Dogma Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Angels & Demons, director Ron Howard's sequel/prequel to The Da Vinci Code, is less about actual angels than it's about Action Tom Hanks running, jumping, and climbing trees to solve a city-wide Sudoku puzzle and save the world from the Illuminati. At least that's what I think it's about from watching the trailer, and from the five pages of Dan Brown's book that I read before I gave up and threw it across the room.

But it did get me thinking about angels in movies, and what a fascinating subject they are -- even when they're mishandled. Here's a few favorite movie seraphim:

1. All That Jazz - Bob Fosse's wickedly raw, musical autobio offered a luminous Jessica Lange, who appears to Roy Scheider's Fosse as a sexy angel of death, flirting and cajoling him into finally going towards the light. As the embodiment of all that Fosse found seductive in his self-destruction, Lange was a heavenly body, indeed.

2. Dogma -- Kevin Smith's irreverent examination of faith and religion cast Matt Damon and Ben Affleck as two laid-off angels headed for New Jersey, hoping to find a loophole that'll put them back in God's graces. Along the messy, uneven way, Smith gives his characters some wonderful lines -- like when the angel Metatron (Alan Rickman) explains, "Human beings have neither the aural nor the psychological capacity to withstand the awesome power of God's true voice. Were you to hear it, your mind would cave in and your heart would explode within your chest. We went through five Adams before we figured that one out."

3. Wings of Desire -- Wim Wenders' 1987 fantasy about an unhappy angel (Bruno Ganz) who longs to be human is a slow, seductive dream of a movie, full of sadness and beauty. Henri Alekan, the cinematographer who shot Jean Cocteau's Beauty And The Beast, came out of retirement to make this film, and it's a masterpiece. Plus, it's got Peter Falk, and an amazing performance by Nick Cave:

Not four years ago, my father took me to see George Carlin perform his stand-up routine live as a belated birthday gift, and what a pleasure it was to see one of my favorite comedians display his considerable - and considerably crude - talents within spitting distance of my impressionable young psyche.

Even if that weren't the case, it would still be extremely sad to see Carlin go, as Reuters unfortunately reports. He appears to have passed away just last night of heart failure, at the age of 71.

Carlin had nearly thirty film and TV credits to his name, and while his most recent role happened to be in Happily N'Ever After of all things, he'll surely be more fondly remembered for his roles in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and Dogma, and for his numerous Emmy-nominated stand-up specials and Grammy-winning comedy albums.

Of perhaps the slightest comfort and tribute was the fact that the news of his passing had me uttering aloud one of his "Seven Dirty Words", a routine which brought him to Washington, D.C. in order to tangle with the U.S. Supreme Court back in 1978... and yet, earlier this week, the Kennedy Center offered him reason to return to the nation's capital three decades after the fact, when they were to honor him this November with their annual Mark Twain Prize for lifetime achievement in comedy.

Our thoughts go out to his loved ones. He will undoubtedly be deeply missed.

After cracking up over that Vin Diesel break-dancing footage from yesterday, I came across this video of Kevin Smith protesting his own film, Dogma, outside a theater chain in New Jersey. This one goes wayyy back (1999, to be exact), before Smith up and left for La La Land (traitor!). Here, Smith looks like he just stepped out of Go Go Rama (Jersey folks should know what that is), and onto a picket line with a group of nutty Christians. A news crew showed up to interview those folks who were protesting, and while Smith wouldn't give up his identity, the package that aired questions whether or not he was really the director. When asked about the film, Smith replies: "I don't think it stands for anything positive." The reporter asks, "What does it stand for?" To which Smith replies, "I don't know, but I've been told not good."

Additionally, after watching the video above, head on over after the jump to check out Smith speaking to an audience about the whole ordeal. I actually think him telling the story is better than the actual protest video (including what he really has written on those signs), but watching both videos together makes for some quality entertainment. Say what you want about Smith and his films, but the guy is one heckuva speaker. Cracks me up every time.

While they (thankfully) won't be remaking Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck have nevertheless found a project that will allow them to star together for the first time since 1999's Dogma. The untitled reunion project is based on the true story of a pair of Philadelphia lawyers who spent 15 years working on an ultimately successful death penalty appeal. Over those years, they secured nine stays of execution, and eventually won the release of their client. Damon and Affleck will play the lawyers; the role of the inmate (John Thompson, but not the one who coached at Georgetown) has not yet been cast. The movie will be produced by LivePlanet, the company through which Damon and Affleck made Project Greenlight and have produced a handful of features. This film, however, will be the first specifically created as a vehicle for the duo.

So, since the project has been hand-selected by Damon and Affleck, they're not going to have anyone else to blame if it turns out to be a complete disaster. At this point, though Damon can probably bounce back from a failure or two, Affleck's got to be nearing his last chance to regain some credibility as an actor - since he picked this one, he damn well better hope it works out for him.

According to Contact Music (via America's OK Magazine), Ben Affleck and Matt Damon will be taking on the roles of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in a remake of the classic film starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Okay, now put the gun down, it's going to be okay - we're still very unsure how legit this rumor is.

If you want my opinion, I'm thinking one of them (Affleck seems to be the bigger idiot) probably mentioned something in an interview noting that their "dream" project would be to remake Butch and Sundance. That was then twisted and turned around to the point that Damon's name got thrown in and - bam - here we are, on Cinematical, praying this thing does not get made.

Damon and Affleck last shared the screen in Dogma (though I believe Matt had a small role in Jersey Girl) and are best known for their "collaborative" effort on Good Will Hunting, for which the two won an Oscar for best screenplay. Honestly, Damon has done a good job of separating himself from Affleck over the last few years, and with a few big roles coming up, it's probably in his best interest to stay away from his buddy who is, ultimately ,slipping from the spotlight. What do you think about this?