Average Rating: 4.6/10
Reviews Counted: 44
Fresh: 15 | Rotten: 29
Bringing a classic pulp character to the big screen, The Shadow features impressive visual effects, but the story ultimately fails to strike a memorable chord.
Average Rating: 4.3/10
Critic Reviews: 9
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 6
Bringing a classic pulp character to the big screen, The Shadow features impressive visual effects, but the story ultimately fails to strike a memorable chord.
liked it
Average Rating: 2.6/5
User Ratings: 30,161
A crime fighter created in the 1930s and popularized in movies, pulp novels, and a radio show starring a young Orson Welles, The Shadow came back to life in 1994 in this slick, well-cast production. Alec Baldwin stars as Lamont Cranston, a murderous opium dealer reformed by a Tibetan mystic, who teaches him how to use his keen mental powers to manipulate others. As penance for his past misdeeds, Cranston masquerades as a degenerate New York City playboy by day and secretly plays the heroic
PG-13, 1 hr. 48 min.
Action & Adventure, Mystery & Suspense, Science Fiction & Fantasy
Jul 1, 1994 Wide
Nov 1, 1998
All Critics (44) | Top Critics (9) | Fresh (17) | Rotten (29) | DVD (7)
The movie has all the coherence of a bad acid flashback.
It has enough of the innocent exoticism and splendor of silent thrillers to suggest a continuity with the past missing from most other movies; all that's required is a capacity to sit back and dream.
Despite similarities as a vigilante creature of the night, however, the Shadow -- a character that enjoyed its greatest success in radio after being created in pulp novels -- lacks the visceral appeal of Batman and won't strike the same chord.
It offers a diverting, nostalgic retreat to the innocent days when crime fighting was a pleasant, rich man's hobby.
This thing is all packaging and no content, or, dare I say it, all shadow and no substance.
If you respond to film noir, if you like dark streets and women with scarlet lips and big fast cars with running boards, the look of this movie will work some kind of magic.
It's an entertainment that deserved to have become the first of a series.
A pleasant, eye-pleasing movie.
What's on the screen is so tired by now that you've seen it before even if this is your introduction to the Shadow.
Polished to a high surface gloss, but nothing lurks beneath; nothing at all.
Baldwin's low-key performance lacks charisma, Lone alternates between lip-smacking villainy and camp humour, and Miller is chiefly a clothes-horse for a series of slinky '30s frocks.
A triumph of special effects over story (and the effects are now totally dated).
Not a bad comic movie. I still think Baldwin would have made a great Batman.
chaotic and dull
This is actually a pretty good movie. Could stand up and surpass many of the Superhero movie's released in past 3 years. Alec Baldwin does an excellent job as in the role of the Shadow. Surprised to see Peter Boyle, Ian McKellen and Jonathan Winters in this one. Shiwan Khan has come to NYC with a Bomb and the Shadow
September 2, 2011Super Reviewer
In a true 30's period style this comicbook/pulp adaptation visually looks really nice and captures the atmosphere of the time perfectly, if you think along the lines of 'Dick Tracy' and 'The Rocketeer' then you will get an idea of the feel.The character of The Shadow isn't anything really special to be honest, its just
August 16, 2011Super Reviewer
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