderline psychotic than a brooding loner and far more interested in pure revenge than justice. It's a little rough around the edges and Liam Neeson was a slightly odd …
Rating of
3/4
Oldschool Raimi, great movie
TheWolf - wrote on 08/03/2007
This is the first movie that I ever saw Liam Neeson in, and I thought it was the coolest idea for a movie. Of course when I saw it for the first time I was 13. While my perception of the movie has changed as I got more familiar with the acting and finding the flaws, I still enjoy seeing this movie years later.
Darkman tells the tale of lawyer Julie Hastings (Frances McDormand) who discovers a memo that implicates her boss, property developer Louis Strack Jr. (Colin Friels), in the bribing high ranking officials. Julie confronts Strack about it & the matter goes unresolved, Strack sends crime kingpin Robert G. Durant (Larry Drake) & his thugs round to Julie's boyfriends laboratory to retrieve the documents. There they beat Julie's boyfriend Dr. Peyton Westlake (Liam Neeson) & leave him …
