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An angel turned bad
I have not watched one really good movie about the idea that heaven is having a war, either with hell or within itself, and The Prophecy (1995) is no exception.
The problem with movies that deal with angels is that they tend to aim for grandiose and dramatic- after all, the subject matter is about God and the forces of good and evil. However, when these movies about good and evil aim for grandiose and dramatic, they tend to fall short and you end up with something drawn out and lacking in depth.
Thomas Daggett (Elias Koteas) is a former priest turned cop investigating the death of what appears to be an angel. Soon, he is mixed up in a civil war between heaven’s angels. Daggett must try and stop leader of the rebelling angels, Gabrielle (Christopher Walken) from finding a dark soul that Gabrielle wants to use to help win the spiritual war.
Walken is great as Gabriel, a malevolent pale-faced angel who bitterly refers to humans as ‘talking monkeys’. Eric Stoltz does a good laid-back job of playing Simon, who is fighting for the good side of the angel civil war.
I noticed that there are three actors from Pulp Fiction (1994) in this movie- Christopher Walken, Eric Stoltz and Amanda Plummer (Honey Bunny). Perhaps this was a deliberate choice to make this film more gritty? I’m not sure. As far as I could find out, there’s no real reason for this casting except coincidence.
One thing that The Prophecy has going for it, is its characters are interesting. I couldn’t quite follow the reason as to why Gabrielle wanted to find a dark soul so badly, but watching characters try to find it is gripping. Viggo Mortensen’s portrayal of the devil is adequately chilling.
What we have here is a crime thriller…with angels. It works to some degree. I like the idea that angels are God’s dirty errand boys (or in this case hermaphrodites). I like the idea that Christopher Walken plays an angel that has been around since the dawn of time, yet he speaks with a thick Boston accent and looks like a hit man.
However, the movie is too long. It doesn’t manage to hold on to the curious intrigue of the initial set up of the film. It de-evolves into a basic survival film.
2 out of 5
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Creepy
Every great villain has a great origin story. People evolve personalities based upon their experiences throughout their lives, so an origin story tries to answer the question: what could have possibly happened to make someone so diabolically evil?
Hannibal Rising (2007) is the great Hannibal Lector’s origin story. It is a sad tale of revenge, revealing the events that turn a young boy into the monstrous Dr. Lector.
Lector was, of course, made famous in Silence of the Lambs (1991) by actor, Anthony Hopkins. In Hannibal Rising, we see Lector as a small boy (Aaran Thomas) and then as a young murderous adult (Gaspard Ulliel).
Perhaps the greatest villain in movies history is Darth Vadar. Audiences all over the world flocked to cinemas just so that they could try and get some insight into how Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader. The evil villains we love to watch have deep seeded psychological issues that have molded their minds into the warped mental state that motivates them to act the way they do, which is why it is so morbidly fascinating to watch. Hannibal Rising is interesting for this reason.
The film begins in 1944 during the war. While eight-year-old Hannibal Lector and his younger sister, Mischa are trying to survive in a cabin in the woods, they are found by a group of lecherous SS militiamen. The events that unfold are what are responsible for turning Hannibal into the monster he becomes. Needless to say, the beginning of the film is gruesome and horrifying. The rest of it is a revenge story, with Lector going after the men whose actions affected him so deeply.
Gaspard Ulliel does an okay job of portraying Lector as a young adult, however, he completely lacks the charisma and charm of Anthony Hopkins, which is disappointing. This, however, is an unfair thing to say, because we are meeting Lector before he was a brilliant psychologist with developed charisma. We are meeting him as he is developing his murderous traits. We are meeting him as he becomes a monster.
Now I understand why origin stories are often forgotten about in movies. The Star Wars franchise originally started with Episode 4: A New Hope, because it wasn’t necessary to explain in detail how Darth Vadar came to be (it really wasn’t- the new movies were terrible, I don’t care what you Star Wars nerds say). Sometimes it is better to leave the audiences wondering- how?
Hannibal Rising isn’t a bad movie, but it isn’t particularly great, and like the new Star Wars films, it wasn’t necessary. In the big scheme of the Hannibal Lector franchise, it’s a bit of an anti-climax because it is attempting to explain Lector’s personality as the cause of an event, rather than being the result of a brilliant (and disturbing) mind.
2.5 out of 5
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Click here to watch the pilot
After reviewing the lackluster Hellboy Animated: Sword of Storms (2006), I decided to remind myself of how good a Mike Mignola creation can be by watching The Amazing Screw-On Head (2006)- a pilot based on one of Mignola’s other creations.
Screw-On Head is a government agent, working for President Abraham Lincoln during the civil-war era, who specializes in fighting the paranormal. Also, his head can be screwed onto different bodies. When one of Screw-On Head’s previous man servants gone bad, Emperor Zombie, steals an ancient text and a translator that will help him awaken an evil demi-god, Screw-On Head, Mr. Dog and Mr. Groin, are sent to save the day.
The Amazing Screw-On Head stays true to Mignola’s comic artwork, and looks fantastic as an animation. The voice acting is brilliant, with Paul Giamatti (The Illusionist, American Splendor) voicing Screw-On Head, David Hyde Pierce (Frasier) as Emperor Zombie and comedian, Patton Oswold as Mr. Groin.
Writer, Bryan Fuller, who has worked on series Heroes and Star Trek: Voyager is perfect for this sort of cartoon. The writing is snappy, dry and funny. Combined with the voice acting talent, this really is a pleasure to watch.
It’s such a pity that this wasn’t picked up for a series when the pilot is indicative of a brilliant show. I can only imagine that network executives thought it was too weird for audiences.
I highly recommend you give it a watch and decide for yourself.
4.5 out of 5
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'Crap'
I enjoyed Mike Mignola’s comic creation, Hellboy when it was adapted onto the screen in 1994. Guillermo del Toro who directed Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) has an eye for the creepy and gothic, and was a good choice for bringing to life a movie in which the characters are all mostly monsters
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I call this smoldering expression, 'desperation with a smirk'
Michael Clayton (2007) is about a man by the same name, played by George Clooney. Clayton is a law firm’s ‘fixer upper’. When Arther Edens, a lawyer who has been building a case for one of the law firm’s largest clients, U-North, stops taking his meds and starts building a case for the opposing side, Clayton is called in to handle the situation. However, Clayton slowly realizes that there might be truth to Eden’s apparent insanity
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Moments before being torn to shreds by screaming fans (literally)
It’s a little known part of film history that in 1968, academy award winner, Jack Nicholson and producer, Bob Rafelson smoked a lot of weed with the manufactured pop group, The Monkees, and brainstormed a bunch of whacky ideas that resulted in the film, Head (1968
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Uh oh, back to All Saints for me
Some praise Gabriel (2007), an Australian gothic-style action film, for having such a low budget but I say if you have a low budget, do not make an effects based action film. The reason is that without money filmmakers will rely on bad CGI and cheap editing tricks. Good special effects cost money. If you don’t have money make a film about a group of students who get lost in the forest and film everything on a camcorder while being terroized by a witch, or a black and white comedy about two clerks. Do not make a movie based in purgatory about good and bad angels fighting over the control of the souls that reside there. Especially if you have nothing new to add to the old take on heaven and hell battling it out for souls story. What you end up with is a film that looks like a music clip for a Christian metal band
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I should masturbate. No. I should write something first and then reward myself by masturbating
Charlie Kaufman is one of the best film writers in the business today. Everything he has written has turned into a piece of genius (except for perhaps the okay but not great Human Nature, which we can look past).
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One of the lesser used methods of trying to kill somebody
Some can create something from nothing. North by Northwest (1959) starts off with advertising executive and mama’s boy, Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) being mistaken for a government agent, and consequently being kidnapped. From this mysterious starting point the movie continues with added twists and layers, creating an involving thriller. Alfred Hitchcock, his talented cast of actors and writer Ernest Lehman created something from nothing. These days movies that start off with an ordinary man caught in an extraordinary situation collapse on themselves as the plot becomes confusing and stupid. If North by Northwest was made today, it would star Will Smith spurting lame dialogue from a convoluted plot that didn’t make sense
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Seriously, why would you want to kill Rose McGowan?
In 2003, legendary cult directors, Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez came up with the idea of making a film each, and playing them together as a double feature. The two films, Planet Terror and Deathproof (2007) were released under the name Grindhouse, which is what old movie theatres that screened B-grade exploitation films were called back in the day
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