paulclaassen
This film might not appeal to everyone due to the good vs evil plot in a religious context. Although the film is rather weird at times, it was enjoyable and the very good cast makes it convincing. Christopher Walken is exceptional! The visual effects are also very good for its time. The film became a cult classic and spawned four sequels.
qmtv
The best part of the movie is the end. Unfortunately, it looks like there were 4 sequels. I got this movie in a pack of 8 films for 7.36 + tax. So, it cost a $1 and time. Here's the first problem. It is in super wide shot. On my TV 1/3 on top, and 1/3 on bottom is black. The center of the screen, 1/3 is the movie. This sucks.From then on, I noticed the audio is crap. Hard to understand the dialogue. The music, sound effects and dialogue had a serious mix problem. OK. Now, the story. Basic idea, some of god's angels are not satisfied and want to turn Heaven into another Hell. I guess that right. Now, the simple idea is fine. The details of the story and the execution sucks. We have a fallen priest that becomes a cop. This guy sucks as an actor. Plain and simple. Then we get Eric Stoltz as Simon as a good angel. He is a decent actor, but his dialogue and character sucks. We get the bad angel Christopher Walken as Gabriel. This guy is probably one of the best actors around. However, his character is one of the worst around. So, he's another fallen angel, via Brooklyn Mob circles. What the hell is up with that Brooklyn tough guy accent? Give me a freaking break. Then we have some school teacher and a little girl. All crappy actors. Satin shows up, because he doesn't want another Hell to compete with his. One more thing. The fx suck too. This thing sucked. It's a sad joke. Christopher Walken fans should not see this. Please don't. No one should see this.Complete failure. F. 1 star. Garbage.
RomeoKnight
Supporting actors Christopher Walken, Viggo Mortensen and Eric Stoltz pretty much are the only reasons for this movie not to fall utter garbage category. Lead actors Elias Koteas and Virginia Madsen are extremely wooden card board cuts with no emotion, no charisma, no nothing. Where did they find these nobodies makes me wonder? Koteas has the same dumb face for the whole movie no matter whether he finds a box full of human faces or tries to pray for God in a desperate and sentimental act. Madsen has a same monotonous repertoire for emotions and expression. Lady schoolteacher finds a burned dead human body from their schools attic and what is her reaction? Nothing. Just like she would have found a dead rat. Or maybe burned "homeless people" are so common in the states and have no human value that you can just shrug your shoulders and continue with your daily chores. That was just a one example. Sure, you can also blame the script but for some reason, I don't think Walken had any better script and he managed to improvise the hell out of his role.While the story was interesting, it was pretty weak and there wasn't much more into this except brilliant performances from supporting actors. What a waste of a good fantasy/thriller movie. 6/10
phatmann8
This was like one of those movies that you see when randomly flicking through the channels looking for something to watch then find yourself getting sucked in by the story. Despite being made in the mid-90s it felt like an 80s movie in terms of style and setting - reminded me of Children of the Corn or The Lost Boys in terms of where it was set. The cast was pretty decent with the likes of Walken, Mortensen, Stoltz, Koteas, Goldberg and Madsen all doing a good job, but not amazing, and overall it was more enjoyable than I expected. In terms of an overall rating I would say about a 7.5 but as halves aren't available on here I've marked it as 7/10.
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