Not written by the Devil

Rating: 3/10 (19 October 2014)

Pacino certainly is tough enough to be the Devil, and he can be as infernal as the script allows him to be. Unfortunately at the very climax the script falters and never delivers on the promise of a true word of wisdom from Satan himself.
Then again, what do we know? Maybe Satan has no words of wisdom and is in fact just a complete a-hole who causes pain without any apparent motive. Or perhaps we are too insignificant for him to bother explaining himself to us.
In any event, I expected more than the standard offer of endless power and pleasure, for the purpose of pissing off God. Then again, as soon as I saw Keanu Reeves as the protagonist, I kind of figured things would not get too intellectual.
Speaking of Keanu, that man possibly has a more limited acting range than Steven Seagal. Throughout the film he shifts between an expressionless face and an irritated one. That's about it. He plays either nondescript or upset. When he has arguments with his wife, all he does is get annoyed and angry. The man simply does not act. So why is he in the film? Indeed, one has to wonder what they were thinking regarding his character. If we are supposed to empathise with him in order to be worried about what will happen to him, he has to be likable. But the is not likable at all. The only thing I cared about was watching crazy Pacino do what he does best and be an outrageous, charismatic character that steals every scene regardless of how it is written.
Unfortunately, though, there is little in terms of genuine emotional investment. The only emotion I felt was frustration.
One final remark: You don't need to make the Devil too smart, but make him scary. The scariest thing this Devil did was make some homeless people beat a guy to death in a scene that had little to offer in terms of suspense or fear. How about a Satan with a really nasty bite?