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

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

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

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 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

Army of Darkness is mostly a terrific piece of mindlessness. That may not sound like such a great recommendation -- until you drop in on some of this season's high-minded clunkers.

| Mar 31, 2023

At first the wisecracks and effects are rather fun. By the time the dead mount a full-scale assault on a castle, however, the stop-motion technique is irresistibly reminiscent of the bygone age of Ray Harryhausen.

| Mar 31, 2023

Army of Darkness falls off the knife-edge between humor and horror walked by The Evil Dead and danced along by Evil Dead 2. Without serious horror content, the film becomes a simple succession of gags.

| Mar 31, 2023

For a while the barrage exhilarates. But even the most dedicated viewer may weary of a lively film that never knows quite when to shut up and stop.

| Mar 31, 2023

[Army of Darkness] is more of an ironic fantasy than a horror story, but neither fantastic nor funny enough, despite its plethora of special effects and artful jokiness, to pass muster as anything much.

| Mar 31, 2023

Has success spoiled Mr. Raimi's sicko genius? Maybe not. But it certainly seems tamed. This dance of death turns out to be a ho-hum hokey pokey.

| Mar 31, 2023

There's plenty of blood -- a geyser's worth at one point -- but nowhere close to the unrelenting flow of its predecessors. In any event, both genre fans and newcomers will be too busy laughing to be offended.

| Mar 31, 2023

Granted, Army of Darkness is a little silly -- OK, it's very silly. But it's also great fun.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Mar 31, 2023

Campbell's screwy machismo alone is worth the trip.

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

Well, I can think of worse ways of spending Saturday afternoon.

| Mar 31, 2023

Adolescent gross-out is replaced with adolescent humor, with the usual bad acting much in evidence. Raimi's energetic inventiveness offers only partial compensation.

| Mar 31, 2023

The demented madcap of Army of Darkness marked Sam Raimi’s true entrance into Hollywood-sized filmmaking.

| Oct 12, 2022