Fallen (Snap Case Packaging)
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Movie Reviews of Fallen (Snap Case Packaging)
Movie Review: Fallen in Philly has sight gags.
Summary: 4 Stars
First may I say that this is an excellent movie on Spiritual forces that motivate people to do evil. The script involves a Philadelphia Homicide Detective who accidentally stumbles on the reality of the Devil. Detective "Hobbes", which if you do some checking, the double "b" was the ancient name for the Devil in England. A tribute to " Quatermass and the Pit", a British horror movie on Evil and Martian inheritance,is played very well by Denzel Washington and John Goodman as his partner serves a great supporting role. As explained by others, spirits move by either contact or death of a host. Once known, they hound the discoverer to his/her death, ala' "Mary Rose".
By control of people, places and events they can lead you to do what you don't wish to do and force everything against you. When we encounter "possessed" people, we see what they see. A slightly off color spectrum, not quite as good as the human eye. This was similar (along with the background music) to "Wolfen" with Albert Finney, and the quick movement is obviously drawn from that film.
As to sight gags, there is one scene where Hobbes feels that he is being followed. He sees a shadow climbing the train station (looks like North Philadelphia Station). When he gets to the top, The " presence" is felt but Hobbes can't see him. However, if you look closely at the station sign, you will see the word "Willoughby" very clearly. This of course was the mythical station of Gart Williams, who jumped off the train in a famous "Twilight Zone" episode to escape the stress of his corporate job where he sees a peaceful community set in the 1800s and walks off with the old conductor in that time, but is in fact the name of a funeral parlor in the modern world as his actions are chalked up to suicide where he is said to have jumped from the train shouting "Willoughby"
Little things like these keep showing up during the film. Strange artwork inside buildings, all related to the Devil or Angels and The "witching hour" phone calls at 3AM. The humans involved who know living like mendicant monks, afraid to get involved with others because of the fear of peril for the innocent. Also the Rolling Stones music "Time is on my side" and "Sympathy for the Devil", all very appropriate in their roles for this work.
Very close to the spiritual truth, save for the mortality of evil and certain mumbo jumbo. Philadelphia locations are excellent. Geno's versus Pat's steaks continue their war in this work and there is a lot of Septa Rail line filming, sections of Manayunk, City hall courtyard and the old Holmesburg Prison. All nicely disguised and done well. Very entertaining and well acted.
Movie Review: Fallen (1998)
Summary: 4 Stars
Cast: Denzel Washington, John Goodman, Donald Sutherland, Embeth Davidtz, James Gandolfini, Elias Koteas, Gabriel Casseus, Michael J. Pagan.
Running Time: 123 minutes
Rated R for violence and language.
"Fallen" starts with convicted serial killer Edgar Reese (Elias Koteas) being executed in the gas chamber as the man who brought him to justice Detective Jon Hobbes (Denzel Washington) looks on. Hobbes thinks that this is the end but soon has to rethink as he receives a phone call which tells him to check a house out where he finds a dead man named Muscovich (Glen Witko) in a bathtub having been poisoned, the same way Reese used to kill his victims. At first Hobbes fears a copy cat killer but during the course of his investigation the name Robert Milano comes up, a decorated cop who apparently committed suicide. Hobbes speaks with his daughter Gretta (Embeth Davidtz) who at first is reluctant to speak with him. Things become even stranger when the man who killed Muscovich, Charles (Robert Joy) is found dead in exactly the same way having been poisoned again. Eventually Gretta tells Hobbes the truth, he is in fact dealing with an ancient demon called Azazel who has the power to jump form body to body at will by mere psychical touch. The demon Azazel seems to be taunting Hobbes, ruining his life & career, setting him up for murder & getting to his friends & family. Hobbes must find a way to destroy the ancient demon before it destroys him & everyone he cares about.
Charismatic leading man Denzel Washington is suitably cast as the protagonist and proves to have range, while John Goodman is okay but greatly underused while the same applies to James Gandalfini who plays almost the exact same character. Donald Sutherland doesn't prove to have any range, doing the usual gruff routine that he does in nearly all of his movies. Embeth Davidtz is a talented and totally under-rated actress. She delivers a good performance and shows great potential for the future. The directing and camera work in this movie was superb. It was done in such a way where you can see Azazel's spirit go from person to person simply by following the camera up and down the crowd and watching the subtle touches one makes in a normal walk about town. Although this film does require your full attention, it does not go unrewarded and you are not left at the end scratching your head wondering what had happened for the past two hours. "Fallen" is an intelligently written, supremely efficiently executed, and one of the most unheralded, unnoticed thrillers of the late part of the decade. One of the better of its kind.
Movie Review: The Less You Know Going In, The Better
Summary: 4 Stars
This was a terrific film that spends the first half being a mystery and the second half in gripping suspense. I thought the blending was unique and satisfying. The only problem with this picture is that the first second of any given commercial for it or the first few lines of any review of it give away the entire mystery so that the first half of the film could turn quite boring as you wait for something unexpected to happen. IF you do not know the plot (or can pretend you don't!) the first half is really intriguing, leading up to a powerful sequence revealing what is going on and then speeding and chilling at a nice pace towards an amazing ending. The film borders on horror without being a gore fest.Chief merit of this film, which bump it up to the four stars for me: Films dealing with supernatural villainy tend to become stupid when they don't respect the power of the villain. There is nothing wrong with creating a monster that is unrealistic or unusual, just there must be some sense of rules to how he functions. See that AWFUL mummy movie that they have now even, shamelessly, sequeled, for a perfect example of what not to do: make a monster in theory very scary for its power and then make him extremely unscary in practice when you realize that he can be stopped by tying his shoe laces together so he trips when he tries to chase you. The superficial conquering of or escaping from a creature of great power reveals his power to have been not anything worth being scared of. A power is not made scary as a promise but by a practice.
SO, this film for making its villainy frightening and the resolution of the film one which depends on the particularities of the powers the film is about so that the ending result for the monster is fitting to its nature and not simply a dumb way to try an end a movie that started with a good but impractical (or impractically conceived) super-villainy and didn't bother to consider the ending when starting.
In honor of this film's use of intriguing character rules that set limits on how the evil can be destroyed and how it cannot (tying shoe laces together not being among the options), and its resolution in accordance with those rules, and in honor of a nicely frightening experience, I hereby bestow upon "Fallen" four Amazon.com stars.
Oh yeah, Goodman and Sutherland... terrific.
Movie Review: Effective and atmospheric thriller
Summary: 4 Stars
John Hobbes (Denzel Washington) believes that he's conquered his demons; the man convicted of a series of brutal murders that he hunted and caught has been put to death. Or has he? Suddenly, murders with a very similar MO begin happening. Hobbes gets phone calls from someone he comes to believe is the man he saw put to death? But how could that be? With the help of a sharp linguist (the astonishingly beautiful and talented Embeth Davison) Hobbes discovers that evil doesn't truly die but constantly gets "reborn".
An effective thriller director by Gregory Hoblit ("Primal Fear"), "Fallen" does occasionally stretch credibility but, on the whole, it's a gripping and powerful thriller along the lines of "Angel Heart". Mixing elements of "The Exorcist" and ""The Silence of the Lambs", "Fallen" features a sharp performance by Denzel Washington and a strong supporting cast including John Goodman as Hobbes disbelieving partner. Hoblit's direction manages to gloss over some of the cracks in Nicholas Kazan's imaginative screenplay. The incredible craft of the film makes you realize how inept recent thrillers have been.
The video quality is very solid although some of the darker sequences do suffer a bit in this DVD transfer. Overall, the image quality is stellar. The audio has very nice presence with the dialogue coming through with clarity and crispness. It's evident that this hasn't been remastered for its re-release. It looks very consistent with the previous edition released to DVD.
Although it doesn't any extras, there's a very good commentary track. Featuring director Hoblit, writer Kazan and producer Charles Roven focuses more on the performances, how he tried to bring credibility to the more incredible elements of the screenplay and what was changed along the way from conception to production.
If you're looking for a solid, creepy movie to watch this Halloween (though this one isn't appropriate for the kids. It deserves its "R" rating although not quite as much as the much gloomier, darker "Se7vn" another terrific thriller), you may fall for this creepy, effective and atmospheric thriller. Take a walk on the dark side this Halloween and visit those who have "Fallen".
Movie Review: Kept Me Hooked
Summary: 4 Stars
There have been a lot of mixed comments about this movie over the various review forums on the Net, (other than Amazon, which I have not read in depth). Some have really loved "Fallen" and some have particularly disliked it. For certain groups, there may be something to dislike. However, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, and have since seen it many times.
John Hobbes, (Washington), chasing a demonic serial killer is a great premise for a movie's plot, and something that has loads of potential to explore related themes. The movie does not scare you silly in the sense of making you jump with shock, (though in one place it does), but it more gives you a sense of forboding about what it is suggesting as possible: demons playing games with people and killing for fun. In this case, Azazel is the singing "bad guy" with an amazingly limited range of songs for someone over 10,000 years old, and is just having fun.
Thought-provoking movies really are enjoyable, and this one certainly gives one a bit to think about. The only thing that I would have added to the movie, for which it had the potential, is more of the "shock" element. However, that is merely a personal taste, and certainly nothing to detract from the plot, the movie or the wonderful acting of the stars and cast.
There are little clues throughout the movie, but not too many to give the game away to the viewer.
As a supernatural thriller, "Fallen" is a fantastic story that is well told. If you are looking for something that will make you jump, sadly "Fallen" won't do that much. If you are just looking for a very disturbing and tense story with a twist, then "Fallen" is your thing. I loved it, simply put.