Movies: The Crow: City of Angels
Television: Flash Gordon
Anime: Armored Trooper VOTOMS

Can The Crow fly a second time?

Our pick:
1 2 3 4 5

• The Crow: City of Angels
• Rated R
• Starring Vincent Perez, Mia Kirshner
• 80 minutes

he streets of Los Angeles are ruled by Judah (Richard Brooks), a self-imposed king who decides who will live and who will die. He lives above the city in a skyscraper, running the lives of both the victims and criminals below. Drugs and sex are all that matters in the City of Angels, and he is the provider of both.

Sarah (Kirshner) is a beautiful tattoo artist who dreams about the violent murder of a man called Ashe (Perez) and his young son. Her dreams tell her this man will come back, led by a crow, to avenge his son's death. Through the dreams she finds Ashe and takes him in.

Ashe is devastated by his son's murder and confused about the reason he's been brought back from the dead. As he realizes that he cannot be hurt or killed, he also begins to remember those who destroyed his life. One by one Ashe begins to hunt them down, returning violence for violence. However, Judah knows death is coming and sets out to stop Ashe.

The Crow: City of Angels is a sequel to 1994's The Crow, which starred Brandon Lee (who was killed during filming). Both films are based on the comic book character created by James O. Barr. The first film offered a visual feast mixed with violence, a sense of humor and -- most of all -- the powerful screen presence of Lee. The sequel, however, is a essentially a remake that offers nothing new and waters down the first film's original vision.

Director Tim Pope comes from a music video background, and that is evidenced by a film that is visually stunning. However, City of Angels also carries with it the emptiness of most videos. The only star in City of Angels is its visual richness, but even that is undermined by overwhelming religious symbols and crow images.

French actor Perez can't possibly live up to Lee's strong performance in the first film, or to the drama created by Lee's accidental death. Even if he could get past that, the new film's makers sink any chance he has by giving him badly-written dialogue.

In fact, none of the actors have much to work with in this script, making it impossible for any chemistry to develop. Kirshner plays Sarah, the only link from the first film. However, since Sarah is played by a different actress, this connection never holds and she ends up looking sad and empty. Brooks as Judah has the potential to make an interesting screen villain, but his character is never brought to life. Of the rest of the actors, only Iggy Pop (Curve) turns in an interesting performance.

If you've seen The Crow, don't waste your money on this weak remake/sequel. If you haven't seen the original, rent it. You'll have a better time and get a glimpse of the promise Brandon Lee's last performance held. -- Kathie

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Mongo 90210

Our pick:
1 2 3 4 5

• Flash Gordon
• From Hearst Entertainment
• Syndicated cartoon
• 26 half-hour episodes
• Starts the week of Sept. 9
  (check local listings)

lex Raymond's timeless Flash Gordon, a watershed event in the history of comics for its bold, heroic imagery and mythic overtones, has been "updated for the '90s."

Here's the new, cutting-edge premise: With parents in the space program, Flash Gordon and Dale Arden are two skateboarding, video game-playing army brats -- teenage rebels without a cause, until they are mistakenly kidnapped by a cowardly, ponytailed Dr. Zarkov. Dr. Z, as he is called by the teen heroes, is fleeing the doomed planet Earth, which is under attack by Ming, a reptilian conqueror. The trio get sucked through a black hole and find their cause on Mongo, a planet in the process of being ravaged by Ming the Merciless. Coming-of-age on Mongo, the teenagers rail against authority with their royal teen buddies, Princess Thundar, a stand-in for Raymond's Prince Thun the Lion Man, and Prince Talon, son of King Vultan of the Hawk People, who's parents toe Ming's party line.

Some familiar elements from the original strip are intact: Ming's daughter, Princess Aura, has the hots for Flash; Prince Barin of Arboria does make an appearance in one episode; and there are Shark People. Other elements have been softened: The epic romance between Flash and Dale has been reduced to immature flirting; and the Tournament of Death gets replaced by the Mongonian Aerial Games.

Flash Gordon purists, try to remain calm.

With so many screen adaptations of Flash Gordon out there, can the producers be blamed for wanting to do something different? No. But they can be blamed for arrogantly trivializing a science fiction icon through uninteresting alterations, pitiful design and cheap production.

David Corbett and executive script editors Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens previously concocted the brilliant comic-strip update Phantom 2040. That show was rich in subtext and talent (picture an animated Babylon 5 with star voices and Peter "Aeon Flux" Chung).

This time out, their concept is more in the grand tradition of the Flintstones Kids. Corbett's idea of "relevance" is making Flash a hero that's a hip, flip teenager. That was only a fresh concept in 1963, when Stan Lee thought of it. Flash Gordon stripped of class is like Superman without his big red "S" -- unrecognizable. And then there's the new concept of "Team Flash" -- fighting for right, but also having a good time. Here there is a rebelliousness born of youth rather than suffering, with no moral weight.

Admittedly, this is a show for kids. Taken on its own terms, it's not a travesty -- merely a characterless trifle, marginally bolstered by a nice toy line from Playmates. But in the bigger picture, there's cause for alarm. Over the last six decades Flash Gordon has been an early entry point for many a science fiction fan. The next generation deserves better.

We have reached a new low in cultural amnesia when Flash Gordon is inspired by Luke Skywalker, instead of the other way around. -- Chris

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A good start ... but for what?

Our pick:
1 2 3 4 5

• Armored Trooper VOTOMS
  Stage 1, Uoodo City
• U.S. Manga Corps
• Subtitled, $24.95
• Volume I, 72 minutes
• U.S. Release, September 1996

hirico Cuvie is a teenage soldier whose world consists entirely of enemies. Drawn into a wearying space war between star systems that don't remember why they're fighting, he somehow finds himself dragged along on a highly suspicious raid on a military base. His team's goal: a huge pile of gold ingots and a beautiful, hairless, nude woman in a mysterious coffin-like pod.

Chirico's smart enough to realize that his unit's invading one of their own bases and stealing from their own military, but he's not smart enough to keep his mouth shut about it. When he asks too many questions, his division detonates the base and leaves him for dead. Captured, revived, interrogated and brutally tortured by a second faction of his own army, Chirico escapes and makes his way back to his home planet with the army in hot pursuit.

On his homeworld he finds that three-fourths of the population is dead and the rest are suffering more from local tyrants than from the ravages of interstellar war. Chirico winds up in Uoodo City, enslaved by a crime syndicate that, backed by a corrupt police force, rules the area unchallenged.

By this time Chirico's an old hand at the escape-artist routine, and he quickly ditches the slavers and sets to work restoring a wrecked battle suit. With both the military and the syndicate after his hide, he's certainly going to need all the firepower he can get.

Armored Trooper VOTOMS is a series with lots of potential, mainly since the first three episodes accomplish so little. Momentous things are happening in Chirico's universe, but he's a supremely robotic part of the action, stumbling blankly and silently from battle to battle. As the tape ends, it's entirely unclear whether he's looking for revenge, peace and quiet, or just a date with the nude babe-in-a-jar. Despite everything going on around him, he's a pretty dull character.

Nor are any of the other people in the universe much help -- with the exception of a few mercenary friendlies at the town dump, the characters are as stiff and simple as the series' dated TV-style animation. With this much fighting going on, surely someone could get excited about it.

Failing that, a specific direction for the plot would be nice. From the renegade armored division to the woman they steal to the cold-hearted captain in charge of Chirico's torture, the series keeps presenting interesting ideas, then abandoning them in mid-thought.

Still, there's a lot more Armored Trooper VOTOMS to come from U.S. Manga Corps, and this is obviously an ambitious and large-scale series. Now that Chirico's got his feet on the ground and his body in a serious weapon, it's likely that the plot's going to swing into high gear. Maybe he'll even crack a smile somewhere along the line.

Reminded me a lot of Dancougar a few weeks back, except that the stars of Dancougar had personality coming out of their ears. Chirico, by contrast, is as charismatic as a lead carving of Clint Eastwood. -- Tasha

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