Some awesome acting here.
The Prophecy (1995)
Directed By: Gregory Widen
Where to get it: Echo Bridge
The Prologue
If you really broke things down, you might be able to call 1995′s The Prophecy a bit blasphemous. But under all the religious symbols, themes, and characters, you also find a bit of a good message and point to it all. And I also tend to hold a sweet spot for it due to the fact it has three actors who would go on to be in my all time favorite movie, Pulp Fiction. Of course I am talking about Amanda Plummer, Eric Stoltz, and the legend himself, Christopher Walken. We also get other cool actors such as Elias Koteas, who you may recall from the film, Crash and as Casey Jones from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, as well as Viggo Mortensen, who was in some movies about a ring. You may or may not have heard of those films.
The Movie
At the scene of a bizarre murder, L.A. homicide detective Thomas Dagget discovers a lethal heavenly prophecy now being fulfilled on Earth. Yet in his fight to stop the forces of evil—led by the powerful angel Gabriel (Christopher Walken, Wedding Crashers)—Dagget finds an unlikely ally in elementary school teacher (Virginia Madsen, The Haunting in Connecticut). Together they race against time and terror to save the world as we know it.
Before you can even talk about anything else in this movie, you have to talk about the acting. One look at the cast will tell you all you need to know about how well the acting here is. But still, even with the all-star of a cast, Viggo Mortensen deserves a lot of praise for his role as The Devil. If you saw the Devil (and lets hope you nor I ever do), if he didn’t come with red skin, a tail, and horns, you’d expect him to look and act just like Viggo Mortensen does here (or perhaps like George W. Bush, but that’s another story). However, with all great actors getting praise for their stuff here, nobody can deny that Christopher Walken in the role of the annoyed angel, Gabrielle, is the star of the film. As he should be really, he does such a great job here, there’s no question why they’d want to bring him back for two more of these. Not that there really needed to be any more after this, but that’s another review for later on.
This movie from start to finish comes packed with creepy dialogue and images. They even take the time to give us some rather awesome action scenes as well. Even if you aren’t a big fan of the overall concept and plot (some really religious folks might not be), you will at least remember some things you see and hear in this one when all is said and done. But if you are majorly religious and are unsure if you want to dip your toes in this pool, let me just say I myself have a lot of beliefs and I wasn’t too offended by anything I saw here. Sure, the overall idea of the plot might be a lot to take in, but as weird as it may sound, I think this is made with good taste and a bit of a message. It’s just hidden inside some (at times) gruesome and bizarre stuff.
The film is 97 minutes, but I don’t recall a dragging scene in it. It also takes some time for a little comedy with Walken a time or two, which oddly fits and doesn’t change the tone that much when it happens. You get cool little effects and gore scenes, even if it’s not an all out blood feast. You also get a very clean and fitting ending that seems to finish off the story nearly flawlessly, and doesn’t leave really any notable loose ends. That fact alone could make you wonder why they went on to make four more of these, but I guess we will be dealing with those and finding out what they are about on this site soon enough. But as for this, a surprisingly solid film from the 90′s.
The Conclusion
The acting is a strong point, and it’s never a bore. So with all that combined it gets my approval. If you’d like to see this 90′s gem, Echo Bridge has it along on DVD and Blu-ray, as well as part of a combo pack with other Prophecy films. I don’t know if I’d call it Top 10 of the 90′s material, but it may just be Top 20.
The Rating (7/10)
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