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| Hi, Ogie and friends. |
A great director can be defined by at least three main criteria; they have complete understanding of the film technology available, they are able to translate the script visually on film, and they know how to work with actors to make them avoid becoming caricatures of themselves.
Say hello to Sam Raimi.
Sam Raimi is the epitome of the Hollywood filmmaker’s dream. He started making films with his BFFs Bruce Campbell and Rob Tappert and brothers Ted and Ivan back in high school in the backwoods of Michigan. After high school they begged, borrowed, and stole to make a little horror movie called Evil Dead and eventually sold it, where it is now heralded as one of the best cinema horrors ever.
They went to Hollywood, where Raimi made a bunch more movies with ever increasing budgets, reaching A-list ranking by taking the helm of the very profitable original Spider-Man trilogy. His lateste work, Oz: The Great and Powerful isn't included in this list as... well, I pretty much already wrote the thing before seeing it and I didn't feel like picking a spot (somewhere between 7-10).
Raimi managed to avoid the burn-out phase which generally occurs happens upon hitting the high of Hollywood. He has maintained his loyalties to those that have helped him pursue his dreams and maintained working relationships with those that shared in making Evil Dead and he has never forgotten where he came from.
Raimi’s signature trademark is the ’73 Oldsmobile Delta 88 that he casts in near every movie and has become the fun of a neat drinking game on the side. And most of the time, despite studio executives protests, he always tries to find a role for brother Ted or self-admitted B-movie star Bruce Campbell. That’s true loyalty right there. Oh yeah, he was also a driving force behind TV’s Xena, Princess Warrior and Hercules as a side project when he wasn't making films back in the 90's, giving the world an updated kick-ass version of Wonder Woman.
Being an admitted fan of Raimi’s, here are Raimi’s films ranked from worst to best - minus Oz.
13. Crimewave (1985)
Quick. Put Sam Raimi together with a script written by Ethan and Joel Coen and what do you get? If you said “pure awesomeness,” you are so wrong. Crimewave was Raimi’s second feature coming four years after his genre-bending Evil Dead and his first with active (he'd say too active) studio involvement. Having developed a working relationship with the Coen brothers in the editing room years ago with Evil Dead, they took the next logical step and came out with this mess – a comedy send-up of ’50s movies versions of ’20s gangsters. I think...
It’s the convoluted story of a hit gone bad. This was Raimi’s first attempt at working with actual producers who immediately informed him that his 1st choice for the lead, Bruce Campbell would not happen. So instead of the Chin, there was somebody else. Campbell was cast as the ‘The Heel’ (seriously, that’s his name) who did, at least, bring some presence to the film. He delivered lines in a manner foreshadowing Ash in Army of Darkness, but this whole mess came out as too campy to be campy.
Shot in and around Detroit with Hollywood C-actors, it was a rude awakening to the intricacies of working for others. I could easily see this being made by a group of high school seniors and a lot of jokes come across as if they were written by the same. On a estimated budget of $3 million dollars, it raked in a cool $5000 in 7 theaters (in Kansas and Alaska) during its limited release.
If nothing else, this film is inspirational in that – despite its seeming awfulness – Raimi and the Coen Brothers are nowadays safely considered film legends showing that – in Hollywood, at least – anything is possible.
12. For Love of the Game (1999)
Okay, I will admit this right away. This never appealed to me because a) it’s about baseball and b) it has Kevin Costner in it, and all know in Hollywood mathematics a+b = Too Long. I am sure if you love baseball and Kevin Costner doing Kevin Costner things, you might love this movie about a fading baseball star reliving his glory years, trying one last time to win it all to impress his current girlfriend. We've all been there.
Luckily for me, most of the theater going public also agreed and stayed away from this one. Despite an impressive $80 million budget, it brought in less than half that at that at the theaters. I will say that the acting, though, is far better than that of Crimewave.
11. Darkman (1990)
Raimi’s second entry into the world of high-money Hollywood, this dud starred a young Liam Neeson and was generously called ‘a modern day Phantom of the Opera’. I remember little of Darkman, except for a finger-breaking scene that to this day I still consider one of the lamest finger breaking scenes ever involving a carny.
10. Drag Me To Hell (2009)
Alternatively known as 'Back to the Well', Raimi’s return to horror after the Spider-Man trilogy required quite the suspension of disbelief from the viewer. For instance, it required one to believe that an early ’20s blonde with little education could become an assistant manager of a bank, that she would be cursed because an old gypsy woman didn't know how American banking works, and Justin Long could be a psychology professor. Made for around $30 million, it brought in just over $42 million.
This ones gives a feeling of too-much studio interference, like some of Raimi’s other works – like they told him in casting they wanted it to skew towards a younger audience, hence the age of the leads. There are a few gems in here, but it’s pretty run-of-the-mill ‘cursed by a gypsy’ script with a couple of great laughingly gross scenes, including a talking goat, a strategically positioned anvil (seriously? why does she have an anvil?), and probably the most obsessive screaming handkerchief ever.
In the first act, the Delta 88 pulls a ‘Christine’ like obsession on the lead actress who also happens to be named Christine which never really comes to fruition. Maybe it’s a subtle nod to the Stephen King novel cum movie. You never know with Raimi, which is what makes him so great.
To give you an idea of what this movie is, when told she may have to sacrifice an animal to appease the demon stalking her, the lead cries “but I’m a vegetarian!” Then it cuts to a shot of her kitten. So, there you have been forewarned. Unfortunately, these moments of camp were too few and far between to give it Army of Darkness cred and too much to give it Evil Dead cred. Nothing too new here in terms of technology either, but it does show that Raimi hasn't lost his touch when it comes to comedy/horror.
9. Spider-Man 3 (2007)
There is something about superhero trilogies that make most people say ‘they should stop at two’. Those people are Bryan Singer and the Army Against The Dark Knight Rises (AATDKR for short). Despite seeing his budget continually climb with each new edition of the franchise, the need to ‘wow’ the audience with new villains, new characters, new situations created no end of problems. Raimi and the internet have expressed frustrations over the weak script, the studio meddling and the overall feeling of having done this all before (and once again not being allowed to have Bruce Campbell in the starring role).
Despite the anticipated visualization of Venom, the casting of Topher Grace as Eddie Brock was considered a miss by many who wished for a more comic-faithful rendition. So too with the Sandman and along with his ongoing difficulties with Harry Osborn, who has taken on the crazy mantle of his father, the Green Goblin, there was a lot of balls in the air for Raimi to try and juggle.
Although still better than certain other trilogy finales (looking at you, Nolan), it left its own slew of messes.
8. A Simple Plan (1998)
At first, I didn't consider this one of his stronger films, due to my personal disliking of Billy Bob Thorton and Bill Paxton because of some of their other stereotypical performances. Once I was able to shrug that preconceived prejudice off, this actually was a nice surprise. I don’t think Billy Bob needed big nerd glasses to establish that he was the dumber of two brothers, but whatever…
Although no big draw at the box office, bringing in $1 million less than its $17 million budget, A Simple Plan was straight story-telling of 2 brothers discovering a bag of money in the woods and trying to decide what to do with the money and what to do when somebody mean and dangerous comes looking for it. If this sounds familiar, it is. It’s the storyline of the Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men. Sort of.
While the Coen Brothers followed the golden rule of ‘location, location, location’ and set their story in the warm confines of the Southern US and centered more on the sociopath tracking the money down, Raimi stuck north in the middle of winter and focused on the finders. The stark coldness of the season adds and extra layer of texture to the script, which really works. Plus, Raimi gets points for having his crew wear snow suits throughout shooting. This truly hit 2 out of the 3 directing criteria for me; actors acting and a good, well-filmed script.
7. Army of Darkness (1992)
This was a bit of a toss-up on where to place this in Raimi’s overall resume. It’s a cult classic, the end of the Evil Dead trilogy, and sees Bruce Campbell in his best leading man situation, delivering lines like “Hail to the King, baby”. It has plenty of campy moments and revels in it which distracts from the overall story. At times, it stays true to the previous films and at other times goes completely sideways.
It takes the humor of the 2nd Evil Dead and pulls it into the light of day and makes it much less scary, but it looks like Raimi enjoyed making it and it shows what could (dangerously) happen if he was allowed complete artistic license. This is a film primarily for hardcore Sam Raimi buffs, a cult favorite with plenty of inside jokes that have made it into pop culture (this is my BOOMSTICK, shop smart, shop S-mart, you must say the words, etc.).
It even became a video game and chainsaw hand Ash is an iconic action figure. It has some of the usual camera movements now expected from the previous Evil Dead flicks, and some curious new ones. It delves into The Three Stooges territory as well, with a bit of Gulliver’s Travels thrown in, too. In theory, this is supposed to be the same weekend as the original Evil Dead, but there is no explanation to why Ash has aged twenty years. Who cares, we suppose?
It’s an adventurous film that you will either love it or hate it, so I guess right in the middle seems a good place as any. While the studios allowed him great leeway in the filming of Army, they did insist on a change to the ending, and while sometimes studio heads get it wrong, I have to think this was a way better ending, as by this time most true Raimi/Campbell fans were able to just accept that a display case lever action shotgun would be loaded and holds this many rounds .
6. Spider-Man 2 (2004)
Spider-Man 2 was a green light from the first trailer of Spider-Man, and Raimi was a sure guarantee to be back in the director’s chair after the success of the first flick. The studio threw more money his way and gave him another legendary Spider-Man villain, Doctor Octopus, to envision. If anybody could envision the robotic tentacles of Dr. Octavius, it was Raimi. There was an obvious comfort in working with the cast again and he showed true form in keeping abreast of the abilities of CGI at the time. Now gifted with a budget of $200 million, Spider-Man 2 brought in nearly double that: $373 million at the box office.
Spider-Man 2 worked the story line well; Peter Parker has evolved from the first one and is facing real world late teenager problems: what to do after high school, living in your first crappy apartment, your teenage crush becoming engaged to someone else, the guilt of killing your best friend’s father… you know, usual teenager stuff. Raimi holds it all together well and makes more use of the blending of CGI and actors with the extreme complexity of Doc Ock’s tentacles, in which some were CGI and at other times actual props.
5. The Gift (2000)
Raimi went back to the emphasis on story-telling in this suspense/thriller that relied on a talented and gifted cast. Taken from a script by Billy Bob Thornton and set in the Southern US, The Gift tells the story of psychic (Cate Blanchett) who is asked to find an overly-flirtatious Katie Holmes. The obvious bad guy is a racist, abusive Keanu Reeves, but the cast also includes Greg Kinnear, Hillary Swank, JK Simmons, Giovanni Ribisi, Mr. Noodle from Elmo, the Delta 88, and Lumbergh. Anybody but Lumbergh…
They all deliver tight performances, there are a few well-spaced shock moments and overall it was an interesting spin on a somewhat uncommon story. The ending was nice albeit leaves a pretty large plot point unresolved in my opinion, but it’s still quite well-crafted. The spooky elements worked for me while at the same time keeping the story more character-based than shock-based.
This was his final movie before the Spider-Man trilogy and gives one some indication as to why the studios thought Raimi would be the right man for a character-based super hero film. Made for a surprisingly small $10 million, it grossed just over $12 million in its theatrical release.
4. Spider-Man (2002)
When it was announced he was going to helm the big budget production of Spider-Man, most people went “Who?” and ran to check who he was on their 28 bit modems. But it was the right choice. He brought the right amount of camp and human drama to Peter Parker, while staying pretty close to the source material to the delight of comic fans worldwide. There is very little to dissect of this one. Great story-telling, Toby Maguire aces Peter Parker’s teen-age nerdishness and of course, Kirsten Dunst’s boobies thrilled comic geeks worldwide.
After the shock of 9/11, his Spider-Man made a valiant attempt at invoking the tough New York spirit in healing the wound that struck the nation. In one particular scene, added after the attack, a group of New Yorkers band together to fight the Green Goblin and save Spider-Man. Toby Maguire won accolades in his role and topped it off by winning MTV’s Best Kiss Award in 2003.
3. The Quick and the Dead (1995)
This didn't really hit the right note at the box office despite its high power cast, but I have to put it in the top 3 Raimi movies, maybe because it is so unlike other Raimi films yet combines all three of the best qualities of a director already mentioned; working with actors, innovating camera shots and telling a good story visually.
This 1995 western featured a current and future all-star cast; Gene Hackman, Sharon Stone, Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, Lance Hendriksen, and Gary Sinise. Made with $32 million, it brought in half that at the box office. Men just weren't ready for a girl gunfighter (Sharon Stone) to go against type-cast by doing something that didn't directly involve her already over-exposed vagina.
Yet Stone does an impressive turn in this classic cowboy revenge story. Out to avenge the death of her daddy (Gary Sinise), she rides into Gene Hackman’s kingdom to enter the annual gunfighter’s duel put on for his amusement. Gene Hackman has his own problems, finding that his son (DiCaprio) has decided to earn his father’s respect by also entering the contest.
In a tournament that guarantees that at least one opponent must leave either dead or mortally wounded, this movie does an excellent job of maintaining the story-line, building suspense and according to Campbell’s If Chins Could Kill, establishes that Raimi could more than hold his own in dealing with the giant Hollywood ego that was Gene Hackman. Despite internet rumors, this appears to be the only Raimi film that does not have his Delta 88 make a cameo (for obvious chronological reasons).
2. The Evil Dead (1981)
Take a group of simple middle-income kids from the suburbs of Michigan with a dream. Have them go through high school making Super 8 movies and watching the Three Stooges for acting and directing tips. Have them decide to make a film in true independent style, begging for money from everyone, then going off to Tennessee to shoot it.
Lacking resources, innovate never-before-seen camera moves and effects that only filmmakers on very limited budgets can come up with. Beg and scrape for more money to get it through post-production and then pitch to various distributors. Keep believing despite years of setbacks and refusals. Eventually have Dino Di Laurentis buy it and watch as that $375,000 movie makes nearly $2.4 Million at the box office when it is eventually released.
Receive word that Stephen King literally nearly shit his pants upon viewing. Cinema-goers were suitably shocked by the movie and in particular a flora-based rape scene and the unseen ‘demon’ force that word-of-mouth spread. The buzz got Hollywood’s attention and brought it to the pack of skinny little nerds from Michigan with Hollywood dreams. The rest is Raimi history.
Evil Dead involved the classic ‘let’s go out to the spooky cabin for a weekend and then accidentally invoke evil forces’, the story line is mimicked by the recently acclaimed Joss Whedon co-screenplay Cabin in The Woods. Finding something called The Book of the Dead, they make the classic horror mistake of reading it aloud and then from then on, the actors (especially Bruce, last man standing) are submitted to all sorts of on-screen torture that has been well-documented over the years and in his previously mentioned book. Classic.
1. Evil Dead II (1987)
If you made it this far, this would be no surprise as it's arguably his most famous movie pre-Spiderman. Evil Dead II did something few sequels have managed; it twisted the genre on its decapitated neck and made it fun to laugh while at the same time, crap your pants. While most horror movies stayed true to the format of kill, kill, and kill some more, Evil Dead II went in a different direction while also managing to stay on the same path. Gone were the other cabin-dwellers from the original; a quick back-story showed Ash cutting up his demon-possessed girlfriend with a chainsaw. But for some reason, although macabre, it wasn't scary. Perhaps because she wouldn't stop nagging him while he was sawing her up. The ultimate typical evil girlfriend.
This new-ish genre of horror-comedy helped pave the way for Joss Whedon, Simon Pegg and others who went on and took a horror genre and put in a funny bone. A lot of their success is based on Raimi's precedent-setting Evil Dead 2.
Raimi was given an actual low-budget horror budget to work from, slightly over $3.6 million, and it nearly doubled its return at the box office, despite its questionable reviews and a lot of people who “just didn't get it". Evil Dead II joined a limited number of sequels at the time that managed to best the original (Empire Strikes Back, Godfather 2, Friday the 13th, Part II) and allowed Raimi to continue to do what he did best, despite his previous already discussed bomb, Crimewave.
Evil Dead II became its own cult classic, as different from Evil Dead as it was from Army of Darkness, although they were all part of the same trilogy. A lot of this is a credit to Bruce Campbell, who managed to raise the bar on physical comedy. And he did it in a horror movie. Bruce Vs. His Hand became an instant classic and is rated as one of the best sub-plots ever in a horror movie list compiled by me. A true horror/comedy classic.
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