Bones, Books, and Campbell

Rating: 6/10 (2 March 2008)

Highly enjoyable, fairly mindless, funny addition to Sam Raimi's Evil Dead series - the third and last installment and easily the best and most engaging of the three as well. Bruce Campbell is back with a slightly different character motivation and past, but Campbell relies on his quick reflexes, both physical and mental, that made him famous in the first two Evil Dead movies as Ash and kicks it up not just a notch but three or four. Here he is obviously parodizing his character and those of adventure/horror films of the era. He is a walking one-liner amidst hokey plot contrivances, imaginative special effects(for its time bear in mind), and some pretty mediocre acting talents. But none of that really matters because Campbell and Raimi are out to make you laugh and Army of Darkness is no more a horror film than Fatal Attraction is a romantic comedy. Raimi is agile and adroit with the camera and innovative. I really liked the walking skeletons in the battle scenes, and Raimi gives them ludicrous lines to say to make sure no one confuses this with anything more than what it is intended to be. Campbell shines as he always does as a bigger-than-life persona with lots of comedic ability. The scene with the books was a real hoot as were his multiple fights with various demons. Though part of the Evil Dead series, this really has virtually nothing to do with the other two except for some names that are the same and some plot elements that allow Campbell to run, shout, contort himself in most amusing ways.