{"id":35722,"date":"2016-03-27T22:23:52","date_gmt":"2016-03-28T05:23:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/?p=35722"},"modified":"2016-03-27T22:23:52","modified_gmt":"2016-03-28T05:23:52","slug":"challenge-week-12-army-of-darkness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2016\/03\/challenge-week-12-army-of-darkness\/","title":{"rendered":"Challenge Week 12: Army of Darkness"},"content":{"rendered":"

That…was…AWESOME. Near the beginning, a medieval lord throws a prisoner into a deep pit. After a minute, a veritable geyser of blood shoots out of the pit and all over the courtyard. At that moment, I knew I was going to love this movie. It’s got an over-the-top audacity that just totally works for me.<\/p>\n

I’ve been wanting to see Army of Darkness<\/em> for quite a while, after liking-not-loving both Evil Dead<\/em>s and hearing a bit about how Army of Darkness<\/em> throws in time travel and is a lot goofier. I love goofy, and this film met or exceeded all my expectations. I will say upfront that I didn’t realize there were multiple versions, and I think my library only had this one anyway – I watched the theatrical cut. I would gladly, even gleefully watch the director’s cut.<\/p>\n

\"tf-blood-fountain\"<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Immediately following the events of Evil Dead 2<\/em>, Ash is pulled into a time warp and deposited unceremoniously in the 14th century, in the middle of a clan war – but there are bigger things afoot, as some kind of evil power is threatening the land and these folks think Ash is their prophesied savior. They send him after the book of the dead, and we can guess how well that goes.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, we have horrific creature designs, sarcastic one-liners, time travel, boomsticks, a face-stretching book (a decoy), last-minute escapes, a mechanical hand that replaces a chainsaw hand, an evil Ash grown from several tiny Ashes that torment him like maniacal Lilliputians, the iconic Evil Dead rushing demon, and perhaps best of all, a bizarre and manic camera style that no one but Raimi does – and he doesn’t really do it anymore.<\/p>\n

\"tf-evil-ash\"<\/p>\n

The only part that threatened to jump the shark for me was the Tiny Ash section, but that barely held the line, and everything else is not only acceptable, but actively awesome. Like I saw, I liked the first two Evil Dead<\/em> movies, but the bigger scale of this one really worked for me, and I can definitely see this becoming an oft-rewatched favorite in our house. Having only seen the S-mart ending, I’m pretty excited to revisit it and see the director’s cut ending, which sounds very very different.<\/p>\n

Stats and stuff…<\/h3>\n

1992, USA<\/em>
\ndirected by Sam Raimi; written by Sam and Ivan Raimi<\/em>
\nstarring Bruce Campbell, Embeth Davidtz, Marcus Gilbert, Ian Abercrombie<\/em><\/p>\n

I’m ranking all my Challenge films on Flickchart (as I do all the films I see), a movie-ranking website that asks you to choose your favorite between two movies until it builds a ranked list of your favorites. Just for fun, I will average out the rankings and keep a running tally of whose recommendations rank the highest. When you add a film to Flickchart, it pits it against films already on your chart to see where it should fall. Here’s how Army of Darkness<\/em> entered my chart:<\/p>\n

Army of Darkness<\/b> > Royal Wedding
\nArmy of Darkness<\/b> > The Little Matchgirl
\nArmy of Darkness<\/b> > What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Up Doc?
\nArmy of Darkness < One A.M.<\/b>
\nArmy of Darkness < The Others<\/b>
\nArmy of Darkness < Mon Oncle<\/b>
\nArmy of Darkness < Up in the Air<\/b>
\nArmy of Darkness < Toy Story 3<\/b>
\nArmy of Darkness<\/b> > Team America: World Police
\nArmy of Darkness<\/b> > The Big Trail
\nArmy of Darkness < Inside Llewyn Davis<\/b><\/p>\n

Final ranking #438 out of 3606 films on my chart (88%)<\/p>\n

It is now my #1 Sam Raimi film, my #1 Bruce Campbell film, my #2 Embeth Davidtz film, my #5 Horror Comedy, my #10 Monster Film, my #2 Supernatural Comedy film, my #3 Supernatural Horror film, my #5 Time Travel film, and my #5 film of 1992.<\/p>\n

Army of Darkness<\/em> was recommended by Jennifer Sicurella, a friend from the Flickcharters group on Facebook. Averaging together this #438 ranking with my #1950 ranking of her other film, Milk<\/em>, gives Jennifer an average ranking of 1194.<\/p>\n

A few quotes…<\/h3>\n

Duke Henry:<\/b> You Sir, are not one of my vassals… who are you?
\nAsh:<\/b> Who wants to know?
\nDuke Henry:<\/b> I am Henry the Red. Duke of Shale, Lord of the Northlands and leader of its peoples.
\nAsh:<\/b> Well hello Mister Fancypants. Well, I’ve got news for you pal, you ain’t leadin’ but two things, right now: Jack and shit… and Jack left town.<\/p>\n

Ash:<\/b> Alright you Primitive Screwheads, listen up! You see this? This… is my boomstick! The twelve-gauge double-barreled Remington. S-Mart’s top of the line. You can find this in the sporting goods department. That’s right, this sweet baby was made in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Retails for about a hundred and nine, ninety five. It’s got a walnut stock, cobalt blue steel, and a hair trigger. That’s right. Shop smart. Shop S-Mart. You got that?<\/p>\n

Ash:<\/b> Don’t touch that please, your primitive intellect wouldn’t understand alloys and compositions and things with… molecular structures.<\/p>\n

Ash:<\/b> Klaatu Barada Nikto.
\nWiseman:<\/b> Well, repeat them.
\nAsh:<\/b> Klaatu Barada Nikto.
\nWiseman:<\/b> Again.
\nAsh:<\/b> I got it, I got it! I know your damn words, alright?<\/p>\n

Ash:<\/b> Good. Bad. I’m the guy with the gun.<\/p>\n

Ash:<\/b> Klaatu Barada…Necktie?<\/p>\n

Wiseman:<\/b> When you removed the book from the cradle, did you speak the words?
\nAsh:<\/b> Yeah, basically.
\nWiseman:<\/b> Did you speak the exact words?
\nAsh:<\/b> Look, maybe I didn’t say every single little tiny syllable, no. But basically I said them, yeah.<\/p>\n

Sheila:<\/b> You found me beautiful once…
\nAsh:<\/b> Honey, you got reeeal ugly!<\/p>\n

Evil Ash:<\/b> I got a bone to pick with you.<\/p>\n

Ash:<\/b> Hail to the King, baby.<\/p>\n

A few more screenshots…<\/h3>\n

\"tf-chainsaw\"<\/p>\n

\"tf-demon\"<\/p>\n

\"tf-leading\"<\/p>\n

\"tf-army-of-darkness\"<\/p>\n

\"tf-tiny-ashes\"<\/p>\n

\"tf-double-ash\"<\/p>\n

\"tf-wrong-book\"<\/p>\n

\"tf-book\"<\/p>\n

\"tf-skeletons-rising\"<\/p>\n

\"tf-skleton-army\"<\/p>\n

\"tf-closeup\"<\/p>\n

\"tf-undead-army\"<\/p>\n

\"tf-witch\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That…was…AWESOME. Near the beginning, a medieval lord throws a prisoner into a deep pit. After a minute, a veritable geyser of blood shoots out of the pit and all over the courtyard. At that moment, I knew I was going to love this movie. It’s got an over-the-top audacity that just totally works for me. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35731,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3027],"tags":[3097,3099,3098,2810],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/tf-feat-boom-stick.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":35387,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2016\/01\/the-2016-movie-challenge-a-preview\/","url_meta":{"origin":35722,"position":0},"title":"The 2016 Movie Challenge: A Preview","author":"Jandy","date":"January 3, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Because I can't leave well enough alone, here's a brief rundown of (some of) what I'll be watching in 2016 for this crazy challenge. I currently have 50 people signed up to recommend me movies, and all but a handful have already chosen their picks, so this thing is scheduled\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2016 Movie Challenge"","block_context":{"text":"2016 Movie Challenge","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/2016-movie-challenge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/fc-keaton.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3992,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2010\/10\/yep-im-doing-horror-too\/","url_meta":{"origin":35722,"position":1},"title":"Yep, I’m Doing Horror Too","author":"Jandy","date":"October 8, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Yes, every film blog in the entire blogosphere is getting a little horror-happy this month, and I'm jumping on a very packed bandwagon. But I only really started watching horror films last year, so I feel like I've got a lot to catch up on. Here's a list of what\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/deep-red-movie-still-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":35927,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2016\/05\/challenge-week-20-the-abyss\/","url_meta":{"origin":35722,"position":2},"title":"Challenge Week 20: The Abyss","author":"Jandy","date":"May 22, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Truth be told, this is one of the films I've been looking forward to the most in the challenge, if only because my friend and Flickchart developer Nathan pretty much never shuts up about it. But Nathan didn't give it to me for the challenge - he hasn't chosen yet,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2016 Movie Challenge"","block_context":{"text":"2016 Movie Challenge","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/2016-movie-challenge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/tf-feat-.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":35505,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2017\/03\/2016-challenge-debrief\/","url_meta":{"origin":35722,"position":3},"title":"2016 Challenge Debrief","author":"Jandy","date":"March 15, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, it's been almost three months since my year-long movie challenge officially completed, and it's taken me that long to decompress, rerank everything, and generally get ready to post a recap of the year. The short version: it was awesome! I watched a ton of movies I really liked, very\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2016 Movie Challenge"","block_context":{"text":"2016 Movie Challenge","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/2016-movie-challenge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/crop-400-Blows-watching.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":32821,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/star-trek-into-darkness-things-i-liked-things-i-didnt\/","url_meta":{"origin":35722,"position":4},"title":"Star Trek Into Darkness: Things I Liked, Things I Didn’t","author":"Jandy","date":"June 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"This post contains spoilers. If you haven't seen the film and don't want to be spoiled, don't read another sentence. I should admit upfront that while I enjoy J.J. Abrams' update of Star Trek, I ultimately prefer the quiet, more thoughtful and ethical dilemma-driven Original Series to the more action-oriented\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/star_trek_into_darkness_feat.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3870,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2010\/09\/review-resident-evil-afterlife\/","url_meta":{"origin":35722,"position":5},"title":"Review: Resident Evil: Afterlife","author":"Jandy","date":"September 12, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"[Rating:2.5\/5] originally posted on Row Three It's a little bit pointless to review Resident Evil: Afterlife, which is why I didn't even bother seeking out the Rotten Tomatoes score or any other reviews before rushing off to see it opening night. I mean, this is the fourth Resident Evil movie,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/resident-evil.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35722"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}