Pretty Good

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

It's 1948 Los Angeles and magic is real. Hardboiled private detective Harry Philip Lovecraft (Fred Ward) refuses to use it. He is hired by rich Amos Hackshaw to recover the Necronomicon. Olivia Hackshaw is the flirtatious 16 year old daughter. Connie Stone (Julianne Moore) is a lounge singer. Harry Bordon (Clancy Brown) is the mobster club owner.The magical hard-boiled noir detective story is a great concept. It is held back by its TV level production. It could be a great action horror but it doesn't have the dark style or the budget. There is some sly humor but it needs a real comedian to pull it off. The humor comes too close to being camp. Ward could use a funny sidekick. This has some great value especially if one is familiar with the noir genre.

As much as I like Fred Ward and David Warner and the noir detective genre, this film is just a bit too silly. Filled with references to the writings of H.P. Lovecraft, this film seems to be satirizing Lovecraft's work rather than paying homage to it. The ending is way too predictable.There are lots of interesting concepts (zombie henchmen, etc.), but they just seem like individual characters/gimmicks made for a Role Playing Game.Producer Gale Anne Hurd hooked up with Fred Ward after she split from James Cameron (who hooked up with Linda Hamilton after making Terminator 2). They worked together on films like "Tremors"which have credits for 4- Ward Productions, so I wonder if that's a company she created in honor of Fred Ward.

This movie was excellent! The combination of old gangster, comedy, and horror was a great idea. The acting was excellent (Fred Ward rocks, as usual), and for an 80s film, it was really good (I'm not a big fan of the mall hair, brat pack, and Modonna crap that was hashed out in the big 80s).This film, quite the opposite was very entertaining and an absolute MUST HAVE for HPL fans.The entire movie was Lovecraft inspired and not a murder of his writings, like most of them are.Most definitely, check it out. You won't regret it. it's a great tongue-in-cheeck, campy horror schlock that is actually well done.If you like it, there's a sequel called "With Hunt" with Dennis Hopper as the lead. Not as good, but still entertaining.This film rates 7 tentacles and a star shaped protrusion all the way up, on the elder god-o-meter

I first saw this when it premiered on HBO in '91. With a Who's Who cast of character-actors, this first-rate production by Gale Anne Hurd (of James Cameron/Terminator fame) and directed by Martin Campbell (soon to direct Goldeneye and Mask of Zorro)is a brilliant mesh tribute to the works of HP Lovecraft. With a firm tongue-in-cheek, the viewer is taken along on the latest case of H. Phil Lovecraft, private detective in a 1948 Los Angeles where "everybody does magic". A relatively new happening, magic is real...everyone uses it, except Lovecraft. Fred Ward turns in one of his best performances to date as the hard-boiled detective, wise-cracking his way through every situation. Julianne Moore is spot-on as Phil's ex-girl, the sultry songbird in his former partner(Clancy Brown)'s club. David Warner is perfect as Lovecraft's effete client, Amos Hackshaw. It's a sharply-written noir tale with more than a few Cthulhu references, and adds some more generalized fantasy for spice. Pay attention to the details, this is where the picture really shines- from the everyday applications of magic, to the snappy banter between Lovecraft and pretty-much everyone, it's an enjoyable escape from reality-TV. The creatures are passable, not the best by today's CGI standards, but certainly not the worst seen in some straight-to-video bombs. The writing is stylish and inventive, with some really ingenious scenes/situations. Martin Cambell's direction takes you right along with Lovecraft, with some brilliant cinematography. The casting is terrific as well. I was never bored. One of my top-20 favorite films. I can't wait for a DVD version, if it ever appears. A terribly disappointing, not-so-great sequel called "Witch Hunt" was done in '94 with a completely different cast & director.