The Crow Movie Review

This movie is one of my all time favourites. I even bought the special edition on DVD! It stars Brandon Lee, the son of Bruce Lee and of course everyone knows the story about how he died on set and that does tinge the movie with sadness but it is a classic movie nonetheless. It is based on a comic book by James O' Barr.


The movie begins on October 30th or 'Devil's Night' in Detroit. A young woman called Shelley Webster(Sofia Shinas) has been raped and brutally beaten and her fiance, Eric Draven(Brandon Lee) has been shot and he has fallen through a window and he is dead. Shelley is hanging on for her life. The cop, Albrecht(Ernie Hudson) is at the scene and he is horrified by what he sees. A young girl, Sarah(Rochelle Davis) is friends with Shelley. She asks the cop if Shelley will be okay,but the cop tells her that Shelley is dying.

We cut to a year later and there is a crow sitting on top of a headstone in a dark graveyard. It taps the stone with its beak as if knocking.It is Eric Draven's headstone and he is brought back to life by the mysterious crow. We see a dubious group of criminals headed by T-Bird(David Patrick Kelly). The others are Tin Tin(Laurence Mason) and Funboy(Michael Massee) and Skank(Angel David). Eric wanders back to his old apartment and he has flashbacks of what happened and these flashbacks feature the criminals. They raped and beat Shelley and shot Eric and killed him. The anger builds in Eric and he paints his face like a sad clown and dresses in his black goth clothes before he decides that he is going to get revenge for what happened to him. He finds that he can heal quickly. He can't be hurt by anything.

The crow is guiding him to the gang he wants to kill. The first to meet the avenger is Tin Tin. He has his knives and he thinks that he will dispose of Eric easily, but it is him who ends up pinned to the wall by his knives and he is the one who ends up stabbed in all his vital organs. Eric takes Tin Tin's coat and he goes in search of his next victim.He finds Gideon(Jon Polito) who is a small time crook who owns a pawn shop. He gets back Shelley's engagement ring which Tin Tin had pawned. He blows up the place and injures Gideon. He finds Funboy next who is in bed with Sarah's mother, Darla(Anna Levine). He kills him with his needles and his own morphine while sending Darla home to her daughter. Sarah sees Eric and she figures out where he will be. She meets him in the apartment and they talk. He tells her that he hasn't come back to stay and she is sad..

So, the rest of the gang begin to die and this worries their leader, Top Dollar(Michael Wincott) . He wonders who this guy is and he wants him dead. His lover, Myca(Bai Ling) wants to know who it is too. She seems to know about the crow. Eric shows up at a meeting and he kills loads of Top Dollar's associates. He thinks that he has finished his job as he kills Skank, the last gang member. He meets Sarah and they go to Shelley's grave. Eric is tiring now and he is almost ready to pass on to the other side. But, Sara is grabbed by the baddies and held in a church where Top Dollar and his woman are waiting. The crow is shot and Eric loses his powers as a result. Myca wants the crow as she wants its powers, but it pecks her eyes out and she falls to her death. Top Dollar and Eric fight and Top Dollar falls from the roof of the church and onto a spike.Officer Albrecht has shown up to help too and he has been wounded. Eric and Sarah go to the hospital while Eric returns to his grave and he is reunited with his love. The movie ends with Sarah standing at the grave and the crow drops Shelley's ring into her hand before it takes off into the night...

A brilliant film with some great scenes. Brandon Lee really shone in this movie and this would have been the beginning of his career in mainstream movies. This movie is sad in parts but you have a sense that justice has been done at the end of it as the baddies get their comeuppance.There is some great music too!I would recommend this to anyone and it will be a favourite of mine always.