The Devils Advocate Snap Case

Posted In: Devil

Elsy Roehm says...

I think I am finally going to have to admit that I like Keanu Reeves. Every movie I see him in, he's Ted. Ted the lawyer, Ted the Christ-figure, Ted the Buddha-figure, Ted the son of Satan, Ted the guy with the wife turning into a vapire, Ted the serial killer. He's just the same dopy guy in every movie and yet that character is really beginning to grow on me and I'm starting to realize that there is a difference between his roles. Maybe a subtle one but it's a difference. And he must be a very nice guy because he keeps ending up in all the great movies and despite how much I might be starting to like him he's still not THAT talented.

This is a movie of pure brilliant evil. Al Pacino would be great for the last 15 minutes alone when he's over the top, blaspheming against G-d, nature and the American Judicial System. But the fact that Pacino lets himself play it down for most of the movie is great. He's polite. He's suave and there's just something a little off about him. He also lets Keanu have most of the movie. Usually if you are on screen with Pacino, forget about being remembered unless you happened to be DeNiro, but in this movie the director and the actor know how to hang back and make Reeves look good.

Basically this movie is a parable about a lawyer without a conscience or at least without one that is going to stand in the way of winning. Due to his success he gets hired by a high-profile law firm with sinister undertones and begins to get a whole new breed of killers off. Oh yeah, the President of the law firm is Satan.

This movie has some beautiful scenes including the final denoument with Satan and Reeves as well as the empty street of New York City that Keanu Reeves walks over to get to his confrontation. Charlize Theron (sic?) is the unraveling moral fiber that undercuts Reeves' flirtation with the dark side. Where he makes choices and loses a little more of his soul, she goes insane and changes her Belinda Carlisle hairdo to the Belinda Carlisle-postcocaine hairdo.

This is an amazing movie. Brilliant and psychotic. Religious enough to please religious folks and blasphemous enough to entertain everyone else. Rent it, buy it and watch it over and over again.

One caveat: the lawyer as devil storyline has been done to death. It's great here but one wonders why the festering resentment against lawyers is so pervasive. Then again that is on of the few professionals besides drug dealer or hitman where people hate the successful practitioners. Oh well, occupational hazard for the neat cars and the big houses.

Posted on November 20, 2011

Rosaline Braley says...

Keanu Reeves as a small town attorney who can't seem to lose.He is recruited to a large New York firm and becomes a star as he seems to get all kinds of "bad" people off.One can immediately sense there is something not so ordinary with his boss (Al Pacino) who causes terror to Reeves' mother and seems to have sexy woman fawning over him.Not too long after joining the firm, Reeves catches one of the firm's top employees shredding questionable documents after hours and then Reeves' wife seems to go mad after a wierd dream.



One of Reeve's best performances with twists and turns to the end!

Posted on November 20, 2011

Donna Everding says...

While I felt that the film could have been more crisply edited, it builds such unrelenting a crescendo that you'll be willing to indulge several minor scenes take forever to get to their point. How common is it for a film climax to sport a 15-minute scene of dialogue so provocative that the accompanying special effects can almost be ignored!

Keanu Reeves, who's usually a staid one-expression wonder fit for movies like Speed and Matrix, pitches in quite a remarkably absorbing performance here. Which was a pleasant surprise! Pacino needless to sayis stellar as usual in his macabre role as Satan.

But the cake goes to Charlize Theron who fits the wife's character like a glove (a role that is never really clearly defined) and fills in some pretty yawning gaps, creating a gradual descent into madness which actually seems realistic enough to be taken seriously.

With slightly more crisp editing, the movie could have easily been the powerhouse it screams that it should have been,but it is still a very decent rental that'll hold for a couple of viewings!

Posted on November 21, 2011

Ivette Shadfar says...

There is an old saying that in a court-of-law it is irrelevant what the truth is. What DOES matter is the calibre of the lawyers that reside on both sides of the judiciary fence.This movie takes that dictum and pushes it to the edge of the envelope.



One of the most intriguing facets of the storyline is an implicit question that the film compels us to ask ourselves:Who is worse off?A prosecutor who isso good that he gets an innocent man executed or put away for life?Or a defense lawyer who is so good that he gets a guilty man off the hook, after which time he hurts or kills someone else? It is a question that must enter the minds of all who exercise the art of legalistic oratory at some point or other.



Al Pacino is without question the highlight of the flick.It is obvious that he takes great delight in playing the devil himself, and it shows in his performance.It is a role that is ideally suited to his demeanor. A nice touch was making his name John Milton, which is an allusion to the English poet who authored PARADISE LOST.This is the poem that detailed Satan's fall from heaven as well as Adam & Eve's fall from the Garden of Eden.As a sidenote, I would HIGHLY recommend PARADISE LOST;there are a couple of references to the work itself during the story.



It was rather painful to see Keanu Reeves occasionally try to fake a southern accent, but this was not his worst performance. There is a surprising amount of nudity in the film, and that's always a good thing.This is ESPECIALLY true in any film which features Charlize Theron!



All in all this is a fun film to pick up, especially if you're into the Faustian man-selling-his-soul-to-Satan genre. While the ending is a bit deus ex machina, the balance of the DVD makes up for the weak finale.

Posted on November 22, 2011

Ronny Randall says...

First of all, this movies is not for the whole family. It is not for religious people, people easily offended by nudity, language, and/or gore, and people who really have it out for Keanu Reeves.That being said, "The Devil's Advocate" is a modern epic which probes the nature of evil incisively. Of course, Keanu Reeves is not a great actor, but the role is written (much as the Matrix was written), to minimize his impact on the film and allow true actors and actresses, in this case Al Pacino and Charlize Theron to shine. The film details the descent into darkness of Kevin Lomax (Reeves), a small-town lawyer without much in the way of conscience, and not coincidentally an unblemished court record and his lively wife Mary Ann (Theron) after accepting John Milton (Pacino)'s offer to move to New York City and work for his law firm. Though both his wife and himself sense that all is not right in this alien world of power, sex, and money, Kevin is quickly absorbed by an obsession to win that separates him from his wife and sends them both on parallel tracks into evil. Always at Kevin's side is the suave, down-to earth Milton, who subtly prods him towards evil with a few words when needed. Though Reeves plays the central character, Pacino is certainly the most interesting and amusing of the cast. Just as the role of Lomax was written to fit Keanu Reeves, so the role of the ironically named John Milton (author of the classic Paradise Lost) was written to mesh nearly perfectly with Pacino. Theron shows her rather impressive acting ability in her role as the frustrated, frightened, and isolated wife, and the supporting cast doesn't trip up the film, which is pretty much all that can be asked of it. The film proceeds slowly but steadily through the first 2 hours, but the final half-hour that it builds to is truly awe-inspiring. The showdown between the infinitely calm and clever Pacino and the pissed-off, desperate, Reeves is a scene that really lets Pacino loose, and the twist at the end is a great surprise that few see coming and is more satisfying than other, more contrived endings. This film is not R-rated for the sake of being R-rated. Unlike other films, Devil's Advocate uses nudity, language, and violence to press its point. Without them, the film would take a serious hit in both plausibility and performance. Pacino's monologues are classics in themselves, namely the one prior to Eddie Barzou's death and the longer, more extravagant one at the climax. Reeves' emotions are semi-believable, and can we really expect more? Theron demonstrates why she deserves the leading roles she receives today. Finally, after the film your mind will be charged up and full of questions you can mull over for days, and its ability to create ideas and new concepts are what puts it head and shoulders above the ordinary class of films that entertain but do not make you think, at best.

Posted on November 23, 2011

Kathi Treiber says...

"The Devil's Advocate is one of those movies that sneak up on you, grab you and won't let go. The story is simple enough; a young fireball of a lawyer, Kevin Lomax, played by Keanu Reeves, who has never lost a case, finds himself in the middle of every defense attorney's nightmare, representing a slimy sleazeball accused of molesting little girls. Halfway through the trial he realizes his client is guilty as hell, which presents him with a dilemma: he can extend his winning streak at the price of losing his soul; or he can do the right thing at the possible risk of torpedoing his career. What's a young, up and coming hotshot to do? In no time at all, he and his beautiful, fatally naive wife (excellently played by Charlize Theron) are off to New York, where he has been recruited to work for a high-powered law firm headed by a omnilingual, diabolically clever lawyer named John Milton (Al Pacino looks like he had the time of his life in this role) and staffed by a bunch of hell-bound associates. While Kevin's career takes off, his wife descends into a miasma of loneliness, despair and finally madness; and when Kevin berates Milton for driving his wife into her personal hell, Milton reminds Kevin that God, whom Milton fears as much as he hates, gave us all a left-handed gift called free will; we are free to make our own choices, and we have to live with the consequences. As the feller says, you can't win 'em all.The film runs somewhat overlong but holds our interest throughout. There are many good performances in this movie and a few excellent ones, but when all is said and done, the film belongs to Al Pacino and his gleefully wicked portrayal of the devil incarnate.Kevin is finally left to make his own choice, which I'm not going to give away here; suffice to say that the film's resolution is a shock.Maybe you can't win 'em all, but director Taylor Hackford clearly came up a winner with this movie.

Posted on November 23, 2011

Carmela Scrogham says...

This is a very well-made film. Director Taylor Hackford did a great job by keeping the film styish and sleek all the while injecting a faint sense of dread into each of the early scenes that grows and grows until it completely breaks loose by the film's climax.

I'm not going to expound on this film any more, because the eloquent reviewer from Woodstock, GA already did an excellent job of that.However, I do want to point out that this film plays even better in my DVD player than it did when I watched it in the theater.I don't know why, but I guess the sharper DVD image works for it better. Plus, the commentary by Taylor Hackford is extremely insightful. The film itself may go on a bit too long, and the climax still has me shaking my head a bit, but this film is undeniably provocative, giving us a better-than-average Keanu Reeves performance, who obviously has no trouble with a Southern accent (ditto for his British accent in BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA, another stylish and excellent film).It also contains a performance by Al Pacino that is his best in years, and one that he clearly had a lot of fun in doing! But the performance that stands out the most for me is by relative newcomer Charlize Theron (originally from South Africa) as Reeves' suffering young wife.Her performance is psychologically complex, sympathetic, and harrowing: she draws you into her character's heart so well that you can't look away. Her performance should have earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress; it's too bad that the Academy didn't agree.

Despite the way the plot of THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE may read to some viewers, it is not a horror film, per se. It is a very-well-realized, fantastical vision of the good and evil that underpins our money-driven, materialistic society. It contains some rather disturbing scenes, but what is truly disturbing is how real it all seems. For one, I am glad I own it on DVD, and if you are a fan of supernatural and suspensful films, you should own it, too!

Posted on November 25, 2011

Angelo Beuttel says...

"The Devil's Advocate" starts out good and gets better.Brilliant defense attorney Kevin Lomax (Keanu Reeves) dodges the truth toget his verdicts, and literally never loses a case.He is seduced by a NewYork firm headed by John Milton, as played by the wonderful Al Pacino. While Lomax is off in the NYC courtrooms chasing his career, his wife MaryAnn (played brilliantly by Charlize Theron) senses that all is not rightwith Hubby's law firm, and begins to see the evil that lurks under Milton'sslick surface.

Even before being told at the end, we *know* that JohnMilton is the Devil (it seems the only one who doesn't know is Kevin Lomaxhimself), but certain strange clues point to this conclusion:

He speaksfluent Cantonese.

There's a subway scene, when two Latino street punksthreaten to kill Lomax and Milton, but Milton starts speaking fluentSpanish, telling one of the thugs that his wife is at the moment snortingcocaine (or shooting heroin, I forget which) with a man she is about tohave sex with. (I'm not a Bible scholar, but I seem to remember hearingsomewhere that the Devil speaks every language on Earth.)

In the finalconfrontation, Kevin goes to the office to face off with Milton.TheManhattan street is totally devoid of any life or movement, in what is atruly memorable scene.

When Kevin's Bible-toting, Uber-Christian mothercomes to visit him in the city, she meets John Milton and is terrified ofthe suave, charming man.

Pacino's monologue about a sadistic God isexcellent.And although I have never liked Keanu Reeves in anything butaction movies, I respected, if not enjoyed, his performance.The ending,in which Lomax is destined to sleep with his sister (it's darkly hilariouswhen Pacino says, with a raised eyebrow, "She's ovulating!") toproduce a child that will be the Antichrist, will all at once shock you,relieve you, and make you angry.And even though it stars Reeves, it mightmake you *think.*

Posted on November 25, 2011

Sueann Karlovich says...

Here comes a sharp, strong-voiced New York city lawyer with a lot of experience complemented by rare physical and mental powers. Played by Al Pacino, John Milton is a loner who wins cases by ignoring what is and isn't "by the book". While in the process of establishing a law partner, Milton runs across hot shot Keanu Reeves, who is yet to lose. Reeves turns out to become the perfect missing piece to the puzzle for Pacino. His character spends a significant amount of time with his new law partner in business and pleasure circumstances, in order to indirectly let his new friend know him better, to find out who he really is. As time passes, tension between the two businessmen arises and Keanu, the perfect defender/convicter sees his life unfold to become a total nightmare.

"The Devils Advocate" has been compared to "The Firm", but "The Firm" is more drawn out and isn't in with the fantasy or horror genre. Al Pacino really shows his stuff in this, with a more than believable performance that features numerous profound monologues that are always mastered by this Italian legend. His costar, Keanu, hits the target for the first time, bringing genuine emotion and class to the table. Overall, "The Devil's Advocate" is very intriguing, extremely well acted with some impressive special effects. I found this movie to be one of the best of the 90s.

Posted on November 25, 2011

Pansy Yunt says...

This is a fantastic movie. Al Pacino doesn't get the credit he deserves. He was amazing as Satan. Keanu Reeves was good and Charlize Theron is gorgeous. <Also stars Jeffrey Jones who was the principal in Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Craig T. Nelson who was Steven Freeling in Poltergeist.



Keanu Reeves is a Florida district Attorney who is recruited by a big law firm in Manhattan. Kevin (Reeves) accepts the offer and he and Mary (Theron) move to a very exclusive building where most of the lawyers from Milton and his partners firm. Mysterious happenings start to set in and Kevin's mom suspects why. Later on Kevin figures out that John Milton (Al Pacino) is both is father and Satan. Milton needs him to create the Antichrist. Kevin falls into Miltons "trap." Did he dig himself too deep?



The movie leads up to the great ending. Al Pacinco makes memorable moment in the last 20 minutes of the movie ranting and raving. Will Kevin sell his soul to the devil?



The DVD includes deleted scenes which aren't bad but anyone who likes Al Pacino, a decent suspensful thriller will definately add this to their collection.

Posted on November 27, 2011