Movie Reviews

I guess I just don't "get" Kevin Smith. His films are cult favourites, and tons of people quote lines off by heart; but as for me, I've not really cared for any of his movies.

Dogma is probably Smith's most ambitious movie to date, involving a lot of big name talent and a satirically-controversial subject matter that has probably pissed off a large number of religious-types. The story revolves around two renegade fallen angels named Loki and Bartleby (Matt Damon and Ben Affleck) who have discovered a 'loophole' in Catholic dogma that would allow them to return to heaven. It was God's decree that they be banished, however, so should they manage to return, they would prove that God is fallible, which, as well all know, would mean that the earth and all of its wonderful creatures would cease to exist. For reasons discovered late in the film, a woman named Bethany Sloane (Linda Fiorentino) is recruited to put a stop to them, and she's joined in her task by the thirteenth apostle -- and the only black one -- Rufus (the ever-annoying Chris Rock) and the even more annoying Kevin Smith staple duo, Jay and Silent Bob (Jason Mewes and Smith himself).

There... I said it. I don't like Jay and/or Silent Bob. I think they're moronic ignoramuses who, at the best of times, are only slightly amusing. Why these guys have become cult-film icons is beyond me. I didn't find a whole lot of the rest of the film all that funny, either (but it did have its moments, few and far between as they were). Most of the dialogue is delivered by overly-eloquent rants and raves that got tiresome to me pretty quickly. The movie does deliver a positive message about faith and humanity -- a nice message that is entirely inoffensive even if some of the characters surrounding it are not quite so.

I've heard it freely admitted that Kevin Smith isn't a great filmmaker, but many of those people say his writing skills make up for his lack of directorial ability. I'll agree with the first part... but maybe not so much with the second.