Rating of
2.5/4
"Army Of Darkness" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 01/30/12
Ash finds himself in the 14th century where he must battle an army of the dead to prevent them getting their hands on the necronomicon and laying waste to the world. Evil Dead 2 was an undeniably ridiculous film and its combination of over the top gore and humour makes it one of my favourites. Army Of Darkness follows on directly from the end of that film (sort of...there's a little Saturday morning serial style re-writing going on!) that gives Sam Raimi the opportunity to throw some swashbuckling and Monty Python And The Holy Grail humour into the mix. Imagine A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court if the Yankee were an obnoxious, smart mouthed convenience store clerk and King Arthur's Court were full of zombies. The humour is if anything even broader this time around, as the evil minions are subjected to the kind of slapstick violence that you'd usually associate with an Itchy And Scratchy cartoon. The skeletal plot is little more than an excuse for a series of one liners and sight gags and the "horror" elements are so comic strip it has an almost family friendly feel about it; in fact the formula of a feckless coward caught up in medieval swordplay reminded me of Bob Hope in something like The Princess And The Pirate more than anything. It's a deeply silly film that doesn't take itself remotely seriously and taken as such is very entertaining but don't expect anything even vaguely challenging or thought provoking!
