The Crow: City of Angels (1996) – Review

Where to watch The Crow: City of Angels

1 Star

Simply stated at the top, The Crow: City of Angels is one of the worst sequels ever produced and shown theatrically in this country. This is a stunning fall from the creative heights of the first film, almost nothing works in this limp follow-up, which apparently was slashed down from 160 minutes to its current length of 84 minutes. Not that a nearly three-hour long version of this depressing (although beautifully shot) sludge would benefit anyone, but it would most likely be more coherent than what is present here.

Vincent Perez takes on the title role of the deceased avenger, roaming the nightmare-ish streets of a deserted city landscape looking to exact revenge for the murder of his family. The tie to the original is through the supporting character Sara (Mia Kirshner), now grown into womanhood and working as a tattoo artist. Perez enlists her to aid him while he carries out his postmortem mission of justice. The relationship between the two is as inconsistent as everything else in the picture, which I guess would be the constant, I digress.

As before there is a rogues gallery of killers that must be taken out, all are henchmen for the city’s drug kingpin Judah Earl (Richard Brooks) This is a villain who derives pleasure from other’s pain, he occupies himself with S&M slaves and mid-evil torture devices. The most colorful of the bad-guys is Curve, played by Iggy Pop looking like a sinewy member of the S.O.A..The live wire that is Iggy Pop and an unsettling turn from Richard Brooks as Judah are scant evidence that something of greater interest could have been produced.

Internet rumor suggests that director Tim Pope and writer David S. Goyer were so displeased they left the project while in various stages of production. It is unclear if Pope’s supposed longer cut will ever be available for viewers, but on the basis of the material on-screen it is obvious as to why this series has been relegated to direct-to-dvd spinoffs ever since.

Director: Tim Pope
Stars: Vincent Perez, Richard Brooks, Mia Kirshner