Customer Reviews

Shadow [VHS]

5 star:		(70)
4 star:		(49)
3 star:		(22)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

While leading a dissipated life in Tibet, Lamont Cranston (Played by Alec Baldwin) falls under the influence of an ancient wise man (James Hong) who teaches him how to use an ancient wisdom to fight for good. Returning to the United States, Cranston takes on the role of The Shadow, a nearly magical hero who wages war on the forces of crime. But, things are about to get much harder. Shiwan Khan (John Lone), the last descendent of Genghis Khan has a plan to take over the whole world. As Shiwan Khan hash similar powers to his own, only The Shadow can hope to overcome him. [Color, created in 1994, with a running time of 1 hour, 48 minutes.]

After hearing numerous negative comments about this movie, I watched it with some trepidation. However, I must admit that I was quite pleasantly surprised. This movie is stunningly produced, with excellent scenes. The characters are interesting, even if not often believable. The action is quite gripping, but is restrained, thus keeping the movie within a PG-13 rating. With no overt sex, and restrained violence, this movie is very family-friendly. So, if you looking for a good Saturday night movie to watch, then I recommend this movie to you.

...though how in the (blank) could Universal have released this on DVD and NOT done WIDESCREEN? The DTS transfer is as crisp and clear as you'd ever want, but this is a movie of astounding visual scope that cries out for a widescreen version. (I have this movie on VHS, DVD, and Dolby Digital Laserdisc, and the DDLD is by far the best of the three, because it's widescreen and the DD is amazingly crisp for LD.)

Still, though, there's a lot to like about this movie: Alec Baldwin is dead-on perfect as Lamont Cranston and his darker side, The Shadow; Baldwin can go from charming to chilling with one flex of his facial muscles, and that ability is nicely on display here, even if The Shadow is buried under a hat and cloak and heavy makeup. Penelope Ann Miller looks gorgeous as Margo Lane, the blonde bombshell with a brain to match, but isn't challenged much by the material. John Lone chews up scenery as Shiwan Khan, last descendent of Genghis Khan and darker reflection of The Shadow's edgy goodness. The art deco sets are terrific; the music is rich and moody; the visual scope of 1933 New York City is breathtaking.

I recommend this one with qualifications: If/when a widescreen version comes out, get it instead of the other DVD or VHS versions. But the movie itself is well worth seeing, particularly if you're an old-time radio fan.

I saw the movie in the theater and enjoyed it very much! The ending was a bit abrupt but the ride was great. Baldwin played the part just right and the whole world of The Shadow was very well done. The only problem I have with the DVD is that, to my knowledge, it has never been released in wide screen format. How Universal could release such a good movie in pan-and-scan only is a mystery. Even the DTS version isn't in wide screen! Aside from that, I think this movie would be a pleasent suprise to sci-fi fans.

This is probably my choice for "most underrated movie" ever.

I love the premise, characters, casting, and especially the score. It will be old news to Batman Begins fans, due to similarities in origin (rich man loses his identity in Asia to return a transformed crime-fighting force)... but keep in mind, this movie came out a decade earlier, and the Shadow is older than the Batman in general. Also, Cranston (a.k.a. the Shadow) is darker than Batman.

Baldwin is great as the gravelly-voiced Shadow, but belts out a good maniacal laugh when he needs too. You can't stop looking at the Shadow. Penelope Ann Miller also turns in a very good performance, as does John Lone as the villain.

The DOWNSIDE to this disc is that it very much lacks in transfer and aspect ratio. It's presented in 4:3 (1.33: 1), for boxy old TV... a real letdown for a great film. The transfer is also very poor... dirt and scratches appear obviously in the opening titles.

Still, it is very much worth seeing - a lot of fun and an absolute MUST for anyone who enjoyed Batman, but it will not live up to your system if you have a top of the line audio/visual setup.

I will never be able to understand why THE SHADOW (1994) is so underrated. Sure, there are things I would have changed, but--the acting was convincing, the special effects dazzling, the dialog witty--and it the film was appropriately set in New York.
The film borrows from both the pulps and the radio show. The Shadow is appropriately clad with an eerie, echoing voice. Shiwan Khan is properly cruel but humorous (how can a Tibetan have pupils THAT big??)
This is not exactly a family movie. There is some language, a scene with scantily-clad concubines. Oh, and the demon-possessed knife called the Purba.
Overall, a faithfully adapted crime fighter/superhero movie. Highly recommended.

Let's say the movie deserves 4 stars at least. It's beautiful and the plot stays true to the original characters. Whatever you may think of Alec Baldwin's acting ability it's still a good movie. But the DVD is an old style, barebones, FULL SCREEN version. It's crap. The only reason you should buy this is that you can't wait to see it one more time and it's cheap...otherwise get the even cheaper serials like the Invisible Avenger and wait for the Special Edition.

The Shadow is a crimefighter that uses his ability to "cloud" minds to confuse and strike fear into criminals (his chrome .45s help him out with his crime fighting efforts as well). He also uses his ability to recruit the victims of the crimes, so they can help him with his crime-fighting efforts. I thought this movie was written well and had excellent sets and special effects. The casting in this movie was done well. Alec Baldwin was perfect as the Shadow and Penelope Ann Miller was perfect as the love interest who had her own powers of persuasion. I think the critics were a little tough on their reviews of this one, paying more attention to the art deco styling than the plot.

I decided to purchase the DTS sound version of the movie since I remeber the movie having great sound effects that were muted in the VHS version. To my surprise, the sound in the DTS version was actually BETTER than in the movie theater. You can hear the Shadow's laugh circle around the room, like you're actually there. The movie gets five stars. The DVD as a whole gets 4 stars because I felt that the movie would be even better if it was in the original widescreen format. At the time this DVD was made, the DTS encoding took up most of the avalable space so there were no extras on this. Unfortunately, Universal has not made any announcements to re-realease this now that DVDs can hold more information.

My wife & I viewed this movie for the second time & enjoyed it as much as when we viewed it the first time on our laser disc widescreen version; however, this DVD was in FULL FRAME & we were disappointed that it was not presented in the original widescreen version. The amazon add states that the format for this DVD cited both FULL SCREEN & WIDESCREEN, but unfortuneatly, was not the case as our DVD only came in full screen. I did notice that the ratio was 1.33:1 which is the full screen version which should have alerted me. I suggest that the widescreen be deleted in the add as it is not available in DVD. As a Laser Disc owner, we have the Shadow movie (as mentioned above) in the widescreen version, so I can't imagine why the DVD is not in widescreen too. The widescreen shows much more movie than the fullscreen version, which makes the movie even more enjoyable as you see the entire picture as it was made to look in the theaters. As with all films made of comic book & radio heros, this film is definitely worth viewing. All aspects of the time period were done very well, similar to the movies of Dick Tracy, Batman, Superman, etc., which were all done in widescreen.

A prayer to the powers that be; PLEASE, get these movies out in letterboxed version. As Linus said in charlie Brown's Christmas (when he was looking at the poor little Christmas tree that Charlie Brown got) "This isn't such a bad little movie". This movie deserves better then this. It's fun, moody and a real homage to the radio drama of the past. The movie gets a 3 and a half. The studio gets a one.

If you are a fan of old radio drama's and art deco styling, then you will love this film. Great music and visuals, and a decent story. The problem lies in the DVD print. Here again was a chance to utilize the DVD format to its utmost, but it failed from the start. I have seen more and more titles being released on DVD only to be a poor Pan&Scan transfer. It must just be the studio's trying to cash in on the new technology without having to do some actual work on producing a good product. This seems to be the same video transfer as the VHS version. So if you want to see this title in its best picture quality and in Widescreen format, you have to go with the Laserdisk issue, which is quite good.