Directed by:
Francis LawrenceCinematography:
Philippe RousselotCast:
Keanu Reeves, Rachel Weisz, Shia LaBeouf, Tilda Swinton, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Djimon Hounsou, Gavin Rossdale, Peter Stormare, Max Baker, Francis Guinan (more)VOD (5)
Plots(1)
Horror starring Keanu Reeves as John Constantine, a man who was born with a gift he didn't want - the ability to clearly recognise the half-breed angels and demons that walk the earth in human skin. Constantine was driven to take his own life to escape the tormenting clarity of his vision, but he failed. Resuscitated against his will, he found himself cast back into the land of the living. Now, marked as an attempted suicide with a temporary lease on life, he patrols the earthly border between heaven and hell, hoping in vain to earn his way to salvation by sending the devil's foot soldiers back to the depths. But Constantine is no saint. Disillusioned by the world around him and at odds with the one beyond, he's a hard-drinking, hard-living bitter hero who scorns the very idea of heroism. When a desperate but skeptical police detective (Rachel Weisz) enlists his help in solving the mysterious death of her beloved twin sister (also played by Weisz), their investigation takes them through the world of demons and angels that exists just beneath the landscape of contemporary Los Angeles. Caught in a catastrophic series of otherworldly events, the two become inextricably involved and seek to find their own peace at whatever cost. (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment)
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Reviews (11)
Forget about Max von Sydow, here comes the coolest exorcist to ever grace the screen. The digital beasts bothered me the least of all (and they are not overabundant, as others have mentioned), on the contrary, I enjoyed the intriguing plot, the overflowing charisma of the great Reeves, the beauty of my sex idol Rachel Weisz, and several visually memorable scenes. And the last twenty minutes, with a clever and witty twist and the most stylish Lucifer in years (Stormare really is the devil), make Constantine a truly outstanding film. 4 1/2 *. Oh, and don't smoke or you'll go to hell.
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The wisecracking Keanu Reeves fits like a glove, and I can hardly imagine anyone else in the role of Constantine. Francis Lawrence combines interesting themes, visual diversity, and technical finesse into a rather intriguing and good-looking whole, about which you can doubt as much as you want, but you still won't be able to take your eyes off it.
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A conman, a joker, a thief, a magician... Well, simply John Constantine. An Englishman from Liverpool, a blue-eyed, cynical, amoral, scruffy-faced blond who is forever shrouded in a cloud of cigarette smoke and, in a mysterious English fog, solves mysterious cases in which he relies on his wits rather than weapons to outsmart (or cheat) almost everyone, from ordinary mortals to the bigwigs of hell. None of the above, however, can be found in this movie adaptation, not even a hint of it. Not in terms of the look or behavior of the main hero, or the location, or the plot, or the action, or anything. And yet that doesn't mean Constantine is a bad movie; it’s not - it's just a bad adaptation. But damn it, of all the "CGI action comic book movies" it is, even years later, one of the best. Everything here is as it should be with a good popcorn movie; it just doesn't have anything of what a good adaptation of “Hellblazer" is supposed to contain.
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This is how comic book adaptations should be done – going your own way to the sound of fanboys gnashing their teeth. With Constantine, the filmmakers understood that comic books – not just the mainstream ones but also the overground alternative ones – are essentially a load of overwrought clichés, posturing and superficiality with a hint of something deeper. When this idea is appropriately grasped and executed, however, it can be tremendously entertaining, covering the full spectrum from camp cringe to unironic love. The casting of Keanu Reeves is a brilliant move, turning the existentially brooding hero into the greatest sufferer in blockbuster history instead of just another dark and gritty cliché. Whenever he lights a cigarette, utters a line loaded with fatalism or makes himself unavailable, you feel like hugging him. This is greatly supported by Rachel Weisz as a cool chick with a gun in a clearing surrounded by demons. Their chemistry together works magnificently, which delightfully enhances the plot to the point that you wish you could diabolically stop time and push them into a kiss. On top of that, the refined camerawork revels in those magnificent faces in unconventional widescreen compositions and the precise production design is part of fun world-building where something is ridiculously literal and something else is simply just happening. When Reeves first flicks open his Zippo, you get a silly grin on your face, which is surpassed only by the unadulterated pleasure provided by Tilda Swinton as the ethereally haughty archangel Gabriel and Peter Stormare in the role of Satan.
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Constantine is one of those films that you might not fully get into the first time around, but you’ll enjoy it all the more the second time. It draws us into its own world straddling the line between reality and fiction, combined with serious questions of religion from our everyday lives. It is distinctive and intelligent as it cleverly deals with some relatively crazy subject matter. The film’s visual appeal never slides into self-indulgence, the characters are well developed and the actors do a very respectable job. Constantine is not entirely for mainstream viewers, but rather a notable curiosity for connoisseurs. One could almost call it a “big-budget underground” flick.
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