The Crow: City of Angels
Encyclopedia
The Crow: City of Angels is a 1996 action film
Action film
Action film is a film genre where one or more heroes is thrust into a series of challenges that require physical feats, extended fights and frenetic chases...

 directed by Tim Pope
Tim Pope
Timothy Michael Pope is a film director most famous for his music videos, having directed feature films, and for a brief pop career.-Early life and career:...

. It is a sequel to the 1994 cult film
Cult film
A cult film, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a highly devoted but specific group of fans. Often, cult movies have failed to achieve fame outside the small fanbases; however, there have been exceptions that have managed to gain fame among mainstream audiences...

 The Crow
The Crow (film)
The Crow is a 1994 American action film based on the 1989 comic book of the same name by James O'Barr. The film was written by David J. Schow and John Shirley, and directed by Alex Proyas...

.

Plot

The film is set in Los Angeles, where drug king Judah Earl (Richard Brooks
Richard Brooks (actor)
Richard L. Brooks is an African-American actor, singer, and director. He is best known for his role as Assistant District Attorney Paul Robinette during the first three seasons of the NBC TV drama Law & Order .Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Brooks studied acting, dance, and voice work at...

) controls it all. It is the misfortune of mechanic Ashe Corven (Vincent Pérez
Vincent Pérez
Vincent Pérez is a Swiss-born French speaking actor and director. He is best known internationally for playing the title character Ashe Corven in The Crow: City of Angels, and for starring in Queen of the Damned, playing Marius de Romanus...

) and his 8-year-old son Danny (Eric Acosta) to witness a gang of Judah's thugs murdering a fellow drug dealer. Judah's men capture Ashe and Danny. Ashe and Danny are viciously beaten and terrorized, with Ashe pleading for Danny's life. They are tied together and shot multiple times, and their bodies thrown off of a pier.

Later, a grown-up version of Sarah from the first film
The Crow (film)
The Crow is a 1994 American action film based on the 1989 comic book of the same name by James O'Barr. The film was written by David J. Schow and John Shirley, and directed by Alex Proyas...

 (Mia Kirshner
Mia Kirshner
Mia Kirshner is a Canadian actress and social activist who works in movies and television series. She is best known for her portrayal of Jenny Schecter on The L Word and for her role in the 2006 crime film The Black Dahlia as Elizabeth Short.- Early life :Kirshner was born in Toronto, Ontario,...

) has been having dreams about Ashe and Danny. Sarah works in a tattoo parlor by day, and paints haunting, 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 given to her years ago by Eric Draven.

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. Ashe wants to know who she is, and how he survived the brutal attack on himself and his son. When Sarah informs him that he did not, he freaks out 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 pursue those who killed him and Danny. When Sarah lived in Detroit as a child, she had friends named Eric Draven and Shelly Webster, who were murdered, and Eric was resurrected by the Crow to go after the criminals who murdered them, which is why Sarah has inside knowledge of the Crow legend.

Sarah outfits Ashe with the Crow facial paint, and Ashe acquires black clothing and a high-performance motorcycle. With the guidance of the crow, Ashe starts killing Judah's henchmen, one by one. Ashe first visits Spider-Monkey (Vincent Castellanos
Vincent Castellanos
Vincent Castellanos is an American actor.- Filmography :*Sister's Keeper - Vincent*Fascination - District Attorney*Eulogy - Adult Film Actor*The Master of Disguise - Art Dealer...

) in a warehouse and interrogates him as to who else was involved in the atrocity. After losing a card trick to Ashe, Spider-Monkey is killed when Ashe sets off extremely flammable chemicals, blowing apart the building. Another of Judah's lackeys, a pervert
Perversion
Perversion is a concept describing those types of human behavior that are a serious deviation from what is considered to be orthodox or normal. Although it can refer to varying forms of deviation, it is most often used to describe sexual behaviors that are seen by an individual as abnormal,...

 named Nemo (Thomas Jane
Thomas Jane
Thomas Jane is an American actor known for his roles in the 1999 film Deep Blue Sea, the 2001 TV film 61*, the 2004 film The Punisher and the 2007 Stephen King adaptation The Mist...

) is spending the night at the peeping booths. Ashe appears in the booths and assaults Nemo. Nemo is then discovered 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.

Judah has left a woman named Kali (Thuy Trang
Thuy Trang
Thuy Trang was a Vietnamese American actress. She was best known for her role as Trini Kwan, the original Yellow Ranger in the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers television series.-Early life:...

) in Sarah's apartment as bait for Ashe. While battling her, Ashe realizes that Kali is the one who killed Danny. Kali starts tossing throwing stars at Ashe, futilely hitting him with poles and stabbing him with a knife, until he throws her into a wall and then out a window. Kali dies when she lands on a car on the street below, her blood streaming out in the shape of a crow in flight. Ashe then pursues Judah's right-hand-man, Curve (Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Though considered an innovator of punk rock, Pop's music has encompassed a number of styles over the years, including pop, metal, jazz and blues...

), in a motorcycle chase. Ashe shoots Curve's motorcycle, and the motorcycle blows up and throws Curve onto the road. Ashe then drags Curve into the nearby river, where Curve floats, dying amongst flowers in the shape of a crow in flight on the surface of the water.

It is now the time of the annual Day of the Dead
Day of the Dead
Day of the Dead is a Mexican holiday celebrated throughout Mexico and around the world in many cultures. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. It is particularly celebrated in Mexico, where it attains the quality...

 festival. Judah uses his fingernail to slice a bloody cross into Sarah's forehead. He has captured the crow as well, and impales its wings with knives before killing it. Ashe must now attempt to rescue Sarah by seeking out Judah in his lair, an abandoned church. As Judah has killed the crow, Ashe is quickly losing his strength and invulnerability. As a result, Judah is able to get the best of Ashe in their struggle. Judah then ties a rope around Ashe, seizes a whip and savagely whips him, intending to then hang him.

Sarah rushes up and stabs Judah in the forehead, causing Judah to drop Ashe. Since Judah has the crow's blood in him, the stabbing does not hurt him. 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 that enters Judah's back and exits through his chest, but this does not kill Judah either. While Judah is still impaled, Ashe calls upon a large number of crows that are flying overhead. The crows swarm down and kill Judah by devouring him. Sarah then dies in Ashe's arms from her stab wound, a tableau reminiscent of a painting she had completed earlier in the film.

Ashe returns to death, knowing that he can rest in peace, now that Judah and his minions are dead.

Cast

  • Vincent Pérez
    Vincent Pérez
    Vincent Pérez is a Swiss-born French speaking actor and director. He is best known internationally for playing the title character Ashe Corven in The Crow: City of Angels, and for starring in Queen of the Damned, playing Marius de Romanus...

     as Ashe Corven
  • Mia Kirshner
    Mia Kirshner
    Mia Kirshner is a Canadian actress and social activist who works in movies and television series. She is best known for her portrayal of Jenny Schecter on The L Word and for her role in the 2006 crime film The Black Dahlia as Elizabeth Short.- Early life :Kirshner was born in Toronto, Ontario,...

     as Sarah
  • Richard Brooks
    Richard Brooks (actor)
    Richard L. Brooks is an African-American actor, singer, and director. He is best known for his role as Assistant District Attorney Paul Robinette during the first three seasons of the NBC TV drama Law & Order .Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Brooks studied acting, dance, and voice work at...

     as Judah Earl
  • Thuy Trang
    Thuy Trang
    Thuy Trang was a Vietnamese American actress. She was best known for her role as Trini Kwan, the original Yellow Ranger in the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers television series.-Early life:...

     as Kali
  • Iggy Pop
    Iggy Pop
    Iggy Pop is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Though considered an innovator of punk rock, Pop's music has encompassed a number of styles over the years, including pop, metal, jazz and blues...

     as Curve
  • Thomas Jane
    Thomas Jane
    Thomas Jane is an American actor known for his roles in the 1999 film Deep Blue Sea, the 2001 TV film 61*, the 2004 film The Punisher and the 2007 Stephen King adaptation The Mist...

     as Nemo
  • Vincent Castellanos
    Vincent Castellanos
    Vincent Castellanos is an American actor.- Filmography :*Sister's Keeper - Vincent*Fascination - District Attorney*Eulogy - Adult Film Actor*The Master of Disguise - Art Dealer...

     as Spider-Monkey
  • Eric Acosta as Danny
  • Ian Dury
    Ian Dury
    Ian Robins Dury was an English rock and roll singer, lyricist, bandleader and actor who initially rose to fame during the late 1970s, during the punk and New Wave era of rock music...

     as Noah
  • Tracey Ellis as Sybil

Production

After the success of The Crow, Miramax commissioned a sequel, and production began in 1995. The Weinstein Brothers offered directing duties to Tim Pope
Tim Pope
Timothy Michael Pope is a film director most famous for his music videos, having directed feature films, and for a brief pop career.-Early life and career:...

 on the basis of his work on a short film, Phone, he made in 1991. David S. Goyer
David S. Goyer
David Samuel Goyer is an American screenwriter, film director and comic book writer.-Early life:Goyer was born and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He attended Hebrew school and has described himself as "half Jewish"...

 was brought on to write the script. Wanting to avoid comparisons with the first movie and Brandon Lee
Brandon Lee
Brandon Bruce Lee was an American actor and martial artist. He was the son of martial arts film star Bruce Lee...

, Goyer originally intended to have the character of Sarah return as a female crow. Another idea was to set the story in 19th-century England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. Eventually, it was decided the story would be centred around two brothers who are murdered in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

. In that script, Ashe and Danny were the brothers, with Ashe being the one brought back to avenge their deaths. The original script also featured Sarah, Grange and Top Dollar, the last two resurrected to fight Ashe. Goyer was unhappy about reviving Grange and Top Dollar and rewrote the script removing them entirely. Alex McDowell
Alex McDowell
Alex McDowell, RDI is British production designer and film producer.McDowell was born in Borneo to parents of English origin. He wanted to become a painter and studied at the Central School of Art in London. He founded Rocking Russian Design in 1978 and started his career designing album covers...

, who worked on the previous movie and had also worked with Tim Pope on music videos, was brought back as production designer and both aimed to give the movie a distinguished look. McDowell took inspiration for the design of Los Angeles by looking at architecture from the 1920s
1920s
File:1920s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: Third Tipperary Brigade Flying Column No. 2 under Sean Hogan during the Irish Civil War; Prohibition agents destroying barrels of alcohol in accordance to the 18th amendment, which made alcoholic beverages illegal throughout the entire decade; In...

 and 1940s
1940s
File:1940s decade montage.png|Above title bar: events which happened during World War II : From left to right: Troops in an LCVP landing craft approaching "Omaha" Beach on "D-Day"; Adolf Hitler visits Paris, soon after the Battle of France; The Holocaust occurred during the war as Nazi Germany...

.

Returning also from the previous movie were producers Jeff Most
Jeff Most
Jeff Most is an American film producer, best known as the producer and music supervisor of The Crow film series.Most was co-producer on The Crow with Edward R. Pressman in 1993, and also produced the film's soundtrack album...

 and Edward R. Pressman
Edward R. Pressman
Edward R. Pressman is an American film producer.Pressman was born in New York City, New York, the son of Lynn and Jack Pressman, known as the "King of Marbles", who founded the Pressman Toy Corporation.-Filmography:...

. Both Goyer and Pope wanted to make the film completely different from the first one, aiming to give it a more tragic feel, and for the characters to have more depth. While working on the film, Goyer was also writing the script for Dark City, which was directed by the previous film's director Alex Proyas
Alex Proyas
Alexander "Alex" Proyas is a Australian film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is best known for directing such films as The Crow, Dark City, I, Robot and Knowing. He is known for employing a stylish photographic techniques in his films, with dark overtones usually in a post-apocalyptic...

. Punk rock legend Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Though considered an innovator of punk rock, Pop's music has encompassed a number of styles over the years, including pop, metal, jazz and blues...

 was hired to play the villain Curve; Pop had previously been offered the role of Funboy in the first movie. Tori Amos
Tori Amos
Tori Amos is an American pianist, singer-songwriter and composer. She was at the forefront of a number of female singer-songwriters in the early 1990s and was noteworthy early in her career as one of the few alternative rock performers to use a piano as her primary instrument...

 turned down the role of Sarah, while Jon Bon Jovi
Jon Bon Jovi
Jon Bon Jovi is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and actor, best known as the founder, occasional rhythm guitarist, and lead singer of rock band Bon Jovi, which was named after him...

 auditioned for the role of Ashe, but Vincent Pérez got that job in the end. Pérez was selected because of his performance in La Reine Margot
La Reine Margot (1994 film)
La Reine Margot is a 1994 French period film directed by Patrice Chéreau, based on the 1845 historical novel of the same name by Alexandre Dumas, père. It stars Isabelle Adjani, Daniel Auteuil, Virna Lisi and Vincent Pérez...

. For inspiration, Pérez looked to Jim Morrison
Jim Morrison
James Douglas "Jim" Morrison was an American musician, singer, and poet, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the rock band The Doors...

 and Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...

. A young Thomas Jane
Thomas Jane
Thomas Jane is an American actor known for his roles in the 1999 film Deep Blue Sea, the 2001 TV film 61*, the 2004 film The Punisher and the 2007 Stephen King adaptation The Mist...

 was picked to play the villain Nemo. While the filmmakers and studio originally intended to create a substantially different movie to the first one — out of respect for Brandon Lee —, Miramax ordered the movie to be re-edited so as to resemble the earlier one as much as possible. Tim Pope refused and he, along with Goyer, disowned the movie as it did not represent their vision.

Box office

The Crow: City of Angels opened at #1 at the domestic box office and grossed $9,785,111 in the opening weekend which accounted for 54.6% of its total grossing. It also opened at #1 in the UK. The domestic gross stands at $17,917,287,and $7,500,000 (worldwide). The budget was $13,000,000. While the movie was a minor success, it paled in comparison to the previous film's domestic earnings, which were $50m. As a result of the movie's lackluster box office results, future Crow sequels were released direct-to-video.

Reception

City of Angels received mainly negative reviews. The main criticism aimed at what was perceived by critics as a recycled plot and bad acting. Noted critic James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli is an American online film critic.-Personal life:Berardinelli was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey and spent his early childhood in Morristown, New Jersey. At the age of nine years, he relocated to the township of Cherry Hill, New Jersey...

, for instance, awarded the movie only two stars. However, some critics did praise Vincent Pérez's and Iggy Pop's performances, and Alex McDowell's production design. Currently, the movie has a "Rotten" rating of 12% on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie has developed a small cult following.

The film's Blu-ray release has been criticized by some as not being up to high definition standards. It was further criticized for being erroneously labeled as 1080p
1080p
1080p is the shorthand identification for a set of HDTV high-definition video modes that are characterized by 1080 horizontal lines of resolution and progressive scan, meaning the image is not interlaced as is the case with the 1080i display standard....

 when the movie was, in fact, presented in 1080i
1080i
1080i is the shorthand name for a high-definition television mode. The i means interlaced video; 1080i differs from 1080p, in which the p stands for progressive scan. The term 1080i assumes a widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9, implying a frame size of 1920×1080 pixels...

.

Home media

The movie was released on VHS in 1996. In 1998, the film was released on DVD. Both the "Director's Cut" and the original film were available.

2011 saw the film's reissue. It was re-released by Echo Bridge Home Entertainment as a double feature paired up with The Crow: Wicked Prayer
The Crow: Wicked Prayer
The Crow: Wicked Prayer is a 2005 American film directed by Lance Mungia and inspired by Norman Partridge's novel of the same title. It is the fourth and final film based on The Crow comic book by James O'Barr. It had a one week theatrical premiere on June 3, 2005 at AMC Pacific Place Theatre in...

. This release's ending was slightly edited (the girl with the cat is absent). The only special feature was the widescreen
Widescreen
Widescreen images are a variety of aspect ratios used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than the standard 1.37:1 Academy aspect ratio provided by 35mm film....

 format. There was also a single feature release under the same company.

The film was released on Blu-ray in May, 2011.

Pay-per-view/workprint Version

The Crow: City of Angels was heavily cut by Miramax, who wanted the movie to be more like the first one. City of Angels running time was originally 160 minutes long, while the theatrical version was just a little over half of that: 84 minutes. A supposed director's cut was released in 1996, but only contained ten minutes of new footage. The uncut version did however surface on pay-per-view in the late 1990s.

Other media

The screenplay for City of Angels was adapted into a novel by Chet Williamson
Chet Williamson
Chet Williamson is the author of nearly twenty books and over a hundred short stories published in The New Yorker, Playboy, Esquire, and many other magazines and anthologies.-Biography:...

 as well as a three-issue comic book series published by Kitchen Sink Press
Kitchen Sink Press
Kitchen Sink Press was a comic book publishing company founded by Denis Kitchen in 1970. Kitchen owned and operated Kitchen Sink Press until 1999. Kitchen Sink Press was a pioneering publisher of underground comics, and was also responsible for numerous republications of classic comic strips in...

, both of which feature the original ending of the story.

A video game based on the film
The Crow: City of Angels (video game)
The Crow: City of Angels is a 1997 game for Sega Saturn, Sony PlayStation and PC. It is loosely based on the movie of the same name. The player assumes the role of the hero of the film, Ashe Corven...

was also produced.
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