The longest anti smoking ad you will ever see

Rating: 7/10 (16 July 2005)

Constantine is a man that was given the power to see demons by God so he could keep the balance of good and evil. Apparently God has a bet going with the Devil to see how many souls each of them can get. you know, kind of like how they bet on Jobe (I don't know how to spell his name. Maybe when I got some free time I'll look it up). If you don't know who Jobe was, that's no big deal. I was just giving an example.
Well, anyways, they have this bet and Constantine is there to make sure that nobody cheats. Because of Constantine's bad life he is doomed to burn for all eternity. Now, Constantine figures he can buy his way into Heaven so he goes hunting down the bad guys and then your movie begins.
Keaneu Reeves, aka Neo boy from the Matrix plays Constantine and expect to see some bad acting on his part. He is dieing from lung cancer that he got from smoking. The whole film is turned into an anti smoking ad because of this point by the way. Well anyways, when he starts to cough to illustrate his sickness you can tell he's forcing it. They should have just said he was dieing. His fake coughing only destroys the illusion. But expect to see some darn good acting from Tilda Swinton as Gabriel. Now, I know what you're thinking. Everything ever said about Gabriel has hinted at him being a guy, so you would think that getting a girl to play him would be a big no-no, but it really works well. You see, this incarnation of Gabriel is both male and female, which in a way makes sense because angles wouldn't have sexes. To bad they didn't think this plot point threw and make all the demons the same way. Well, anyways, she/he looks and sounds like a girl but dresses like a man and is talk about as a man. Constantine calls Gabriel a man threw out the film. So, this is a rather creative idea and I must say that Tilda Swinton makes for a darn neat and interesting angel.
Now the good thing about this film is for an action flick it has a very smart and creative plot and a very interesting and well thought out conclusion. It's not your wham bam thank you mam kind of climax. Instead it's a very surprising and well fitting one that just works really well. Not what I was expecting, but I'm darn glad they went with it.
As most of todays action flicks go, expect to see some bad CGI, but it's never painful. The film makes up for it with its creativity.
So, some bad acting from the star, but because this is a surprising intelligent film, and because of good old Gabriel (I hope she gets more acting roles) I'm going to give this film high marks. 7 out of 10. For an action flick this is pretty good.
P.S. God has really got to do something about his gambling problem.