| Unbeknownst to humanity, a war has been raging among the angels for
centuries, ever since God demonstrated that He clearly favored human
beings. The prophecy is that the war will be settled when one side
acquires, uh, shall we say, a certain "object" (so I don't give away too
much plot). Angels from both sides are dispatched to earth in our time to
locate it. Simon, played by Eric Stolz, succeeds in locating it, but before
he can acquire it, he is attacked by another angel. They fight. Simon is
wounded but the other is killed, leaving an angelic corpse to baffle NY
City police detective Thomas Derrick (sp?) played by Elias Madsen. He's the
perfect cop for the case, having been given a vision of the angelic war
during his ordination ceremony, which shattered his faith and accounts for
why he is now a cop and not a priest. Still, his seminary training serves
him well enough to identify the dead angel by name and to translate the
ancient Bible found on the corpse, a Bible which contains an extra chapter
to Revelations that explains what the angels are up to.
Gabriel (Christopher Walken) arrives to destroy all the evidence and he and
Thomas now separately follow Simon's trail to a dying town in the desert
where Simon entrusts the fate of heaven to a schoolgirl.
This vision of angels is quite a novelty. More like vultures than holy
spirits, they frequently perch on objects and have a strong sense of smell
by which they can detect each other and even the scent of death. To some
extent, watching this is like watching "The Terminator", with a relentless
superhuman bearing down on a child and ordinary humans trying to save the
child for the sake of winning a war of cosmic proportions.
Walken is fascinating and I can't imagine anyone better suited to this
part. Unfortunately, he's just enough to sustain the movie, which otherwise
fails miserably. The plot makes little sense, a point that perhaps can be
forgiven on account of its occult nature. Some of the scenes are so dark,
one can barely make them out, but it goes along well with the blurred
metaphysics of the script. I think there was an opportunity for a more
clever consideration of the nature of good and evil, God's love and why so
many angels apparently aren't happy in heaven. The director was obviously
more comfortable with action and special effects than with thoughtfulness.
I recommend seeing it for half price only or wait for the video. As
I've said, Walken carries the movie and his performance alone is an
entertainment, but I can't really give the film a big thumbs up.
John
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| Well, I went to see it last week. The movie is terrible. I pretty
much new it was going to be bad because Dimension Films usually do
bad films. But, I love Christopher Walken as an actor. So I just went
to see it for him. Eric Stoltz was also an attraction. Don't get me
wrong. The plot was good. Dimension Films just do an excellent job
in ruining a perfectly good plot. A little time and effort would have
made it great. True there was a dark scene where I couldn't make out
what the hell they were trying to show me. Also, the visions of the
Angels was brief. I wanted them to go further with that. I loved
the perch idea. Christopher Walken was great with the kids at school.
Editing was terrible. Wait till the video comes out or watch it
Matinee style.
H.D.
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