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Dom Robinson reviews
Die Darkman DieDistributed by
Universal Pictures
- Cert:
- Cat.no: 053 755 2
- Running time: 83 minutes
- Year: 1995
- Pressing: 2000
- Region(s): 2, 4 (UK PAL)
- Chapters: 18
- Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Dolby ProLogic)
- Languages: 5 languages available
- Subtitles: 9 languages available
- Widescreen: 1.85:1
- 16:9-enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £17.99
- Extras : Arnold Vosloo biography
Director:
- Bradford May
(Darkman 2: The Return of Durant, Darkman 3: Die Darkman Die, Lethal Lolita)
Producer:
- David Roessell
Screenplay:
- Michael Colleary and Mike Webb
Music:
- Randy Miller
Cast:
- Darkman/Peyton Westlake: Arnold Vosloo
Peter Rooker: Jeff Fahey
Dr. Bridget Thorne: Darlanne Fluegel
Angela Rooker: Roxann Dawson
Darkman 3: Die Darkman Diedoesn’t differ greatly from its prequel,Darkman 2: The Return ofDurant, in that Peyton Westlake (Arnold Vosloo) is still insearch of a cure that will allow him to live his life normally, yet there isalways a fly in the ointment – in this case Peter Rooker (Jeff Fahey,best known for his role as Jobe, the simple gardener-turned-madman inThe Lawnmower Man) – ready to put him down, permanently, at the earliestopportunity, but he will end up losing after Darkman has spent time posing ashim and some of his henchmen.
As with the last film there are two women in tow. The first is Dr. BridgetThorne (Darlanne Fluegel), his old doctor who helped him stay aliveafter the original incident which left him in his current state. She repairshis thalamic nerve so he can feel pain, but is it to help him or to controlhim? What do you think (?!) The other is Peter’s wife, Angela (RoxannDawson), who spends most of the film looking worried as it takes foreverto sink in what a complete bastard her hubby is.
For the last film, Darkman only managed to make him skin cells last 99 minutes,but here he’s looking to extend their life to 300 minutes with a new brandof liquid skin cells. Jeff Fahey makes for a good, menacing bad guy, who wantsto steal and use the skin-creating formula for his own devices, such ascreating men with same attributes as Darkman, whose condition leaves him withthe strength of ten men.
The only major problem with the film is that after the 18-certs of the firsttwo, the 15-cert here shows the distinct lack of blood, particularly whenFahey finally gets his comeuppance.
The 3 Darkman DVDs.The quality of the disc is pretty much the same as the last release. Thepicture is framed at the original 1.85:1 widescreen ratio and is anamorphic,but there are some artifacts during the film which give it a hazy look at timesduring dark scenes.The average bitrate is a high and fairly steady 7.86Mb/s.
The sound is very good too. The film wasn’t made in Dolby Digital 5.1 so allthe SFX are standard ProLogic, but they sound superb, mainly for explosionsand some nice directional sound effects.
Extras :
Just the one extra on this disc and I’m loathe to even give it any kind ofcredit as it’s a two-page ‘biography’ on Arnold Vosloo, which consistsof a few lines of text on one page and a selection of films he’s starred inon the other.
There are the usual 18 chapters, which is fine for this short film. Dialoguecomes in five flavours: English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.Subtitles are in nine: English for the hard of hearing, French, German, Dutch,Spanish, Italian, Swedish, Norwegian and Danish.
As with the last film, all the menus are silent and static.
Once again, it’s a worthwhile way of spending 80-odd minutes, but the lack ofextras suggest that I recommend a rental only over a purchase.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.