THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE (66)

Directed by: Taylor Hackford

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Al Pacino, Charlize Theron

The Pitch: A young lawyer gets a job with a rich New York law firm which happens to be run by...Satan himself! ("Devil's Advocate", geddit?)

Theo Sez: Hopefully not the start of a trend in films based on literal interpretations of figures of speech (I'm especially dreading "More Than One Way to Skin a Cat"), but certainly an entertaining, unexpectedly powerful comic-book of a horror movie, dripping blood and blasphemy. It's a natural double-bill with ANGEL HEART, flashy, trashy and full of lurid intensity, as well as featuring a certified Great Actor in the ultimate no-holds-barred role : Pacino seems to be having a great time, tongue alternately in cheek and flicked out salaciously, like a snake's, when he's charming the ladies, and even Reeves' robotic, impersonal quality is quite effective here (the scenes where his wife tries in vain to convince him of the evil around them are quietly terrifying : he's like a Stepford Husband, handsome and quite impervious). What it's actually saying is better left alone, an almost Victorian tract pushing sexual abstinence and family values - joining the anti-yuppie ranks of SUNCHASER and even JERRY MAGUIRE - but it remains cartoonishly enjoyable, and perhaps more than that : congenital atheists will presumably see only an amusingly OTT joke, but others may find it also hits the same atavistic buttons pushed (even more crudely) by the likes of THE OMEN. It's both fun and surprisingly nightmarish - and, like any good nightmare, the preposterousness is part of what makes it work. At least till you wake up, chuckle at how foolish it all was, and find it almost impossible to remember a day or two later.