Warlock Review

Review of Warlock (1989) by screenqueeen: 👍 3.5/5

HOOPTOBER 11 DAY 32 -1 DAYS REMAIN {EXTENSION GRANTED BY THE GREAT STATE OF TEXAS TO 10/31/24} {16 DAYS REMAIN IN CLEMENCY} TITLE 21 OF 39

I really wish I had seen this sooner because this actually kinda rocked and would've propelled my unapologetic love for videotoaster trash like THE LORDS OF MAGICK and bottom-of-the-barrel scum like WIZARDS OF THE LOST KINGDOM II. Steve Miner directs the hell out of this and gives both Julian Sands and Richard E. Grant moments to shine. I wish they could have played off of each other some more instead of traipsing across their twisty dialogue, that only really seems to work when they're playing against a role in contrast. For instance:

The kid near the church playing video football accusing the Warlock of being worse than Tampa Bay because he chose to punt on 1st down is a gem I didn't think I'd see in something like this. And Giles Redfern arguing with a Boston cabbie about how to get around the city when he barely recognizes the area aside from errant park grounds is peak masculine "maps are for the weak" rhetoric. But when together, Sands and Grant should be more delicious yet the writing's boundaries don't give them any room to bend their character's personalities. They are a little too two-dimensional for the real drama to hit home but thankfully the present-day characters feel effortlessly real.

I'd recommend you save that experience for LORDS OF MAGICK (warning: PSA). It's the opposite in quality but gets the same kind of story across but a real treat -- that is, in the form of cardboard stone walls shot in murky dark videotape resolution offset with the incongruously bright & artificial wizard FX and actors muttering out-of-context beauty product ingredients from the backs of packaging to sell this dream world of magick.