MovieChat Forums > The Shadow (1994) Discussion > WHY so underrated???

WHY so underrated???

posted 12 years ago by LaPfieffer92
13 replies | jump to latest

This is seriously one of the best superhero movies. the shadows been around longer then many comic book heroes including batman and superman. and the movie i think did very good justice to the shadow legend. im glad they arent going to do a stupid remake or reboot, because they could never top the brilliance of this film. some say its cheesy or whatnot. i dare you to name a superhero movie that ISNT cheesy in some way. so thats a stupid complaint. its got a great score by jerry goldsmith, almost enough to rival elfmans Batman theme, and hs a unique hero with unique abilities. cmon, how many other superheros are out there who dress in a red scarf with black fedora and cape, can make themselves invisible, can change your thoughts and read your mind? all while look kickass with 2 twin silver pistols with agents all over the world working for him his own personal taxi?

Realism, Remakes and Unnecessary Sequels are ruining movies!

[–] visualflare89 12 years ago

Actually saw this last night, and I must agree it's underrated. Good performances by those involved, great production design and score. However it seems that it was trying to copy those that came before it, notably Batman and Dick Tracy. We should have seen more of The Shadow in action and a fleshing out of the plot a bit more. Other than that, it's a fun ride and they are indeed going to do a remake, I believe it will be produced by Michael Uslan, the Godfather of the Batman films.

Let's hope it's good.

[–] LaPfieffer92 12 years ago

i havent heard anything about a remake. but if there is one in the works, well i doubt i will see it. judgeing from all the remakes/reboots the recently like batman, judge dredd, james bond, robocop, total recall, etc etc, my faith in hollywood to mke even a decent movie is shattered.

Realism, Remakes and Unnecessary Sequels are ruining movies!

[–] Cold_In_Space 12 years ago

I really can't understand why people would vote this a 5. It's a solid 8.5/10 for me

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[–] lotsofevil 12 years ago

I think it comes off to some people as cheesy. I don't know how Dick Tracy did so well other than that it had some major stars in it and this had solely Alec Baldwin (Penelope Ann Miller wasn't a huge name).

This movie succeeds in a way that Tim Burton's Batman did not, it takes the surreal art deco, classic noir look of radio land New York and makes it come to life. The effects are smooth and not distracting, save for one or two instances. There's an obvious yet purposefully silly sense of humor throughout. I think a lot of this is aimed for audiences who were fans of The Shadow and classic radio/comic style, rather than for modern audiences. The puns, the costumes, the cinematography, the story are all atuned to older viewers who probably wouldn't watch this because it seems aimed for adolescents and young men.

I think the movie is fantastic. You have to realize it's very tongue in cheek but from there it's really easy to enjoy.

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[–] anousleshommes 12 years ago

some of the humour is drop down hilarious hilarious. When she's coming down the stairs in the morning after nursing him, the butler is coming up wiv her breakfast. She goes past shouting good morning and he makes a u turn to follow her downstairs. After dinner wiv his uncle which has been interrupted by her, he makes for the door, she follows and then she shouts his name and he tries to hypnotise her but it doesn't work and it's a riot. And the scientist being poked in the head by his former resentful voracious rapacious assistant. hilarious.

[–] LaPfieffer92 12 years ago

the movie also had tim curry, how can you not love tim curry in this? haha.

Realism, Remakes and Unnecessary Sequels are ruining movies!

[–] The_Blu_Ray_Penguin 12 years ago

I think It is underrated for a 1994 superhero film. In my opinion it is somewhat of a precursor style and atmosphere-wise to The Dark Knight. It has revolutionary camera angles for its time, something most ppl dont even seem to notice. It has quality humor along with genuine dark moments (again, for a 1994 film). Also has well timed and brooding music that unlike most comic/hero films of the 80s n early 90s never got cheesy or overbearing. I could go on but I tend to study the technical side of film presentation more than some so I notice these things and find value in them. The films makers evidently did care about this project. I wonder if Chris Nolan is a fan of this film. I think sincerely that TDK has much more in common with this than Burton's Batman. Besides them both being about Batman of course.

[–] war-path 11 years ago

i dare you to name a superhero movie that ISNT cheesy in some way.

BLADE (1998) and the Crow (1994) primarily and The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) and The Batman trilogy movies by Chris NO-lan.

[–] bond_98 11 years ago

Oh Come on. The Amazing Spider-man was Emo City. And you are really going to tell me the scene where he's acting like an idiot in front of the cops wasn't cringworthy. And as Good as the Nolan movies where there was some cheesy lines. Like "No More Dead Cops", "Nice Coat" and finally "you either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain"

[–] war-path 11 years ago

The Amazing Spider-man was Emo City.

Oh and Sam Raimi's Spider-Man movies weren't? Amazing Spider-Man wasn't emo at all.

And you are really going to tell me the scene where he's acting like an idiot in front of the cops wasn't cringworthy.

The movie wasn't cringeworthy. I'm not exactly sure which you scene you are talking about, but I have a feeling you don't know a damn thing about Spider-Man. What I found cringeworthy was Sam Raimi's Spider-Man movies, though.

And as Good as the Nolan movies where there was some cheesy lines. Like "No More Dead Cops", "Nice Coat" and finally "you either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain"

I never liked NO-lan's take on Batman as much, but I found it to be very dark without any cheese really. Just cuz it had stupid lines like "He's flying on rooftops!", "I didn't sign up for this!" "Is that a bazooka?!??" and some dry humor, doesn't really make these Batman movies cheesy. There was certainly nothing cheesy about "You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain." It was terrific and true.

[–] karsultimate 10 years ago

I might need to watch The Crow again and see if there was any cheesiness, mostly from, I would think, the kid. It was so much more of a profound mindfuq though.

[–] war-path 10 years ago

I might need to watch The Crow again

Since it's been 20 years that the movie came out, please do watch it again.

and see if there was any cheesiness, mostly from, I would think, the kid.

I don't think there was anything cheesy about the scenes with the young girl Sarah. She helped give the scenes with Eric Draven a lot of depth and emotion. Very deep scenes. She was also a badass kid, so yeah, nothing cheesy coming from her. I would say that anything close to cheesy would be the over the top humor from some of the villains and even a ridiculous moment between some cops on patrol initiating a high speed chase.

It was so much more of a profound mindfuq though.

How?

[–] boatlandmore 10 years ago

I don't think it did well because of a general lack of familiarity among the public with the Shadow. He never got the continued exposure after the old media stopped. Most of your more popular super heros were reinvented through the 60's & 70's on TV or in the movies, for better or worse, but at least they were in the public eye. Unless you were a fan of the Shadow & the genre of pulp fiction noir type characters, you wouldn't really need to see this. I'm not sure they marketed it well at the time either because it seems like, if you read about it now, this film found a new life on home video once people started to see how really good it actually was.