Too old for Hamlet and too young for Lear--what's an ambitious actor to do? Play the Devil, of course. Jack Nicholson did it inThe Witches of Eastwick; Robert De Niro did it inAngel Heart (as Louis Cyphre--get it?). InThe Devil's Advocate Al Pacino takes his turn as the great Satan, and clearly relishes his chance to raise hell. He's a New York lawyer, of course, by the name of John Milton, who recruits a hotshot young Florida attorney (Keanu Reeves) to his firm and seduces him with tempting offers of power, sex, and money. Think of the story as a twist on John Grisham'sThe Firm, with the corporate evil made even more explicit. Reeves is wooden, and therefore doesn't seem to have much of a soul to lose, but he's really just our excuse to meet the devil. Pacino's the main attraction, gleefully showing off his--and the Antichrist's--chops at perpetrating menace and mayhem. The film was directed by Taylor Hackford (Against All Odds,Dolores Claiborne), who provides alternate-track commentary for the movie itself, plus a dozen deleted scenes. Also note: due to a settlement with artist Frederick Hart over the movie's use of a sculpture resembling hisEx Nihilo in Washington's National Cathedral, future releases of the film will be altered.--Jim Emerson
Al Pacino screaming There is no less than one scene of Al Pacino screaming with fireballs behind him. They probably have 20 minutes worth of footage of that alone.
Devil's Advocate, of course, is the film that depicts Satan as a New York lawyer and the good 'ol boy from the South as a the ambitious next-demon-to-be. Keanu Reeves concentrates on delivering lines as he portrays Kevin, the tough defense lawyer from Florida who's never lost a case. He's lured up to NYC by Al Pacino's evil law firm, which is staffed by a variety of demons who are also top lawyers. The firm is involved 'in everything', so therefore, we can safely assume it's sufficiently evil.
Pacino plays Satan with his usual gusto, a tad paler with some makeup so he sometimes looks half-dead, and to top it off we get a complete monologue by Satan, a veritable defense of his actions. The full cynicism of the writers and Hollywood in general seeps through as Al booms on God, about man, and then, moments later when his plans backfire, he starts screaming and the room blows up and...
Cheesy, but completely watchable for Al's dedication with extra ham, and for the general effort of making a film about Satan being a New York lawyer.
