youdontsmellbad

i checked out the show, to be honest, for the reason you might expect. and for that purpose i was pretty disappointed. but i'm not entirely crass and i continued watching. now i'm a cinephile who doesn't make a lot of time for TV shows, but this was a truly terrific achievement.

this is a top shelf, highbrow, a-class, quality show for intelligent people almost exclusively. the characters are well-developed, and backed by nuanced performances. the dialogue rings true, never TV-like at all. and the story arcs are present without that pesky soap-opera feeling.

on top of that, the shot selection and cinematography are freewheeling and experimental(sometimes to a fault-as in the rotating camera in the Chinese restaurant-but no matter). the show is more than worth an hour out of my week.

that damn theme song however is the worst. so ham-handed and silly, ugh. it practically undoes all the subtlety of the show when it wails "this is the way that we live!!" not to mention that awful list of verbs in the middle. and such a long song too! that and the sometimes equally obtuse selection of music for the soundtrack is the worst bit.

There are two things weighing this movie down for most everyone (everyone snobby anyway). there is a) the fact that it's based on a comic book to which it is disloyal, and b) the fact that keanu reeves is in it.

to address a: i'm sure the comic "hellblazer" is terrific and don't let me be the one to tell you not to bother with comics, it's just that i'm a movie-oriented person, and the movie constantine was pretty good regardless of what might have been different, or even better in this comic i never read.

to address b: ho ho he sounds like a surfer. ho ho he's an airhead. that was funny to say back in 1992, but he's had a long tenure acting and he's not bad at it. just lay off the man and enjoy the movies.

the rest is all just a fairly good action movie. there are several real eye catchers like a guy getting hit by a car in the beginning, with unexpected results. the exorcism. some other stuff later.

there's an appearance at the end by a character and actor you probably won't expect(unless you check the cast in advance). i was delighted by both.

the action isn't all-out guns blaring brainless junk. it's more subdued and there's a lot of time between these scenes. sometimes there was a feeling of void where more action might go, just to balance out the deliberately slow pace. one more scene would have probably done it.

and sometimes it does feel kind of silly, but hey that's what you're paying for.