The Prophecy II (1998)
**1/2 out of *****
Cast: Christopher Walken, Jennifer Beals, Russell Wong, Eric Roberts Written by: Matt Greenberg and Gary Spence Directed by: Gary Spence Running Time: 87 minutes
"The Prophecy II" is a vast improvement over the original. This direct-to-video sequel again stars Christopher Walken as the evil angel Gabriel, who's been cast out of hell and again wants to cause havok in heaven and on Earth.
This time Gabriel is in pursuit of nurse Jennifer Beals, who is to give birth to a half angel child. What this all means, I'm unclear on. The film's story is pretty murky about details. But I do know that Walken gives a very spirited and entertaining performance. Whenever he's on screen, the film shines. It doesn't matter what's going on at the time, because Walken's making it all worth while. Unfortunately, he's not on enough to really make the film work. Most of the film is a lot of religious psychobabble, none of which is really all too interesting.
Eric Roberts has a small role as the angel Michael (who I'm assuming is also who John Travolta played in 1996's "Michael"). His role seems pointless though, as he never really does anything except share a couple of lines with Walken.
"The Prophecy II" is a very good attempt, but still falls short of the mark of being something good. At least though the finale of this film isn't a meaningless duel between the evil angel and the devil, as was the case in the original. [R]
The Jacksonville Film Journal -- Film Reviews by Chuck Dowling URL: http://users.southeast.net/~chuckd21/ Email: chuckd21@leading.net
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