Fri 3 Jun 2005
Constantine
Directed by: Francis Lawrence.
Written by: Jamie Delano (comic book Hellblazer), Garth Ennis (comic book Hellblazer), Kevin Brodbin (story), Kevin Brodbin (screenplay) and Frank A. Cappello (screenplay).
Actors: Keanu Reeves, Rachel Weisz, Peter Stormare.
Released: 2005.
MPAA Rating: R.
Length: 121 min.
Fantasy, Thriller.
Brief outline (no spoilers):
John Constantine (Reeves) is a chain smoking exorcist. He is stuck between heaven and hell chasing demons. He meets the female police detective Angela (Weisz) who is trying to figure out the suicide of her twin sister. Constantie is slowly dying from lung cancer and he is trying all he can to break the promise of going to hell by doing good deeds.
Personal opinions
The fun thing about this movie is that you get to see Reeves playing a pale broken down man. Even though he has lung cancer, he still smokes like there is no tomorrow, then he breaks down coughing. Other roles Reeves has been playing he is always the slick hot shot.
This movie is based on the comic, but I am not sure I like the comic to movie type of movies. It seems to become very unbelievable. There was a very high expectation for the movie, and that is probably the reason for feeling short changed.
Good
It is not all bad you get entertained in between. It is some entertaining fighting with the demons. The iron knuckle he uses with crosses on is just hillarious.
Bad
The computer graphics are a bit bad, the demons in hell seems very sterile. It is a lot of scorching going on, should not everybody be black of sot if there was a lot of burning going on.
There was also a little segment after the credits, not many are going to see that.
It is demons that are the bad guys in this movie, but the whole movie seems very close to zombie movies.
Bottom Line
If you like movies with the battle of good and evil you should see it. If Reeves is your hero you should see it. It is possible that the fans of the comic will love it or hate it. It could be that the tubegator do not “get” the movie.
Rating: 5/10 (where 10 is the best).