Army of Darkness tries to pass cheese for comedy

A post-modernist's dream, Army of Darkness is meta-everything. It is a meta-medieval fantasy, a meta-horror flic, and meta-awful in every respect. The film contains all of the classic elements of a bad Hollywood medieval fantasy, but is also a bad parody of one. It is full of classic horror movie elements, but is at the same time a bad send-up of the slasher film.

The speech and setting of co-screenwriter and director Sam Raimi's film borrow from the medieval fantasy. Characters whose lives revolve around magic castles, fair maidens, and sword fights say "aye" instead of "yes" and use "thees" and "thous" in every sentence. The film is a horror movie in that monsters pop up at every turn, only to fall prey to the chainsaw and gun that produce the requisite gore of the genre.

The intentionally cheesy nature of the plot and script of Army of Darkness makes the film a parody of both the medieval fantasy and horror genres. Bruce Campbell plays an average '90s guy who works in a department store. He is swallowed back in time to the Middle Ages when an archaeologist uncovers the Necronomica, an ancient book of the dead. Once warped into the past, he must find the book in its orignal context, save humanity, defeat the army of the dead, and find his way back to modernity (or is it post-modernity?).

The journey back in time brings out the motif of the modern guy with modern tools who has his way with the primitive folk of the Dark Ages. This theme is not original. Mark Twain explores it with humor in his book A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. However, in Army of Darkness - the final film in the "Evil Dead" trilogy - it is heavy-handed due to bad timing, Campbell's mediocre acting, and an atrocious script.

Sam and Ivan Raimi's script could have produced some funny moments, as it pairs Hollywood's medieval lingo with Campbell's modern action-hero one-liners; but it overplays this contrast to the extent that it becomes tedious after the film's first five minutes, and even borders on tasteless.

For example, before Campbell kisses the "leading maiden" of the movie, we are forced to listen to him say to her, "Gimme some sugar, baby." Of course his one-liners are meant to be cheesy, but this does not make them any less irritating. If anything, the fact that the script is supposed to be funny makes it even worse. When drama is unintentionally bad, at least the viewer can laugh at it. Bad comedy, on the other hand, is merely boring.

The action of the movie is as tedious as the script. Cheesy ghouls and skeletons pop up at every turn, and because the film is half-parody we are supposed to regard their unnecessary, irritating appearance as fun or humorous. Apparently, we are also supposed to regard Campbell's constant exaggerated looks of surprise as part of the humor. Bad acting and constant cheese, however, are not sufficient ingredients to evoke laughter. Army of Darkness is probably one of the worst movies of all time, and it is this very lack of quality that the film unsuccessfully attempts to pass off as comedy.

Army of Darkness shows tonight at Kettering 11 at 7:30, 9:30 and 11:30 p.m. for $1.