Dave from Ottawa A nebbishy guy is on the run from the cops after a couple of hit men frame him for their wild crime spree in this dark and quite funny action comedy from early in the careers of the Coen Brothers. I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. The plotting is sharp and inventive, and the action is fast moving, with Brion James and Paul L. Smith stealing the movie as the hit men. The two young lovers who get inadvertently caught up in the intrigue are more off-the-rack as characters and thus less interesting than their antagonists, but then again, the villains always get the best material. Everything in the movie has a slightly amber hue. I'm guessing that this was meant to suggest the yellowing pages of an old pulp novel. Certainly, that is what is being both constructed here and spoofed at the same time: Pepsodent clean good guy / good girl couple in over their heads, nasty villains driving the unrelenting action, sudden violence erupting out of nowhere. It's all pretty entertaining.

Scarecrow-88 The story of a nerdy loser with a heart of gold, Vic(Reed Birney)who yearns for the beautiful tenant, Nancy(Sheree J Wilson) who lives in the apartment complex he works in. The film allows Vic to tell his story of his innocence as security guards walk him to the dreaded electric chair. The film shows two demented exterminators(..who kill anything)hired to kill a businessman who signed away a company to a "heel" named Renaldo(Bruce Campbell), by his disgruntled partner who wasn't told of the sell. The murder, using "current juice" from an over charged battery, sets off a chain of crazy events soon involving Nancy and Vic.Zany madcap lunacy, completely over-the-top, delivered in-your-face as only director Sam Raimi can. There's one thing CRIMEWAVE ain't and that's subtle. When I read that the Coens had assisted Raimi in writing CRIMEWAVE, it didn't surprise me because their work often features a marriage of black humor, violence, and eccentric characters...most often set within a noirish setting. While CRIMEWAVE doesn't feature the kind of violence one is accustomed to in a Coens' picture(..or are the characters this animated), there are touches that remind us of their films. If you approach this in the right frame of mind(..as if you were watching a full-length live action loony toons cartoon using human characters), I think CRIMEWAVE might just entertain you. Others beware. The cast just flung themselves into their roles, going with the material.Paul L Smith(POPEYE)steals the film as the gargantuan Coddish, ripping doors off their hinges as he chases after Helen Trend(Louise Lasser;BANANAS), even at one point pulling her entire living room by the carpet towards him to nab her. Helen, who kept nagging at her husband Ernest(Edward R Pressman)to see what happened in his store across the street, discovers Coddish carrying a body to his car, with the chase to get her ensuing. Brion James, in a completely off-the-wall performance(..as you've never seen him before)is the squeaky voiced partner of Coddish, Faron Crush. Wilson(..known primarily for her television work on DALLAS & WALKER, Texas RANGER)has a key supporting role as the lovely object of desire for Vic. Bruce Campbell is up to his old tricks as a very confident(..and very brash), but very cheap and sleazy, businessman who uses his underhanded tricks to gain the contract of the company which started the series of events that transpire throughout the movie. The sound effects, music, facial expressions, camera work, car chase, human violence, and dialogue all established in an unrestrained manner..as often described, CRIMEWAVE is pure slapstick, made with a disregard for realism.

pvanhecke It is so strange how some films never seem to catch the attention of either the public or the critics. Most would rightly assume the reason being the lack of quality of the film in question, which is indeed often the case. But not so with 'Crimewave', at least not as far as I am concerned.This film is so far out that most people never ever venture there and never will. There is scarcely anything normal about this film: even other Coen products pale into normality compared to it. And this is precisely the film's attractiveness. The situations, characters, dialogues and overall cinematographic language is absolutely unique. I cannot compare Crimewave with any other film out there, and I've seen thousands. Cartoonesque, surreal, utterly stupid, screamingly funny because not trying to be, the film boasts attributes I have not really encountered anywhere else, at least not in just the one film. Tex Avery cartoons may at times spring to mind, as may some films by French director George Lautner, or Bogdanovich' screamingly funny 'What's Up, Doc?' ... oh, and of course the equally terrific over the top romp 'Raising Arizona'!Acting as well is so totally over the top that even just trying to take it serious, merely results in total incomprehension on the part of the utterly bewildered and bemused viewer. This film is totally about style inasmuch as even its substance is style.The incredibly unreal atmosphere the film exudes is - apart from the aspects already mentioned - also due to the lavish use of alienatingly oversaturated colours: they marvellously complement the overall strangeness of the film.I have seen this film dozens of times and have never had any cinematic blinkers on me and I still get warped and thrilled out of my human, mainly logical mind by everything this jewel of a film can and does throw at me, time and time again.Approach it for yourself without prejudice, constraint or any other preconceived notion of what a film can, must, could or should be and simply enjoy 80 minutes of marvel!

Michael DeZubiria I recently read Bruce Campbell's highly entertaining and informative first book, If Chins Could Kill, which served to instill within me a heightened interest in seeing his more obscure roles over the years, other than his role as Ash in the Evil Dead films, some of my favorite horror films of all time (as well as some of my favorite horror performances). In attempting to check out some of those movies that I had never seen, I watched Crimewave which, being the honest man that he is, Campbell came right out in his book and said that no matter how you slice it, the film is a dog and everyone involved should line up for their forty whacks. And he wasn't kidding. Wow.One flaw that permeates the entire film is a nonstop barrage of stupid, badly dubbed sound effects that don't belong and don't work. They are the kind of sound effects that belong in Bugs Bunny cartoons, like gunshot sounds when someone makes a witty remark. Bruce plays the role of Renaldo the Heel who, given the feeble plot, need not be described as anything more than some jerk. The villains in this film are absolutely ludicrous, they are some of the worst bad movie performances I've ever seen.Remember that bully that roughed up Charlie Chaplin in Easy Street? He was completely overblown and exaggerated in every way because he was acting in a silent film in 1917, which explained his bizarre mannerisms and movements and behavior. In this movie, they took that exact villain and gave him a voice. Just as overblown and exaggerated, except now he talks like he acts and just comes off as goofy. His sidekick is even worse.The weirdest thing about this movie is the talent that was involved in it's production. It was written by the Coen brothers and directed by Sam Raimi, and starred, to some extent, Bruce Campbell who, b-movie virus or not, has a huge cult following. Unfortunately he was right, this movie is just a disaster, and I can understand why Bruce described this as their first taste of real failure. Keep your eye out for two jerks in the ballroom scene smugly sipping martinis. During production of the film, these two guys all but extorted $30,000 from the production team for the use of the ballroom, and demanded as an added bonus that they get to appear in the movie. Can you imagine that someone spent $30,000 just for a location for this movie??Before I go, let me just say that I have all the respect in the world for the people involved in making the movie. Some things just don't work out, and this was one of them. Some of the performances are just unforgivable, but I actually think that Bruce performed well, the problem is that his character is badly written. He was asked to act stupidly, but at least he did a good job of it! Too bad the story is virtually unintelligible