I feel like I've been cautioning against a lot of movies lately. It's to be expected that most of the movies one watches will be subpar, especially when veering from the "classic movies" path. But I was hoping the bad would be spread out a bit more. I've really hit the doldrums. Looking back, I had quite a streak of good to great movies, so it's only fitting to hit a slump. Such is the case and I've got to power through and (hopefully) finish out this month on a high note.
Of all the movies I've watched recently, my hopes were the highest for The Prophecy. Christopher Walken plays Gabriel who is looking to fuck shit up. He's unhappy with God's favor of humans and refers to the species as "talking monkeys."
If it was just about Walken (and hey, we'll through in his "I want to be dead" sidekick Jerry [Adam Goldberg]), the movie would rule. Instead we spend most of our time with a cop who was going to be a priest but had a little incident at his priest-ening (whatever it's called when someone graduates to priesthood). Thomas Dagget (Elias Koteas) is looking to solve a bizarre murder of a man with no eye, the body chemistry of an aborted fetus, and male and female sex organs. Dagget's search gets him wrapped up in Gabriel's quest for a particular soul and Simon's (Eric Stoltz, and sorry for the next word) quest to hide it. I generally like Koteas and generally dislike Stoltz, so I'm sad the while the status quo remains for the latter, Koteas just isn't very good in The Prophecy. The problem is that he isn't much of a character. He lost his faith and, aside from the police work, that's about all that happens to him until the very end. I guess he's rediscovering his faith throughout, but it's not that interesting.
My biggest issue with The Prophecy is that, like many movies before and since, a child gets caught in the middle. I think people like going the easy route for drama by ensnaring innocence or something, but unless the kid is going to kick some ass or fuck shit up (or have that stuff happen to them), I'm not interested. At least not in my R-rated horror movies. This goes beyond being a lame plot device. Most of these kids can't act worth a damn. They kill any momentum the movie has. And featuring little Mary (Moriah Shining Dove Snyder) makes it necessary to bring in other mostly pointless people and plots. Virginia Madsen may as well not exist and I don't really get the Native American mysticism aspect since we're clearly in a world where the Catholic belief is the correct one.
There are a few saving graces to keep The Prophecy from being a complete waste of time. It may take 22 minutes to introduce Walken, but the man owns the screen. He just can't be awesome. Steve Hytner (better known as Kenny Bania from Seinfeld) has a good role as the guy doing the autopsy of the first angel (what is the word for that job?). It's funny in a very naturalistic way. Not over-the-top with dialogue that's too clever for the movie. Just breezy and organic (unlike Masuka in Dexter). Even though the movie has that weird '90s sheen to it, it also has some cool '90s special effects that mix awesome matte's with models in a way that looks fake, but awesome and a million times better than crappy CG. Finally, I kind of dig that The Prophecy is essentially a crime movie with souls at stake instead of a large some of money. You've got the cop chasing down the criminal, the shakedowns, the hiding of the "treasure" in an unknown location, etc. It's pretty nifty couching that in a religious thriller kind of movie.
Dogma feels like it took quite a great deal from The Prophecy even if it plays the material differently. There are several sequels and even though I didn't care for this movie, I'm intrigued by the others with Walken. Maybe they'll feature him more. I'm definitely curious as to how he is in them since he meets a fairly definitive end. I somehow doubt they can be much worse, but don't know if they'll be much better either. Finally, it's weird seeing Viggo Mortensen in movies before The Lord of the Rings films. It always seemed like he sprouted up just for those movies and just kept on acting when they ended. Who knew he'd been working so long before them?
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