The Prophecy
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Movie Reviews of The Prophecy
Movie Review: Check Your Haloes At The Door...
Summary: 5 Stars
Christopher Walken (The Dead Zone, Sleepy Hollow, Pulp Fiction) is the angel Gabriel, here on earth in mortal form, in order to find and acquire the darkest soul to ever live. Walken is his usual mixture of good / evil / funny / scary. He plays Gabe like a cool hitman w/ angelic abilities. Virginia Madsen (Candyman) is believable in her schoolteacher role, as is Elias Koteas as the ex-priest turned cop, Tom Dagget. We even get Eric Stoltz (Pulp Fiction, The Fly 2) as the angel Simon, and Adam Goldberg (Saving Private Ryan) as Gabriel's human slave! Even Amanda Plummer (another Pulp Fiction alum) pops up as a servant for Gabriel's use! If that's not enough, we even have Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn himself) as satan! All of these folks combine to make THE PROPHECY a classic! The little girl, Mary (Moriah Silver Dove Snyder) is convincingly innocent, and NOT a whiny brat or a trash-talking smarta$$, breaking w/ the usual hollywood idea of childhood as a time for being utterly annoying! How refreshing! Spiritual themes like God, heaven, hell, angels, immortality, souls, etc. are treated w/ respect and dignity, while keeping things exciting, frightening, and mysterious. I don't think I've seen a movie do that since THE EXORCIST and THE OMEN back in the 70s! Highly recommended... Movie Review: witty, intriguing
Summary: 5 Stars
Christopher Walkin was made to play Gabriel. He has some great dialogue to work with. The plot is riveting. Viggo was amazing as Satan.Movie Review: Great movie, transfer not so good
Summary: 3 Stars
I won't go into the movie's worth as entertainment here - suffice to say that I think it's awesome and well worth 5 stars. But in this review I'm focusing on the technical aspects which I feel detract from the DVD.
This DVD (ASIN: 6305268819) features a transfer that is known as 'matted widescreen' which works fine on smaller 4:3 TVs, but which looks awful on larger screen or widescreen TVs. I believe that every DVD today should be made in 'anamorphic widescreen' format so that the image is enhanced for viewing on a larger screen. If it's not then I think that the low image quality should be clearly marked in some way, as the lack of an anamorphic transfer makes a big difference in quality. In the case of this particular movie the image is very poor mostly due to the matted widescreen format that results in what's known as 'gutterboxing' (black bars all around the image) when the movie is played on widescreen TVs. Some TVs allow zooming in to fill the screen in cases like this, but then the image becomes very grainy - so much so that it's probably better to watch it in the 'gutterboxed' mode.
So in conclusion, those with the older standard 4:3 TVs under 30 inches probably won't notice any loss of resolution. But for folks like me with big screen TVs I advise waiting until this movie gets an updated DVD treatment. Alternatively, if you own a DVD player that can play region 2 discs, the British version (ASIN: B000069JE7 available from Amazon.co.uk) is an anamorphic transfer.
Movie Review: Gabriel played by Walken is priceless, Viggo Mortensen as the Devil, wow
Summary: 4 Stars
The movie in itself is lacking or rather the story is cheesy. So setting that aside it is, however creative and amusing, a must own. Its about the never ending war between heaven and hell, angles have come down both fallen and still in service to God to walk the earth hunting down a recently dead evil soul that Lucifer wants for his side. One angle found it and hid it inside a small girl. An ex priest to be now detective is following this case because of a past connection and chasing down the clues only to be slowed down by Gabriel who wants to start his own war. In turn a deal with the Devil was made.
Its a fun movie, I enjoy watching it over and over again.
Movie Review: Ambitious and entertaining film with fascinating performances.
Summary: 4 Stars
This is one ambitious movie. Not only does it cover some seriously controversial territory, it does so with style and an abundance of talented actors. I recall the first time I saw the movie back in the nineties and just how fascinated I was by the whole thing. Watching it now in a more critical way, I realise that it is certainly not without flaws, but nothing can take away just how interesting the plot is, nor how wonderful a couple of the performances are.
Angels come to Earth to continue a war that has been raging in Heaven. The angel Gabriel seeks a soul that he will use to end the war and subsequently open a new Hell. The angel Simon also seeks the soul, but with the purpose of hiding it from Gabriel. It's not surprising that humans become entangled in this battle and it is left to a former priest and a little girl to stop Gabriel, with some help from the least expected of beings, Lucifer himself.
This may all sound fairly ridiculous, and if you really study it, I guess it kinda is. But the style of the movie and the performances make it work. The angels are fascinating creatures. Their way of perching on top of things like a bird is such a simple way of distinguishing them and immediately marks them as different to the humanity surrounding. While the flashes of the war in Heaven may not look as amazing as a bigger budget may have allowed, it certainly gives the viewer an idea of the horror involved, with screaming angels dying upon massive spears.
There is no doubt that Christopher Walken makes this film! He gives Gabriel such an amazing amount of charisma along with such a threatening persona. His regular sniffs, licks and head tilts are both disturbing and fascinating and every piece of dialogue that omits from his mouth is given life and importance. It's just a stunning portrayal of a powerful being and displays why he is such sought after villain these days. Eric Stoltz is also very good as Simon, yet he simply doesn't have the presence of Walken. Viggo Mortenson on the other hand displays his scene stealing abilities that would become even more prevalent as Arigorn years later. It's not often that an actor would get the chance to play the angel of darkness, and even less often that the character would be fighting on the same side as the movie's heroes. It's inspired writing combined with inspired casting.
Although I obviously thoroughly enjoy "The Prophecy", there are certain aspects that stop me from calling it a classic movie. I do feel the creators of the film did wonderfully well with the budget they had, but a movie of this scale could so easily have been made monumental with a bit more money for special effects and sets. Most of the film is situated in the desert, which is a rather strange setting for such a dark film. I can't help imagining how effective this plot would have been had it been located within a major city, with the heavenly battle breaking out into the lives of a large population. But that's being greedy.
Some of the writing also could have been better. The occasionally dodgy dialogue is generally saved by the performances, but there are also quite a few plot holes and lack of explanation that stop the film from rising above being a very good B movie. But I don't want to nit pick "The Prophecy" too much, because it's a thoroughly entertaining and ambitious horror movie, sprinkled with comedy and action. If you're a fan of religious context horror or Christopher Walken, then this is a must see.