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'I'm Batman. No wait, I'm the original opening for Army of Darkness.'
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'Damn you all! Damn you all to--oh wait. Wrong movie.'
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The Army of Darkness DVD Limited Edition
What can you fit on two DVDs that you can't fit on one? Plenty, as it turns out.
October 15, 1999
"Klaatu Barata Nikto." More classic words were never spoken. Originally spoken by Klaatu, a space alien from the 1951 film The Day the Earth Stood Still, Sam Raimi ripped them off and turned them into the magic words used to disable the Necronomicon's warding mechanisms in the crown jewel of the Evil Dead series, Army of Darkness. While we should've been offended, Bruce Campbell's shenanigans over forgetting the words and subsequent fight with the suddenly hungry mystic book made us forgive him quickly.
While Sam Raimi has gone on to do better things, like Hercules, Xena, and A Simple Plan, AOD shows Raimi and Bruce Campbell at their most zany and energetic, on the border between low-budget horror and glossier, safer fare. Its crazy humor and slanted look at the Middle Ages is incredibly effective, and is a righteous classic for anybody's collection, so it's with great pleasure to see the limited edition Army of Darkness collection arrive with so many cool features it could only fit on 2 DVDs.
On Disc 1, you get two versions of the movie (widescreen and standard TV size), plus the trailer, the original ending (which does Planet of the Apes by way of Rip Van Winkle), bios, and a great 20-minute documentary on the creation of the Deadite army. The picture quality's excellent, and the extras are great, too. Extras like the original ending help show how much work goes into figuring out what works and what doesn't in a movie, and while it could've been effective, the S-Mart is much, much cooler.
Disc 2 is even better. It has a widescreen version with optional audio commentary by Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, and Ivan Raimi, which is much more interesting and significant that the audio commentaries on, say, The Matrix. Also, it's got 15 minutes of additional footage, and four deleted scenes, one of which is the original opening for the movie, which is incredibly bad, and you see why it got cut out. And, to top it all off, you receive a handsome set of director's storyboards.
All in all, it's one of the most thorough DVD sets in existence. The only bad thing about it is the price (about $45 retail), and the desire it creates to see Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell do one more Evil Dead before either gets too old.
A Few Clips
Is Bruce Campbell better in the Evil Dead movies or on Xena? E-mail us at letters@dailysci-fi.com and give us your two cents.
To see what other people are saying about Army of Darkness, check out the letters.
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