Jun 18 2009
Constantine - Oh yeah…I remember this one
Director: Francis Lawrence
Writers: Jamie Delano & Garth Ennis (comic book “Hellblazer”), Kevin Brodbin (story and screewriter), Frank Cappello (screenwriter)
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Rachel Weisz, Shia LeBeouf, (also including Tilda Swinton and Peter Stormare)
Overall: 8.5/10
Constantine always seemed to me to be one of those underrated movies that disappeared too quickly, yet satisfies me everytime I catch the rerun on F/X. It’s right up there with Hellboy and Hellboy 2 and darkly reminscient of a David Fincher movie.
Keanu has always been a shoddy actor with gives and takes (gives such as Point Break and The Matrix; takes such as Hardball and Dracula), but he passes the bar here in Constantine. He rolls around with teenager/personal driver/wannabe devil-slayer Shia LeBeouf who compliments neo-Neo perfectly. Rachel Weisz fits, but is too Kate Winslety — maybe an Evangeline Lilly type would have played better? Peter Stormare’s brief appearance makes me smile every time. Who doesn’t love the woodchipper of Fargo, the nihilist of The Big Lebowski, the crazy Russian cosmonaut of Armageddon (all past movies worth the renting fee)? The casting of this flick reminds me of The 5th Element; both were potentially implosive, but right roles stitched them up nicely.
Sweet cinematics and slo-mo Fincher/Wachowski brothers shots keep the pace of the film surprising and enticing. Crazy demons flying out of shards of glass in slow motion might be one of the coolest f/x concepts I could never even hope to come up with. Half burnt flesh faces and heated hell scenes also satisfy the sensationalist in me. Personal reality sequences like that of crazy-eyed Pruitt Taylor Vince and his self-dousing alcoholic drowning scene round out the sensationalism with a tinge of perspective to establish depth in the movie.
Casting and filming come together in Constantine to create a multi-layered film experience that hits highs on more than a single level. Throw in a killer sweet horror-drama fusion and a great comic book background story and you basically have a Hellboy meets The Dark Knight with a regular ol’ humanish Keanu helming the one-manned crew of light. Grab your popcorn buckets and turn off the lights, folks, this is a good one. Constantine will dry out your eyeballs ’cause you won’t blink for the entire 121 minutes in fear of missing something insanely cool.
