Listen up you primitive screwheads, THIS is movie-making!

Rating: 10/10 (18 June 2010)

If they'd put Sam Raimi in charge of the banks there wouldn't be any recession, because what he manages to do with a small budget is absolutely remarkable. Charm and good humour seep from every frame of this glorious film, a pitch-perfect mix of action, humour and horror that beats the crap out of the pretentious, overblown Lord of the Rings trilogy in my book.
Watching it again for the first time in about ten years, what is immediately striking about Bruce Campbell's performance is the sheer energy he gives it. Plenty of the fight scenes consist of one long shot where he is running, jumping and doing backward rolls (!) as he indulges in swordplay with the Deadites - a wonderful Harryhausen tribute that plays out as a loving homage rather than a cheeky steal. For my money the 'store ending' provides a far better ending to the trilogy than the downbeat, 'future' one, the immortal line "hail to the king baby" being one final, punch-the-air moment in a movie full of them.
Three cheers for everyone involved in this triumph! I still think they should have called it 'The Medieval Dead' though ...