21 Worst Comic-Book Movies

THE SHADOW (1994)

There once was a time when Alec Baldwin was going to be Hollywood's next great leading man, Penelope Ann Miller was going to be Hollywood's next great leading lady, and Russell Mulcahy (Highlander) was going to be Hollywood's next great action director. Then came The Shadow, an ambitious new take on the old pulp hero that flopped with audiences and critics and effectively dented the movie careers of its headlining talent. It's a shame. The movie is messy with cool retro style and rich ideas — especially its darker-than-the-Dark Knight vigilante, a gun-blazing psycho with mystically derived psychic powers — but they fail to gel into a comprehensive (or comprehensible) whole. And the Asian characters, like John Lone's villainous Shiwan Khan, toe the line of racist stereotypes. But its bigger sin is being a shoulda-been, coulda-been missed opportunity for all involved. —Jeff Jensen