THE SHADOW (1994) ** I like the idea of plumbing mid-20th century cartoon history for film ideas. None of them have turned out brilliantly yet but it's fertile ground, might I suggest "Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse" or "The Mad Adventures of Captain Klutz." The trick is to match your actors and characters, no easy task when turning egomaniacal stars into even contemporary cartoons, much less pencil renderings of yesteryear. So ultimately I applaud the selection of "The Shadow," but am disappointed at some of the execution. The sets are cartoon real, in the same league if not quite as brilliant as Dick Tracy, but Alec Baldwin doesn't emote the spiritual nature that his cartoon demands. Yeah I know, that sounds worse than it is...he's actually reasonably effective in the long-haired harlot-humping opium-smoking Mongol raider scenes but they account for maybe five minutes. Beyond that he's likeable but lacks the necessary depth to pull off 2-D at its finest, and his credibility is irreparably damaged by the fact that he looks more goofy than sinister with a red scarf pulled up over his nose with his manicured eyebrows sticking out beneath a black hat. There were plenty of roles for him in this film but not the lead, especially with Tim Curry and Jonathan Winters already on the payrole, the Himalayan camp possibilities boggle the mind. It's more fun than a waste of time but you have to be willing to leave at the end unconvinced that The Shadow really knows much.
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