Rachel Weisz and Djmon Hounsou are great but not even they can't save this Keanu stinkfest.

Rating: 2/10 (6 February 2005)

I was able to catch a look at this film a few weekend ago at a press screening here in Chicago. A friend of mine works for a free newspaper that is widely known in the Chicago area and invited me along to see it with him.
The movie starts off pretty good with a few good scenes of tension and drama that has some pretty nifty special effects thrown in but the special effects are few and far between and they don't get any better once the movie really starts up. Then the film does an about face after the second act and nose dives its way to a juvenile and over the top climax that contradicts the entire first half of the movie altogether. The ending makes no sense what so ever because it involves Satan of all people saving the day other than taken advantage on what was going on (Don't ask, you have to see it to believe It). That's just the tip of the iceberg of the inconsistencies this film has and don't get me started on the loose plot points that have no bearing to the film at all. The characters in the film are more and less the same characters you find in films of this nature and this problem is highlighted by the main character himself, who is more and less the character of Van Helsing with a suit on and an attitude problem. I think the script trying to make him look cool with his lack of authority and manners but it just ends up making him look like an ass instead. This could be just the way the character was written but I think it could just be Keanu Reeves himself with his dried and dreary way of acting, which can be found in all of his film. Ether way, the main character is not really interesting at all and is upstage by his co-stars Rachel Weisz and Djimon Hounsou, who bring more to their characters than the script does. Rachel Weisz plays Angela, the cop who is partnered with Keanu's character in solving her sister's death. Her performances is a lot richer and much more deeper than the actual script is and she gives this movie a real sense of dignity and heart that it really does not have. Djimon Hounsou plays Papa Midnight, who bring a cool zeal to a modern variation of the voodoo priest of the bad black exploitation films of yesterday. He brings a fun sense of bravado that should have been capitalizes on much more than it is here in this film. Unfortunately for the both of them and us the audience, they are working with a script that is so riddled with inconsistencies and badly written dialog that you just end up feeling sorry for them for even being this film in the first place. Both Weisz and Hounsou are about the only good things that come out of the entire film while the rest of the movie feels like it was rushed into production with out a clue on what direction the movie should have taken. The cinematography is taken from the grim movies of the last ten years (which mostly stolen their style from David Finchers grisly classic Seven) but does not take it as far as those films do because it also has a kind of neon lighted Matrix feel to it that betrays the dark sensibility and mood that it's trying to inhabit.
It's a good way to waste your time if you have nothing better to do with it but if you need to seek out a good movie, I suggest you rent something from the video store instead. Maybe a better film with Rachel Weisz and Djimon Hounsou in it that uses their talents in a much better way than this film does.