DOGMA
A film review by Christopher Null
Copyright 1999 Christopher Null
filmcritic.com
That's it. Kevin Smith is going to Hell. Big Hell, with a capital H.
In DOGMA, Smith's long-awaited and already vilified indictment of the Catholic church, the auteur has gone to great lengths to show us he can take on any establishment and gut it wide open. To wit:
DOGMA tells the story of two fallen angels (Affleck and Damon, natch) who decide to take advantage of a loophole in Catholic dogma and weasel their way back into Heaven. God's messenger (Rickman) is sent to convince the cynical Bethany (Fiorentino) to stop the angels because if they make it into Heaven, the world will end. Along the way, Bethany enlists the aid of a half-dozen nutty characters, including prophets Jay and Silent Bob (Mewes and Smith), the muse Serendipity (Hayek, inexplicably borrowed from Greek mythology), and the 13th Apostle Rufus (Rock). Jason Lee also makes his usual Smith movie appearance as Azrael, a demon trying to stop Bethany.
Make sense? If it doesn't, don't worry. Smith goes to great lengths to explain things over and over again, in long-winded monologues that pepper the entire film. In fact, the sermons are DOGMA's biggest failing. In trying to point out the fallacies of Catholicism, Smith becomes just as preachy and sanctimonious as the institution he's trying to lampoon. You can't fight fire with fire in this case.
While any film that features George Carlin as a Bishop trying to introduce a new Christian icon (Jesus giving the thumbs-up) gets my vote, and DOGMA is not short on laughs, too much of the film is flat. Jay's sex talk is disarming at first, tired by the end. Alanis Morrissette as God? Snooze. THE BUTCHER BOY already did Sinead O'Connor as the Virgin Mary. Now *that* takes balls.
Still, DOGMA remains one of the funnier films of the year. But more importantly, whether you agree with Smith or not, you're sure to be offended.
RATING: ***1/2
|------------------------------|
\ ***** Perfection \
\ **** Good, memorable film \
\ *** Average, hits and misses \
\ ** Sub-par on many levels \
\ * Unquestionably awful \
|------------------------------|
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Kevin Smith Producer: Scott Mosier Writer: Kevin Smith Starring: Ben Affleck, George Carlin, Matt Damon, Linda Fiorentino, Salma Hayek, Jason Lee, Alan Rickman, Chris Rock, Alanis Morrissette, Jason Mewes, Kevin Smith
http://www.dogma-movie.com
Christopher Null - null@filmcritic.com - http://www.filmcritic.com Author - Network Administrator's Reference, 1999 http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0078825881/filmcriticcom
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