| Crying Freeman (1995) Cast:Mark Dacascos, Julie Condra,Rae Dawn Chong, Byron Mann, Mako, Tcheky Karyo Dacascos stars as an assassin who sheds a tear after killing his target, however one said target is artist Julie Condra, who falls in love with the assassin and vice versa, however the yakuza are both after them and so are corrupt cops and more in this disappointing anime adaptation.. I must admit how much I was looking forward to see this. In fact I had heard nothing but good things, the only critic was Greywizard who was disappointed but seemed to find some merit in it, and although I disagree with Greywizard on my share of movies, i'm in deadlock agreement here. What is most disappointing was how the movie starts off with such a great atmosphere with a grim voice detailing Condra saying how she know she's going to die and that she's in love with the man who will kill her and then when I heard how she didn't want to die a virgin, I had that sneaking suspicion this was going to become yet another silly assassin falls for his prey and goes on the lam film, and sure enough it did. That's not to say the movie is terrible, in fact it was well made, it had it's moments and even had some modestly interesting characters. The problem was that the action sequences were only okay when they should've been thrilling, the love triangle which is the main draw of this film lacks any real eroticism and although Condra and Dacascos are married in real life, they seem too much like teenagers on a prom date than really a woman who falls in love with the man who's going to kill her because of fascination and so the love angle is not very believable and in fact stops the film dead in its tracks. Another problem is that the villains aren't nearly menacing enough, they're fleshed out and played as realistic and human and in a movie where the heroes are so sympathetic, it's hard to root for heroes when the villains are indifferent and anonymous. Also there are many useless characters such as Rae Dawn Chong's good cop role, Mako's mobster and Karyo's corrupt cop. It all is brought together with indifference and mashed together to make certain that it never reaches its potentional and that is the biggest disappointment. Sure Fist Of The North Star was disappointing because it was muddled up and confusing in its narrative but at least it had a very good villain in Costas Mandylor who was sinister and had the motivations that were vague but evil, even better was Chris Penn who had a sleziness that depicted a threat, in Crying Freeman the villains are just there. Also for such material a downbeat ending would be called for since the set up is meant to be grim and atmospheric. The bottomline is that movies based on anime or comicbooks sink or swim by how much interest the director has in the material, whether it's to turn it into an all out action flick or a character driven drama, if done with enough care or energy a movie like this could be terrific. However when the director in question turns a blind eye to what would work and instead puts in only artifical style, the results are style over substance that renders the movie completely empty, and the viewer completely indifferent. D.Christopher Gans**1/2 |