Sorry to resurrect such a long dead thread, but one of the theaters finally got it here. (Being John Malkovich finally arrived, too. I saw both of them today.)
I loved this movie. Was not offended at all, and I doubt I would have been even back in my fundy days. Nearly as funny as South Park and much smarter. The best $4.00 I’ve spent in a long, long time.
Of course, I’m a big Kevin Smith fan, so I may be a little biased. OTOH, I think this is his best movie yet, including Clerks. I do agree that his direction leaves something to be desired, but I think he more than makes up for it with his writing.
I saw it a week or so ago and I liked it too. It was different and had interesting ideas and make me think as well as laugh. It’s not for everyone, though. The language gets to be a bit much (but does seem to work with the characters, unlike in “Blair Witch” where is was used INSTEAD of dialogue.) And the end is a bit grisly, but I’d definately say the good outweighed the bad. For the record, I’ve always hated both Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, but thought they both did a good job in this.
PatrickM, the reason no one could find them was, as Azrael revealed near the end, was he cast a mid level spell he picked up in hell somewhere that made them untraceable or something.
Also, the reason it would prove God flawed is because She (that feels wierd typing that) should have forseen the decision by the Catholic Church to make this portal what it became (forgot the name), and, on top of that, it would cause Her to contradict Herself. As was quoted, whatever the Church says on Earth is law in Heaven. Therefore, God cast the angels down, not to return to Heaven. Yet, if they became human, then passed through the gate, then died, they would be forgiven, and be let into the gates of Heaven. That’s not the real hole. The only one I saw, and I may be wrong, is that Bethany (name?) was in church, listening to the Father as he talked about the John Doe, who was at that time in Illinois, but then, the John Doe somehow became a person in New Jersey, and Bethany had never heard of him. I may be remembering wrong, though. I do that sometimes.
Other than that, I think the reason they could leave Wisconsin is because of Azrael’s spell.
–Tim
We are the children of the Eighties. We are not the first “lost generation” nor today’s lost generation; in fact, we think we know just where we stand - or are discovering it as we speak.
The John Doe was never in Illinois; he was always in New Jersey (if you see it again, note the location caption on the bottom of the screen when he first appears). The Illinois priest brought John Doe up during the sermon because he had become the latest objet d’celebre (sp?): the Catholic Church was trying to highlight his case in their fight against assisted suicide.
As for Bethany not remembering this- that’s half the joke. The priest drones on and on, and, yes, there’s important information in his sermon, but because he doesn’t seem to care about it, and because no one else in the pews seems to care about it, it gets immediately forgotten.
JMCJ
Die, Prentiss, Die! You will never have a more glorious opportunity!
Voltaire, I’m in the Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia tri-state area. (I live in KY, but most of the theaters are in WV.) The $4.00 was a matinee price, but the regular tickets are still only about $6. Not bad, considering what people pay in other parts of the country, so I can’t complain about that.
And yes, BJM was great. John Cusak impresses me more and more with his versatility. Malkovich, with the job of showing different personalities, also did an excellent job. Plus, it’s rare that such a surreal movie gets made that involves such great talent.
Oh, yeah. Not all movies take so long to come out here. Just the ones with a limited release. I count myself lucky that we got either of them here at all. I had to wait for Chasing Amy to come out on video.
SPOILERS: The idea of God being lonely is one of the most startling theological notions to come out of pop culture since Zeus did it as a bull. The idea of Jesus being scared to learn who He really was tops it.
The forgiveness of Afflecks’ angel is simply beautiful.
