Thumbs up for Pacino & script, Thumbs down for everything else

Rating: 6/10 (24 April 1999)

First of all, Pacino. For big bucks, this is probably the best performance as an actor as Satan in a movie. Although John Glover is just as effective, without the hammy overacting/ranting, in "Brimstone" (1998). Pacino's performance is a tour de force.
Although a lot of it is Pacino, the role of the Devil is also nicely scripted. You kinda think that this is what Satan would really be like - just one of the guys, really. A guy who knows what he wants and goes gets it, all with a perfect contempt for the Almighty. After all, as they noted in "Bedazzled" (another source of much of the Satan portrayal here), God won't even let you undress in private.
Unfortunately, surrounding Pacino is...well, nothing. Mr. Reeves is his normal enigmatic obtuse, emotionally bland self. Nothing is really conveyed of the character other than that he's a self-centered jerk. Which, granted, is kinda Satan's point in the first place.
The rest of the characterization is...eh. Characters come, characters go, characters brutally die. Naked women cavort before us, which I can kinda get into, but it doesn't really contribute much. And what's with the demon faces? Is Satan possessing them? Have they given themselves over to Satan? What has Mary Ann got that lets her see these "faces"?
And the ending...arrgh. A 100% copout. I thought this kind of stuff went out with "Dallas," but no such luck. There's a (mild) twist at the very end. Basically, they might as well have had Keanu click his ruby slippers together and say, "There's no place like home."
Overall, because I'm big on the whole good/evil God/Satan dichotomy, I gave this a marginal "thumbs up." But catch any given episode of "Brimstone" (yeah, right, after Fox cancelled it in Spring '99) and you can see much the same thing.