He’s too boring to satire satirize.
Not much really goes right for Cast a Deadly Spell (1991), a private eye cum comedy cum supernatural cum … ummmmm I’m not sure what else to add into it. Hard-bitten private eye H. Philip Lovecraft, former cop, is hired to find a stolen book of the Necronomicon by a wealthy sorceror in late 1940s Los Angeles. That rare man who has not made a deal – literally – with the forces of supernatural evil, in his quest for the book he’s assailed by gargoyles, zombies, a minor hoodlum or two, even a unicorn hunter – and his ex. In the end, the bad guys are dead in suitably horrific ways, as are a few good guys.
The problem is that none of the facets are well done. Lovecraft, a Philip Marlowe analog, isn’t nearly as tough or world-weary to really be the anchor this story needs. The humor is far too understated, being mostly references to famous names from the various genres, and compared to the standard upon which such satires are judged, The Cheap Detective (1978), well, it hardly garners a grin. The supernatural’s rules are unstated, meaning they don’t exist and therefore any opportunity to display cleverness by playing off those rules is lost.
Not all is rotten in this state of Denmark. The visuals are mostly good, even cartoonish in a good sort of way. But the special effects ranged from, well, mundane to really fairly awful. The plot is mostly predictable, limp, and beset by weakly motivated actions. Characters come and go with only a little hand wave at using them to develop any themes beyond satirizing the originals – and then it’s not done all that well.
This is mostly a waste of an hour and a half, unless you’re a Julianne Moore completist, and she’s not really given enough material to be effective. So find something else to watch.
