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The Devil's Advocate

The Devil's Advocate

List Price: $14.97
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I love it more every time I watch it
Review: I think I am finally going to have to admit that I like Keanu Reeves. Every movie I see him in, he's Ted. Ted the lawyer, Ted the Christ-figure, Ted the Buddha-figure, Ted the son of Satan, Ted the guy with the wife turning into a vapire, Ted the serial killer. He's just the same dopy guy in every movie and yet that character is really beginning to grow on me and I'm starting to realize that there is a difference between his roles. Maybe a subtle one but it's a difference. And he must be a very nice guy because he keeps ending up in all the great movies and despite how much I might be starting to like him he's still not THAT talented.

This is a movie of pure brilliant evil. Al Pacino would be great for the last 15 minutes alone when he's over the top, blaspheming against G-d, nature and the American Judicial System. But the fact that Pacino lets himself play it down for most of the movie is great. He's polite. He's suave and there's just something a little off about him. He also lets Keanu have most of the movie. Usually if you are on screen with Pacino, forget about being remembered unless you happened to be DeNiro, but in this movie the director and the actor know how to hang back and make Reeves look good.

Basically this movie is a parable about a lawyer without a conscience or at least without one that is going to stand in the way of winning. Due to his success he gets hired by a high-profile law firm with sinister undertones and begins to get a whole new breed of killers off. Oh yeah, the President of the law firm is Satan.

This movie has some beautiful scenes including the final denoument with Satan and Reeves as well as the empty street of New York City that Keanu Reeves walks over to get to his confrontation. Charlize Theron (sic?) is the unraveling moral fiber that undercuts Reeves' flirtation with the dark side. Where he makes choices and loses a little more of his soul, she goes insane and changes her Belinda Carlisle hairdo to the Belinda Carlisle-postcocaine hairdo.

This is an amazing movie. Brilliant and psychotic. Religious enough to please religious folks and blasphemous enough to entertain everyone else. Rent it, buy it and watch it over and over again.

One caveat: the lawyer as devil storyline has been done to death. It's great here but one wonders why the festering resentment against lawyers is so pervasive. Then again that is on of the few professionals besides drug dealer or hitman where people hate the successful practitioners. Oh well, occupational hazard for the neat cars and the big houses.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Sinful pleasure
Review: Al Pacino as Satan. Brilliant. Keanu Reeves with a faux southern accent. Eh, whatever. Charlize Theron. Does the word hominahominahomina mean anything to you?

This movie has it all, from humor, to suspense, to even a little horror. Rest assured, it *will* freak you out, but not in the give-you-nightmares kinda way. More like the did-I-really-just-see-that kinda way. You'll want to watch this one at least twice.

Pacino really nailed this part. I've never met Satan personally, but I have to imagine that he's gotta be something like this. Every imaginable pleasure is at his disposal, everything that might have been good is perverted, and lies and truth are spun together to the point that they are indistinguishable. Truly a master performance.

Reeves does remarkably well, despite his awful accent. I'm not usually too impressed with his performances, but he pulls this one off quite nicely. There's not too much to say other than that.

All in all, I would recommend this movie to just about anyone, except children or the easily offended. It definately has its moments that aren't for everyone's eyes or ears, but it is still a fantastic story with fantastic characters.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Devilishly Good Movie!
Review: Hat's off to Al Pacino on his performance in this film. I'm proud to own it on dvd. He deserves the oscar that he won for this film. I've seen several movies where actors play the devil, but I have to admit, 'ol Al showed 'em all how it's done.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: "Reeves and Pacino Duke It Out in 'Advocate'."
Review: "The Devil's Advocate" happens to be one of those dramatic films where nothing ordinary really happens, that is, if you are a lawyer who realizes that your new boss is Mr. Darkness himself. That's where Keanu Reeves steps in. He portrays Kevin Lomax, a hot Florida attorney who's never lost a case. Then he receives a visitor from New York who talks to him about how coming to the Big Apple to work for the mysterious firm Milton, Chadwick, Waters can enrich his life as well as Mary Ann's life, (Charlize Theron) too, by offering him a top salary and a first class apartment right next to Milton's, which is real hellish, thanks to the sculptures of nude bodies and the fireplace. Turns out Mary Ann gradually learns that John Milton, head founder of the firm, is the 'real-deal' Devil and his women are demons and she finally loses her sanity. Kevin's mother (Judith Ivey) then comes in to inform him of the horrendous events that have happened and certain info he needs to know. Now, it's up to Kevin to keep his soul from being incorporated by the firm and Milton himself. Right around the movie, it become a horror flick that I probably would of expected it to be, however, director Taylor Hackford, keeps it in a decent pace, although the nudity and violence really doesn't help that much to the film's plot. One tip about the music by James Newton Howard: it really puts me in suspense. Warner Bros./Regency Enterprises. Rated R (Restricted.)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Outstanding!
Review: Over acted and over dramatized and under acted and poorly performed, this is still one of my all time favorite movies and an outstanding piece of film making. Why? Because the over acting is perfectly done and the drama, though high, is right where it belongs. The direction and camera work are powerful and perfectly suited to the genre of the film. Al Pacino gives a stellar performance and carried an otherwise average cast to heights I don't think the writers dreamed of. Well cast, I can't think of anyone else who would have so convincingly and deliciously unconvincingly played the roles, and well executed, this movie is one of the greatest. Sacrilegious? Of course it is, it's a morality tale about the devil and his son, an attorney of all professions for a son of Satan to take! Laced with twists and turns, ups and down and the sensational ravings of Pacino's character, John Milton, there is not a dull moment throughout. Seriously, if viewer is prone to complain about the irreverent nature of this film, why are they considering buying or renting an R-Rated movie with profanity and nudity as features? So please don't wax theological on my review. If you're that serious about blasphemy, why are you reading this? There are reviews that say Keanu Reeves is wooden in his role but I can't imagine a better straight man for the part. Buy, rent, steal, whatever, this is a great movie.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: UHOH
Review: I should start by saying that I saw the cleaned up version of this film on television and so I wasn't exposed to the nudity and language the video offers.

I would like to say that the acting was great. Reeves was great and PAcino was knock out wonderful. Pacino's job, waving arms, wild hair and all was amazing. There is almsot nothing to compare it to.

I give the movie four stars, not five, because, even though it was a very moral film, there were some situations that were repulsive, or something.

The plot of redemption is terrific. The scene where Reeves is the only one on the street is sweet. The hands down best part of this film is the ending. Taken from the part where Reeves find the truth from his mother to the last line, the film amazes and stuns with the strk reality and truth of everything said and done. "Vanity, vanity, all is vanity," said Solomon. Pacino translates this to the screen very well.

Pacino's monologue at the end is brilliant in it's conception and presentation. The truth about God, evil, death, Satan and the choices we all make are presented here.

This movie prompted a low whistle from me at the ending and it continues to do so every time I see it. "Are we negotiating?" "Always."

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: STYLISH AND UNNERVING, BARRING SOME LABORIOUS SCENES..
Review: While I felt that the film could have been more crisply edited, it builds such unrelenting a crescendo that you'll be willing to indulge several minor scenes take forever to get to their point. How common is it for a film climax to sport a 15-minute scene of dialogue so provocative that the accompanying special effects can almost be ignored!

Keanu Reeves, who's usually a staid one-expression wonder fit for movies like Speed and Matrix, pitches in quite a remarkably absorbing performance here. Which was a pleasant surprise! Pacino needless to say is stellar as usual in his macabre role as Satan.

But the cake goes to Charlize Theron who fits the wife's character like a glove (a role that is never really clearly defined) and fills in some pretty yawning gaps, creating a gradual descent into madness which actually seems realistic enough to be taken seriously.

With slightly more crisp editing, the movie could have easily been the powerhouse it screams that it should have been, but it is still a very decent rental that'll hold for a couple of viewings!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Al Pacino as a leering devil
Review: Al Pacino plays Satan, a pretty good role for a New York lawyer bend on seducing hotshot attorney Keanu Reeves with the wicked and eternal trio of temptations: power, sex, and money. Reeves just kind of sits there, providing the perfect backdrop for Pacino's over-the-top performance of threatening menace and dizzying mayhem.
It's a good ride, and fun to watch Pacino put the devil thru his paces.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: If you want Justice...
Review: "...kill all the lawyers!"is buried somewhere in Shakespeare. Al Pacino's SATAN resurrects an idea of demoralizing what's left of Truth, Justice and The American Way via promotion of his ill-conceived Son as anti-Logos/anti-Christ. Much of the movie is predictable. But it's often scary because Godfather Al fiendishly relishes commanding Taylor Hackford's well-paced retelling of The Faust Fable. Keanu Reeves does a fine job as Lomax the lawyer on the "fast" lane to hell. FX are eerie and effectively unsettling. THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE is no EXORCIST, but it is a frightening anti-Odyssey about a young man facing powerful TEMPTATION and not realizing until it's way too late the nature of "offers he cannot refuse"...

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: if Pacino were your father, you'd shoot yourself too
Review: filled with some gross imagery and some fine performances, although Keanu has some wooden stuff he manages to capture the emotion and the spark at the end where he confronts Pacino, his father, then shoots himself sending Pacino back to hell. but all in all there is some tremendous nudity scenes in here, including at the end with Connie Nielsen and in the church with Charlize Theron, plus when Keanu makes whoopi with Theron then sees Nielsen and just trips out. Jeffrey Jones is out of place and some of the supportees lack this one but its an ok view, mostly for Pacino's energetic devil part.


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