A superhero movie from a time when there wasn't one every two weeks, i.e. the 1990's, The Shadow sees Alec Baldwin's bizarrely named Lamont Cranston taking on a descendant of Genghis Khan in order to save the world. He does this by using a odd set of powers taught to him by a monk back in the days this American hero was a warlord in China...
brilliant...
A synopsis of this film makes little sense, so it's a wonder that the plot holds together. That any of this works at all is down to some great casting, not least in Baldwin's charming (anti?)hero - he's ably supported by turns from hammy Tim Curry, funny Peter Boyle and pre-Gandalf/Magneto Ian McKellen. It was these names that drew me to the film, plus I have a soft spot for superhero movies of course. And it was for these names that I stayed.
but...
Aside from a prologue that was mirrored years later in Batman Begins, the film The Shadow most reminded me of was Dick Tracy - both obviously had a lot of money spent on effects and guest cast, and little attention paid to scripts and anything more than an average finished product. There's just something about The Shadow that doesn't work, and the fault seems to lie with the titular hero, who we meet ordering a man's death and than are expected to root for as he goes about fighting crime. And while Baldwin would prove hilarious decades later in TV's 30 Rock, here he's not given material to really bring out his inner comic. I can't believe that David Koepp - writer of Jurassic Park - scripted this mess. But it's not all bad, there are worse ways to pass 2 hours.
briefly...
A Dick Tracy-style mess of style and little substance, The Shadow could have done with being a lot darker, like a certain Knight, or keeping it light all through, รก la Batman & Robin.
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