DEVIL’S ADVOCATE (1997. Dir: Taylor Hackford)
S P O I L E R S
A H E A D
DEVIL'S ADVOCATE is lots of fun. And one shouldn’t be surprised: it was written by subversive schlockster Larry Cohen. Sure, Larry Cohen's name ain't on the credits (the guys credited did rewrites for the studio), but the film simply stinks of Larry Cohen. Who else would name a character in the employ of the devil "Clintin", or cast Don King and congressman D'Amato as friends of the devil, add the father/son plot just like in IT'S ALIVE, name the devil "John Milton", write the hilariously blasphemous speech by Al Pacino towards the end, connote circumcision to voodoo rituals and lots of other delicious stuff that makes many of the films LC directs overcome their occasional problems of dramatic continuity, etc. . Pacino was great. a sheer joy. Like a friend said, "CARLITO'S WAY was work. this was fun". Pacino devilishly enjoys every damned minute he's in there. Not needing to carry the film on his shoulders, he is more than willing to give it the extra something. Reeves manages not to become a nuisance, which is a vast improvement (His Jonathan Harker deserved to be cheated upon and shot which unfortunately he wasn't. Instead he got to have super sex with three voluptuous females of the vampire species. cruel world). The rest of the cast is good. The effects by Rick Baker and Rob Bottin are excellent, The direction is polished, sure, but not without its share of small fuck-ups. It does miss out on the opportunity to present New York as a visual equivalent of the INFERNO, as done for instance in FATAL ATTRACTION ten years ago (although that might have been too obvious a decision) Isn't it funny that a film so deep in Christian issues was written and produced by Jews?
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