Constantine
Director: Francis Lawrence
Year Released: 2005
Rating: 0.5
Hollywood's fixation with comic books sinks deep into the dregs with this story about a new-wave exorcist (Keanu Reeves) with a smoking problem (seeing Reeves make a show of opening the lighter is a cheesy delight) - it piles on the special effects and religious overtones but can't make sense of its own plot, which distracts you with violence and isn't happy until Lucifer shows up wearing his Sunday best. Some of the casting in inspired - Tilda Swinton, Pruitt Taylor Vince and Djimon Hounsou - although the lead singer of Bush, Gavin Rossdale, is as convincing as a demon as Keanu Reeves is as a human. That the holder of the Spear of Longinus is an illegal immigrant who 'jumps the fence' and kills some of our cows is a little suspect; the facts are garbled too - didn't Christ die of suffocation (which is what the crucifixion was all about)? Research, bah: did you see that guy's face get eaten by bugs? Dude!
