The Shadow

[scotrace]

There's a Hat thread on this movie, there's a jacket thread on this movie, but I don't find a movie thread on this movie.

Which I saw tonight for the first time.

It's ROTLA sort of fun. A film worth seeing for the details. The sets are great fun, but Baldwin's suits are amazing.

 

[happyfilmluvguy]

For me, it had the same feeling of Dick Tracy, cheesy fun.

 

[The Wolf]

Oh yeah

There are a lot of fans of that movie in this group. I think it could have been one of those movies where the sequel would be better than the first. We still have Sam Raimi's version to look forward to.
I think The Shadow ranks up there with the Rocketeer and the Phantom.
Check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eGr5EBvxZI

Sincerely,
The Wolf

 

[Girl Friday]

I just recently caught the end of this movie, I had never seen it before. Very cool, of course I love comic books. And what a great Halloween costume that would be!

 

[Feraud]

I like this film and The Phantom!

 

[Gideon Ashe]

It Cranston Stupid,...............

There's a Hat thread on this movie, there's a jacket thread on this movie, but I don't find a movie thread on this movie.

Which I saw tonight for the first time.

It's ROTLA sort of fun. A film worth seeing for the details. The sets are great fun, but Baldwin's suits are amazing.

It's the Cranston stupid!!!
The film was fatally diseased with that marginal blob of shoe scraping; Alec Baldwin, whose great lard ass, is blessed with enough lack of talent for ten actors. His mere presence (and it was mere) dipped a poisoned needle into the vein of the entire project.
Just think if an actor would have been selected for the part of Lamont Cranston/The Shadow.
Think Val Kilmer.
Think Nick Cage.
Think John Barrowman.
Think a real actor.
Any real actor. There are so many.
But a New York theater fringe weasel like Alec Baldwin?
Not ghostly but ghastly.
I have tried to get behind the first twenty minutes of this cinema travesty at least five times. He (Baldwin) reminds me of and may have actually been separated at birth from Steven Segal. Except Baldwin cannot be credible in any action part, other than beleaguring or bangint about ex-wives, and I have seen Segal come close to actually acting once. Nothing I have ever observed from Tub o' Blubber Baldwin.
And,...now for a really critical commentary.

 

[Girl Friday]

I just thought the clothes were cool...

Alec is a lard-o for sure, and probably half wookie.

 

[scotrace]

Gideon, is this something you feel strongly about? lol

 

[dhermann1]

Come on Gideon, what do you really think? Myself, I liked him.
This is another film that blurs the line between live action and sort of animated comic booky, like Dick Tracy, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, etc. These are all films that MUST be see on the big screen.
Cheesy, like Cheese Doodles, but addictive.

 

[Gideon Ashe]

Gideon, is this something you feel strongly about? lol

lol lol lol lol
Yes.
I guess I do feel strongly about it.
You see, these "people"; Straight Arrow, Tenneesee Jed, Terry and the Pirates, The Lone Ranger, Red Ryder, Green Hornet, The Shadow, Don Winslow, Nick Carter, Jack Armstrong, Boston Blackie, Gangbusters, ALL of these "people" were real to me.
I lived with their successes against evil; against crime with their adventures emanating from a small glowing orange dial on the front of a huge wodden Stromberg Carlson radio, and I lived with their perils. Everyday.
When they were subject to fatal attack by evil forces it was not just a story to me.
I pictured each and every danger as if it were a danger to me.
I learned right and wrong from these fictional constructs, as much as I did from my family.
They (the fictional characters) were a moral guideline for me.
And for many of my contemporaries.
You know.
Truth, Justice and the American way.
One NEVER accept the actions of a dirty lowlife backshooter like Butch Cavendish; who would ambush a party of Texas Rangers and leave them for dead.

So when a film is made. A TV series launched. A stage production is put on, any alteration or diminuition from the pictures in my mind, placed there so many years ago is a personal insult.
I look for the character of the actors to approach that of the protagonists of the story that they portray.
Don't crap on MY heroes by being a dirtbag in your own life.
It insults me.
And IF you are a less than great human being, at least have the tact to be a competent actor.
That is the base acceptable position that I will accept without railing against piss poor performance.
Please. Indulge me.lol lol

 

[Edward]

I remember seeing it one Wednesday afternoon, comig up to Christmas - maybe november? - in 1994, when it was first released in the UK. I enjoyed it a lot. I've not seen it since - I'd like to see it again to compare now how well it has worn (or otherwise).

I'd expect the Raimi version to be better, but I'm some thing of a Raimi fan, so. Having seen Darkman, I'm certain Raimi can really do the noir tone of the Shadow's story justice. I'll be interested to see what the critics make of the story this time round - I'm sure at least a handful will write it off as a "poor Batman rip off." I remember the same thing when Judge Dredd was released (a flawed film, but it had its moments and it did some things very nicely from the old school Dredd fan POV). Most reviews damned it as a poor reip off of Robocop, ignoring the fact that it was actually Robocop which came long after Dredd appeared in print, and if anything was the rip off it was the robot-man who was the pale imitator. The influence of Dredd in a whole host of Sci Fi heroes and anti-heroes such as Robocop, the T-800, and so on is clear. Oh well!

 

[The Wolf]

Gideon, storywise, what did you think of the combining of elements from the pulp Shadow and the radio Shadow?

Sincerely,
The Wolf

 

[dostacos]

let me just say this about that

the scenes where the building appears is a vacant lot on 3rd street in downtown LA. the Houston street cafe and Barkley Hotel are on the other corner [where the Hero is standing] I think the cafe signs were for that movie, but stayed up and were in several other movies. At least one asteroid destroys the earth movies [the asteroid hits a New York street and a bus falls into the hole, that was also in the vacant lot. They actually dug up the parking lot and dropped the bus in the hole]

Same location was used for some of the street scenes in the beginning of Escape from LA.

the area doubles for New York all the time totally hosing my commute home:rage: lol lol

just a little useless trivia. and I liked the movie

 

[Gideon Ashe]

Gideon, storywise, what did you think of the combining of elements from the pulp Shadow and the radio Shadow?

Sincerely,
The Wolf

I must be honest with you. Even though I've tried to watch the film, my view of Alec Baldwin and his protrayal of Lamont Cranston was/is heavily colored and in a very negative hue. I felt the flying, nudging dagger was blatantly silly and insulting. It went steeply downhill from that point. That was about ten minutes or so into it.
The only believeable thing was the massive drugs use scene.
Baldwin looked quite at home there.
I began to tune out at about that ten minute or so mark. I was not counting. I was fidgeting. A LOT.
This was not MY Shadow. Mine was actually mysterious. Mine would scare the crap out of you with his voice. He did not screw around. He was someone not to be messed with. My Shadow was Not an overfed, oil based dillitante.

I have tried this film over and over at different times, and around the fifteen minute mark I am looking around the room. Straightening magazines, fiddling with my glasses, etc. It just bored the hell out of me, and left me pissed off that again, what seems to pass for producers of film these days are simply children with too much money and not enough art or passion in their soul.
They should have listened to radio shows of the Shadow and felt what he was. The retelling of the adventures of dramatic heros from Pulp, early radio or literary works are Not just a vehicle to earn boxoffice reciepts, but portraits of social heroes. Not a socialist heroes.

Because you can make a movie does not mean that you should, IF you cannot do it well. Mediocrity is not an acceptable benchmark of accomplishment.

Strongly worded opinion to follow.lol lol lol lol lol
(Laughing at myself, for taking myself seriously about a not too serious subject, when no one else does )

 

[Scuffy]

I honestly have to say that I do like the movie. If for any reason it would just be the period and the sets/costumes. Baldwin I'm fairly neutral in my opinions. I think that he could be a much better actor, or a much better actor could have been chosen but on the same token seeing him or hearing him doesn't quite invoke the feeling I get with nails down a chalkboard. I dunno. I look at it for what it is and has been stated as- a slightly cheesy, modern approach to something most people in this day in age would not know of. As a movie in and of itself it's damn decent.

I guess I look at it like most but not all remakes or new takes on old stories/movies. I'm very much of the frame of mind that the older are better. Especially when it comes to westerns. Compare any of Sergio Leone's westerns to anything made in the past 20 years and the newer pale by comparison. Actors look made up nowadays where before you could almost believe that they were the characters they portrayed, really in the situation. Grit and sweat were real.

Trying to pare this down into a small fluid post is hard so I won't step too high on my soapbox!

 

[BellyTank]

I would Pigeon-hole N. Cage and V. Kilmer in the collection
of marginals which I can't really accept as "actors"- but Cage has
been in some great films, at least.
Now I need to see the film.


B
T

 

[Absinthe_1900]

If they can't get the Shadow's laugh done right, how can they get anything else right? :rage:

 

[Julian]

We still have Sam Raimi's version to look forward to.

Really? I hadn't heard about this. Cool!

 

[The Wingnut]

I enjoyed the movie considerably. I went into it blind, not knowing what to expect...having only heard the radio series' tagline, I knew it was a 'good guy vigilante in a dark outfit' plot.

It was well-done, a bit cartoony / comic book in its drama, but had some great moments('Well, wouldja lookit that...I'm outta gas. Thanks, pal.' 'Must be my lucky day....'). I liked the special effects execution. Not entirely overdone, just enough to get the point across.

I've railed on Baldwin here before(and got flamed in return). I've no liking for the man, despite how well-dressed he might be. His personal conduct is despicable. One of Pearl Harbor's many flaws was the horrendous mis-casting of a man of Baldwin's ilk in the shoes of the humble, likable Jimmy Doolittle. People with no prior or future knowledge of Jimmy Doolittle will know him as a loud, foul-mouthed pompous cookie cutter military officer, instead of the sterling aviation pioneer and humble leader that he was. Baldwin did no research on his role or completely ignored what he knew about Doolittle...which garners no respect from me whatsoever.

...on the other hand, the Shadow's protagonist actually worked with Baldwin's style. Slimy, cocky, self-indulgent....the difference being that these traits landed the Shadow in his crimefighter role as penance.

 

[Blackjack]

I thought it was very well done and atmospheric. Baldwin may have put on the pounds as he got older but he's far from fat in the Shadow. Quite the opposite, I thought he was in good shape. Grant it the movie has it's tounge planted firmly in it's cheek, but I still say Baldwin did the role justice. When is the release date on the new one???