The Crow: City of Angels

Plot synopsis:
The film is set in Los Angeles, where drug kingpin Judah Earl (Richard Brooks) has mechanic Ashe Corven (Vincent Pérez) and his eight-year-old son Danny (Eric Acosta) killed after they witness a gang of Judah's thugs murdering a fellow drug dealer.
Sarah from the first film (Mia Kirshner) is now an adult, working in a tattoo parlor by day, and painting surreal images of death and resurrection in her apartment at night. She is haunted by disturbing dreams about Ashe and Danny, and after a day's work in the tattoo parlor, Sarah is visited in her apartment by a large crow as she contemplates a ring that Eric Draven gave her years before.
Sarah follows the crow to the harbor at night on All Saints' Day, and witnesses Ashe's resurrection and frantic escape from his watery grave. She takes him to her apartment. When Sarah tells Ashe he is dead, he panics and runs screaming into the night, ending up at his own home, where he relives the final moments of his life.
Sarah arrives there to find Ashe brooding, and she explains to him why he has been resurrected by the Crow so he can take revenge against the criminals who killed him and Danny. With the guidance of the crow, Ashe starts killing Judah's henchmen, one by one. Ashe first visits Spider-Monkey (Vincent Castellanos) in a drug warehouse and interrogates him as to who else was involved in the murders. Ashe then kills him by blowing up the building. Another of Judah's lackeys, Nemo (Thomas Jane), is spending the night at a peeping booth. Ashe appears in the booth, kills him, and leaves him with a doll stuffed in his pants, and a paper crow in his mouth.
Judah has in his employ a blind prophetess named Sybil (Tracey Ellis) who is able to ascertain Ashe's link to Sarah and to the crow that is the source of his powers. Judah captures Sarah in order to draw Ashe to him and steal his power.
One of the murderers, Kali (Thuy Trang), goes to Sarah's apartment to draw Ashe out. While battling her, Ashe realizes that Kali is the one who killed Danny; enraged, he throws her against a wall that breaks her leg, and then out a window, leaving a crow-shaped blood pattern. Ashe then pursues Judah's right-hand-man, Curve (Iggy Pop), in a motorcycle chase. Ashe shoots Curve's motorcycle, which blows up and throws Curve onto the road. Ashe then drags Curve into the nearby river, leaving him to die as local parishioners cast down flower petals in the shape of a crow.
On the day of the annual Day of the Dead festival. Judah captures the crow and impales its wings with knives before killing it. He then ingests the crow's blood, stealing Ashe's power. Suddenly mortal, Ashe nearly dies from the shock, but is revived after seeing a vision of Danny telling him to keep fighting. Ashe must now attempt to rescue Sarah by seeking out Judah in his lair, an abandoned church. Judah gets the best of the weakened Ashe in the ensuing fight. Judah ties a rope around Ashe and savagely whips him, intending to hang him.
Sarah rushes up and stabs Judah in the forehead, causing Judah to drop Ashe. Judah pulls out the knife and starts moving toward Ashe. Sarah gets in the way, and Judah stabs her in the stomach. Ashe gets up and impales Judah on a metal pipe, but this does not kill Judah either. While Judah is still impaled, Ashe calls upon a murder of crows, which devour Judah. Sarah dies in Ashe's arms, a tableau reminiscent of a painting she had completed earlier in the film. Ashe returns to death, knowing that he can rest in peace with Sarah, and his son.

Tags: comedy, gothic, murder, neo noir, paranormal, cult, violence, flashback, good versus evil, insanity, romantic, revenge, sadist

Review:
The film is absolutely beautiful, but if you're one of those closed-minded fans who only like The Crow because of Brandon Lee, you will never give this sequel a chance to prove its self that it could be just as good as the original.The storyline is a good one.
I like Brandon Lee better, but Perez manages to give a good performance of a man who contemplates what exactly to do with the second chance he's been given.
The Characters are different, The actors are different, the villains are different and technically the story is different, for in the first movie, It's Eric Draven's Fiancée that gets murdered and the "sequel", It's Ashe's SON that get's murdered.O.K. maybe i'm wrong, it more likely is a sequel.
But it's not a sequel to the first crow film, it does not follow the same story, it's about a completely different person.The message I'm trying to get through to you is: "Stop thinking of it as a sequel.
while you can't continue the exploits of the eric draven, it brings back sarah from the first movie and continues the story of the crow granting a victim a chance to make things right.
The film manages to be watchable; the apocalyptic cityscapes work quite well, however a maker of music videos directs CROW  CITY OF ANGELS and it shows in every frame.
And just a look into the girl's eyes takes you into a whole new perspective on things.The Crow: City of Angels makes a dark movie beautiful.
This is one of my favorites; i haven't seen Vincent Perez and Mia performance until this movie, i think their expressions are strong, they transmit the sadness of his character in a very convincing way, the villain are extravagant but i found Iggy's Pop character the best, I from México, and i particular like the way the director present the dead's altar and the way the woman described how we deal with dead and grieve, Mia looks gorgeous in this movie.
Yep. The movie was great and it's in the third place.First of all, Vincent Perez did was really great and he did with his best to play as the Crow.Second, my favorite actress of childhood who used to be as Trini, the original Yellow Ranger in 'Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.' I was very sad that Thuy Trang died in 2001.Anyways, Thuy did really good job in this film.
I give this film max marks man, I'm a massive fan of the original "The Crow" and like the last person said it is best to watch this film as a separate movie.At first i didn't and i was angry they thought they could rip the hell out the original and then i stopped myself and just gave it a chance, once i realised its about a different character altogether i did see it as a different film altogether and liked it enough to keep watching it and repeat watching it a few times might i add.This film is very well made, love the acting love the scenes love the style of it, everything, its dark and seductive to watch, you get sucked in to it well once you treat it like a separate film.brilliant watch, if you haven't seen it, its a must see!
Against the macabre backdrop of the traditional Day of the Dead celebration, "The Crow: City of Angels" tells a new chapter in the gothic urban mythology of Love transcending Death.Creating an all-new incarnation of the brooding dark hero--the victim of urban violence returned to the living world to exact personal justice--Vincent Perez portrays Ashe, the young man who emerges from the night of his own horrific murder with the mysterious powers of the Crow.He returns to seek out and destroy the most savage criminals in a surrealistic city of preponderant evil.
The film is not a sequel as it has totally new story and characters, and only similarity to Alex Proyas' original seems to be the revenging dead guided by a crow.
It is great that there are still those visual elements and angel like Mia that keep the film together and made it possible to watch without falling asleep.The tone of the film is pretty depressing as this tries to be as rough and violent as possible, but still I think the first film is far more impressive.
Considering the tragic death of actor Brandon Lee during an on-set accident didn't stop Hollywood from completing the original Crow film, it shouldn't come as a big surprise that the premise quickly got exploited even further with a couple of (very inferior) sequels.
The best story elements are simply copied from the original film (such as the big boss' spiritual sidekick and even the entire capture-the-crow finale) and the acting performances all are far below average.
I read a comment that said "The Crow - City Of Angels" was nothing like the original masterpiece, they could not be more wrong, it was a shameless scam of "The Crow" for example the dark setting of the movie, the make-up on the wanna-be Brandon Lee, and even the character name "Sarah".
This extremely unfocused and soulless sequel opened the floodgates for the Crow franchise and more family-orientated versions, in the same way that the Robocop franchise disappeared down the toilet.Not a huge amount of sense nor drive about the narrative, this version has been over-edited so it's often confusing what is going on, big holes in character motivation, you end up not caring about any of the characters.Whereas the first film conjured up a magnificent air of Gothic gloom, this one just isn't nasty enough, and that's how revenge thrillers work - you need to know how bad the bad guys are and how horribly the hero has been wronged to care about his mission to avenge himself and take some pleasure when he ices a bad guy.
This movie does not continue from the first Crow, it's has it's own individual storyline and shows that love does not have to be between a man and his girlfriend/fiancé, but for anyone that you hold close.Although the accent of Vincent Perez made his lines a little hard to understand, he delivered a passionate performance as Ashe Corven, during his quest for revenge after the wrongful death of himself, and his young son.The plot moved a little fast, but was very effective in showing many emotions held by a man driven by revenge and a city, lost in it's own madness.I enjoyed this movie, and I hope anyone lucky enough to see it will as well..
While not as good as it could have been, it is still pretty enjoyable.Story: The film begins in post-apocalyptic Los Angeles, with a grown up Sarah, who as you may recall, is the little girl from the original.
Almost all the villain characters snort the coke-like drug, Trinity.Overall: The Crow: City of Angels was a decent sequel, and really excelled in some ares, although it failed in others.
I think that this movie is really great.I'm whole into Gothic movies and "The Crow:City of Angels" is just the perfect film for my taste.Mia played just wonderful,and she is a natural.Also,she is so cute!And incredibly BEAUTIFUL!!!Well I'm 16 and I'm into girls,what would you expect,Mia is perfect!if anyone'll argue,I will find you,hunt you down,torture you and kill you...OK?I don't care...,I warned you...Anyway,let's leave the what am gonna do to someone who's gonna tell TESL 'bout Mia.I have seen all the three movies("The Crow")and I honestly can't tell which is the best,'cause they're all so cool!But I will say this one,because Brandon rocks!And his performance is really amazing(Mia's too)and also I choose this film for one more reason.Guess which one,Mia is in it!Ithink I've got something like three more lines left to write,so that is what I am doing right now...Just filling in up 'till the end and the funny thing is,that who ever you are,you're still reading this and you're gonna read this until the en,before you realize that for the past five and a half lines you've been reading absolutely nothing,OK,bye rekcus,hoe you enjoyed wasting your time!!!.
I prefer a movie with some action and a lot more story telling I enjoyed this movie based on these facts the plot was good and presented a strong emotion to it between a farther and his son The acting was perfect Vincent Perez gave a great look to the crow his eyes are so deep and filled in sadness in this movie The movie is in a great location really giving L.A. a deep feel to it and I still don't see why people say this movie bad this movie by no means made me feel vile This movie is a work of art an 8 out of 10.
I like Vincent Perez's acting and I thought that is was a very good movie but it could have been a little bit better.
Playing as more remake than continuation of the original film, it offers nothing new whatsoever to the Crow storyline and only goes to serve as a reminder of how great the original was.Everything about this film is a mess, from the horrendous visual look of the film (substitute visual flair for tacky colour filters), to the flat "acting by numbers" from the leads.If you want to see a good sequel to The Crow, don't waste your time with this one, check out "The Crow: Salvation" instead which is a far superior film and a worthy continuation of the Crow legend.Rating: 1/10 (I Only gave it the 1 for the Rob Zombie song on the soundtrack!).
But I feel that no one could match Brandon's excellence.In this movie, Ashe Corven comes back from the dead to avenge the death of him and his son.
Woo-hoo!" ...Call me crazy, but I don't think that's as emotional as desired.Continuity problems between the original movie and City of Angels: * Eric returns one year after his and his fiance's death; Ashe comes back after one day.* The crow acts as a sort of guide to help Eric along the way in his quest to avenge his and his loved one's deaths; Ashe is just stupid and needs to be told what to do.* THAT CAT IS STILL ALIVE AFTER HOW MANY YEARS??
The first Crow movie was the best , Brandon Lee was so cool , but this one is not as good as the original.
Most of the times the sequel dose not bring anything NEW , and this one is the same , the story is almost the same , but even worse.I recommend this movie only to the Crow fans....
The original Crow was an amazing movie, and Brandon Lee gave a great performance.
Vincent Perez - playing an entirely different character - still seems to be doing his best Brandon Lee impression, which sadly isn't very good.
It's not the change in characters that bothered me at all, or how different it was from the first, it was just a messy film with mediocre action sequences and flat, boring dialogue.I was really hoping that this movie would be just as good as the first one, but the second one was a huge disappointment on my part and is a lot worse than the original.
Vincent Perez brought a lot of beauty to his character, he simply cannot fill the shoes of a good, beloved actor who died in the making of The Crow, because, well...
I felt this movie was a bad idea when I first heard that there would be a sequel to The Crow; it was stated by James O'Barr that The Crow was 'a complete story' - does this not imply that a sequel would be simply belittling The Crow?Beyond the story (which is too pathetic a story to mention), the bad acting, and the obviously overdone effects, the idea of somebody trying to do better than Brandon Lee is atrocious.Vincent Perez (aka "that french guy") sadly had no hope from the beginning.
In my opinion, amazing visuals, and a good story line to work with, but again, comparison to The Crow, which is unfair, hurts the films quality in many people's eyes.
Overall, I think that the story and actual filming of the movie were very good, but the characters often lack substance, but it is a quality movie if you like the series, and I give it much, much higher than the IMDB rating..
As is the custom in the Crow series, he is brought back by a mysterious Crow to make his killers pay for what they did.Vincent Perez's Ashe is, in my opinion, a completely different character from Brandon Lee's Eric Draven, which says something for Perez since he had to work with a very similar script.
Having seen, and loved, the original film, The Crow, I expected the sequel The Crow:City Of Angels to be good too.
Yes, you feel for the characters in the original Crow, but with Sarah being older and knowing the meaning of the crow makes the film seem more believeable.
The Crow was truly the best film ever made and to add to its record it starred the late great Brandon Lee, who as we all sadly know, was killed during filming of the film.It would of been great to just keep The Crow as a one off film ......but they had to make a sequel.The crow: City of angels was truly..........rubbish, it lacked everything that The Crow had to offer, crap enemies, crap story line and Crap lead role by Vincent Perez.Do not get me wrong, Vincent Perez is a truly good actor and I have seen a few of his films.
Over the years, I have come back to this movie a few times and each time, I liked it s bit more.Being so removed from the time it was released, it has aged in some strange way, or maybe I have, to distinguish itself from the first and as its own film.With that, I really, kind of, like it.If you can drop the whole "crow" tie to the original, yo may find a underrated film that is far better than memory let's you believe..
As far l could read some comments from IMDB's users reviewers, the Crow's sequel they love or hate, l'll stay in the middle 7 out 10 is suitable enough according what l did watch last week, the director had a satisfactory outcome using a sepia green color in the framework, giving a dark and scary atmosphere to the picture, the leading role played by Vincent Perez is a low pattern as your forerunner, the remaining cast is quite acceptable, barring Iggy Pop in another outstanding and usually performance, anyway unless otherwise agreed is my final opinion!!!Resume:First watch: 2018 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.
Sarah (Mia Kirshner) as a child loved Eric Draven, the original Crow, the man who avenged his murderers in the city of Detroit.
"City of Angels" was not bad, but no movie in this franchise will be able to replicate "The Crow" starring Brandon Lee. Now there is a new one called "Salvation".
the movie's fun to watch but you'll get easily bored by sarah and ashes ten second love moment but it's a good to watch film at last once if not many more times.
Although I liked the plot twist that the Crow was avenging his child as opposed to a wife or lover because it gave the film somewhat of a different, more "across the board" emotional relatability, I still felt that about 70% of the film was a template derivative of the original, with far too many common elements to fully assert it's expectations to truly stand on it's own.Richard Brooks made an interesting arch nemesis, but the character of Judah Earl I found to be a little too self absorbed and narcissistic to really invest a great deal of focus on.
Brooks however did do well with the predictable character profile that he was provided by the writers - and I think that he pushed it as far as he could as a gifted actor.Mia Kirshner's character of Sarah, apparently the little girl from the original Crow film, was disappointing.
Like many bad sequels to good movies, this one here is basically just a remake without any imagination and in the end you're just watching a cheaper, less entertaining version of the 1994 film.
i was as big of a fan as anyone else but after over a decade i'm able to look past the tragic death of Brandon Bruce Lee and see the fact; city of angels is a good movie.
The Crow: City of Angels suffers from the greatest sin in movie making; too many hands in the editing cookie jar.Had the film that Tim Pope shot been allowed to be presented, I think fan reaction would not be near as harsh as it has been.
Vincent Perez i think was an awesome Crow in terms of the look, but unfortunately, his accent got in the way.The positives of the film were the sexy Mia Kirshner and infernal Iggy Pop. Those two were probably the better reasons to see it, and also not to mention, Iggy's character is my number one favorite bad-guy if not number two favorite.
The Crow: City of Angels is a good movie.
Though there are great similarities that probably would have done better to not be included, ie the resemblance of Vincent Perez to the late great Brandon Lee. But i love both films and i am trying to get hold of the Crow Salvation to add to my collection if anyone can help!!.
Take that as a good thing if you want, but in a movie like The Crow: The City of Angels, amusement isn't what I imagine an audience expects nor craves.
Even if Brandon Lee were still alive, he wouldn't have been in City of Angels or any other Crow movie for that matter.