Raimi's special effects and camera work really elevate this pulp, fantasy film and make this an immersive experience.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 18, 2024

...a daft but enjoyable romp…catnip for fans of Campbell, this is probably his finest hour, making a droll, lantern jawed hero with a deft penchant for quips and an ability to accessorise

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 9, 2024

Blending almost nonstop violence with humorous parody, Sam Raimi’s latest excursion into horror-kitsch should prove a crowd-pleaser for the mall trade and perhaps a mite beyond.

| Mar 31, 2023

Bruce Campbell, the rugged star-survivor of The Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2: Dead Before Dawn, takes his most incendiary trip yet in Army of Darkness, a hilariously extravagant sequel to those low-budget, tongue-in-cheek fright flicks.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 31, 2023

Replete with thumping horse hooves, the battle cries of lusty men and the banshee screams of the living dead, Raimi's movie comes at you with a noisy, jokey swagger. Its hero even says "groovy" and gets away with it.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 31, 2023

Here's the problem: Bruce Campbell's character is a complete stiff, and so is everyone else he meets who isn't a special effect. The result is that we couldn't care less who wins any battle in the movie no matter how inventively photographed.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Mar 31, 2023

Benefiting enormously from Raimi's brisk, no-nonsense direction, it shows again that he can fill a broader canvas with complicated effects, masking the fact that there's nothing terribly original on screen.

| Mar 31, 2023

Army of Darkness is quite simply the best Bob Hope comedy Bob Hope never made.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Mar 31, 2023

There isn't a dead spot in Army of Darkness, which runs a brief 77 minutes, and suitably so: This is, in many ways, a live-action cartoon. It's overdone, yes, but also irresistible.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 31, 2023

With virtually no narrative to connect its wall-to-wall mindless action sequences, Army of Darkness is either a botched attempt at some kind of elaborate allegory or a botched attempt to bring comic-strip panels to life.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Mar 31, 2023

A lot gets overdone in Army of Darkness. Everything, in fact. But Campbell, who as Ash wears a chainsaw on the stump of his arm, hit shotgun on his back and a smirk on his lips, ultimately saves the film, just as Ash saves the day.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 31, 2023

Raimi loads the film with gross humor and also packs so much action into the film that it seems longer than its 77-minute running time. In this case, that's a compliment.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 31, 2023

A tacit rule in reviewing movies is that only the best films get long and loving reviews. So when it comes to Army of Darkness, brevity is called for: Stunningly stupid! Amazingly bad! Incredibly awful! Just downright terrible!

| Mar 31, 2023

Raimi's approach, which quickly junks any storyline in favor of endless mind-boggling special effects, does grow tedious after a while.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 31, 2023

Army of Darkness isn't for everyone. But Raimi aficionados will relish the non-stop action and gore, the hamminess of Campbell's performance the low-budget technical zeal that Raimi musters even as his bottom line and prowess as a filmmaker increase.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 31, 2023

Raimi demonstrates little imagination in Army of Darkness -- the film unspools like the outline for a film yet to be fleshed out.

| Original Score: 2/10 | Mar 31, 2023

Because of an irreverent and wholly enthusiastic performance, Campbell makes the film far more than it should be.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 31, 2023

There's no time to reflect how dumb this all is, how cretinously childish, because we might miss a passing reference to a horror classic... and be conned into believing that Raimi has something new to say. On the evidence here I doubt it.

| Mar 31, 2023

Army of Darkness doesn't have enough story to hold the movie together -- even by Raimi's slapdash standards. This sequel to his Evil Dead movies doesn't have enough of their reckless, punk charm. It's a sloppy step backward for the Darkman director.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 31, 2023

Raimi has created the cinematic equivalent of fast food -- efficient, unassuming and seriously regressive. It may not be much good for you in the end, but consuming it is loads of fun.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 31, 2023