Product: Constantine [Blu-ray] (2012)
Rating: 3.0
Constant action
It's an effects-fest, it's an action flick, and it's a Keanu Reeves film. Despite that last point, it's an exciting bit of entertainment.Chain-smoking John Constantine sees demons everywhere, real demons. That sets him up with a great job as hired-gun exorcist, which gets him into and out of lots of interesting scrapes. He sees the angel Gabriel, and sees Hell as well. It's an up to date story in the heaven/hell/demons tradition. For me, it works well as an action story even though the pseudo-Catholic mythology doesn't.Reeves is Reeves, with his usual angst-laden running around and monotone voice. The pleasant surprise was Tilda Swinton as Gabriel. The role is vaguely androgynous, a good match for the gender-bending in Swinton's earlier "Orlando." She did a good job with her few appearances, and generally rose above the ordinary script she was given.If you like the demons-on-earth genre, you might find good entertainment here. Unless it's truly exceptional, though, an exorcism movie's premise just never grabs me. I came away from Constantine un-grabbed.//wiredweirdPS: This is an adaptation from the Hellblazer comic book series, which I haven't read. Based on what I saw in this movie, I probably won't bother.