Devil's Advocate

Too old for Hamlet and too young for Lear--what's an ambitious actor to do? Play the Devil, of course. Jack Nicholson did it in The Witches of Eastwick; Robert De Niro did it in Angel Heart (as Louis Cyphre--get it?). In The Devil's Advocate Al Pacino takes his turn as the great Satan, and clearly relishes his chance to raise hell. He's a New York lawyer, of course, by the name of John Milton, who recruits a hotshot young Florida attorney (Keanu Reeves) to his firm and seduces him with tempting offers of power, sex, and money. Think of the story as a twist on John Grisham's The Firm, with the corporate evil made even more explicit. Reeves is wooden, and therefore doesn't seem to have much of a soul to lose, but he's really just our excuse to meet the devil. Pacino's the main attraction, gleefully showing off his--and the Antichrist's--chops at perpetrating menace and mayhem. The film was directed by Taylor Hackford (Against All Odds, Dolores Claiborne), who provides alternate-track commentary for the movie itself, plus a dozen deleted scenes. Also note: due to a settlement with artist Frederick Hart over the movie's use of a sculpture resembling his Ex Nihilo in Washington's National Cathedral, future releases of the film will be altered. --Jim Emerson

uuid: 9D83782A-2B02-4753-8634-9A8A68E72C98
upc: 0085391617228
title: Devil's Advocate
theatricalDate: 17-10-1997
stars: Keanu Reeves Al Pacino Charlize Theron Jeffrey Jones Judith Ivey Connie Nielsen Craig T. Nelson Tamara Tunie Ruben Santiago-Hudson Debra Monk Vyto Ruginis Laura Harrington Pamela Gray Heather Matarazzo George Wyner Chris Bauer Connie Embesi Jonathan Cavallary Murphy Guyer Leo Burmester
purchase date: 07-09-2006
publisher: Warner Home Video
published: 01-12-1998
price: $14.97
net Rating: 4
MPAA Rating: R
minutes: 144
last lookup time: 179362992
genre: Suspense Mystery Occult Drama
fullTitle: Devil's Advocate
features: AC-3 Anamorphic Closed-captioned Color Dolby Widescreen NTSC 2.35:1
director: Taylor Hackford
currentValue: $2.50
created: 179362976
country: us
aspect: DVD
asin: 6305065551