BEFORE: The annual Feast is going on in Williamsburg, Brooklyn - that's the Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, but we just call it "The Feast". I'm sure the religious aspects of it are very important to some, and the fund-raising aspect is important to that parish, but we just go for the food. And the lifiting of the Giglio, but mostly the food. We had dinner there on Wednesday night, and as with any street festival, the first night is always the best, partially because all the oil in the fryers is fresh, but also because at that point I haven't had a great calzone or sausage + peppers hero in about 51 weeks. I usually follow those up with some coconut shrimp and lemon ice, and we get some fried Oreos to take home. For some reason, I seem to gain weight this time every year.
As stated, Nicolas Cage carries over from "Season of the Witch".
THE PLOT: A vengeful father escapes from hell and chases after the men who killed his daughter and kidnapped his granddaughter.
AFTER: Maybe I should have saved this chain for October, with all the monsters, demons and witches that have been populating my movies for the last week. Oh, well, too late to turn back now. Besides, in many ways this film plays like a comic book, with resurrected people with healing powers, Satanic cults, impossible stunts and over-blown violence. It's a bit like "Sin City" mixed with "Ghost Rider" with a little of "Red State", all directed by Tarantino.
Hollywood action films have a long history of defying reality, especially when it comes to stunts and such. How many times have we seen cars fall off a cliff and explode on (or even before) impact? What about villains shooting hundreds of bullets at the hero, missing every time, thus allowing him to get off that ONE bullet that finds its mark? Or a thousand other impossible things? And yet instead of crying foul, audiences just keep demanding more. And bigger, and louder. Movies take people to far-off lands, into the ocean depths, and across the galaxies, and we all say, "Wow! That was great! What else have you got?"
I say this to preface a film with a heavy buy-in. A man escapes from Hell - though how, exactly, we're not quite sure. That would have made a great beginning for a movie, I'm just sayin', instead of starting the story after he's already done that, and then we all have to play catch-up. His daughter got mixed up with a cult after he died, and now his infant granddaughter is in trouble.
Turns out the Devil doesn't like it when somebody escapes, so he sends the Accountant after the guy. The Accountant is a great, complex character - it makes sense that someone needs to do the bookkeeping in Hell, since it is a giant cosmic prison. How else do they keep track of time served, or punishments endured? Turns out the Devil also doesn't like it when people sacrifice babies in his name, so now the Accountant has two problems.
It's hard to nitpick when a film just goes ahead and sets up its own mythology, its own set of rules for how things work in the afterlife. Who am I to say otherwise? Whatever needs to happen to bring about a suitable conflict and resolution here, the movie just says, "Well, that's the way the cookie crumbles..." And along the way there are huge explosions and impossible stunts, lots of people get shot, and everyone has a good time. The audience, that is, not those people who got shot.
The last song before the credits sounded very familiar - it was a cover of "Alive", which is a Meat Loaf song from "Bat Out of Hell III". Very appropriate usage - and you can't stump me when it comes to Meat Loaf. Great job avoiding the obvious and overused "Highway to Hell".
Sequel, please!
Also starring William Fichtner (last seen in "The Longest Yard"), Amber Heard, Billy Burke (last seen in "Fracture"), David Morse (last seen in "The Long Kiss Goodnight"), Todd Farmer, Jack McGee.
RATING: 6 out of 10 bullet holes
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