Rating of
2/4
"Dogma" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 01/22/12
When a pair of fallen angels discover a loophole that means they could re-enter heaven, the last descendant of Christ and a motley assortment of supernatural helpers set out to stop them before they cause the end of all creation. Fair play to Kevin Smith for this brave attempt at a deconstruction of biblical mythology because it's quite a nice idea and obviously risked a backlash from the usual assortment of religious nutters. The problem however is that although he clearly did his homework and made sure he got all his facts straight, a lot of the material he used is lost on anyone who doesn't go to Catholic Bible class and so much of the script is spent explaining the stories and characters he is sending up. Unfortunately, if you have to explain why a joke is funny, that means it isn't funny. He obviously decided to shore up the idea with the usual Jay and Silent bob nob jokes, but they don't sit well with the rest of the story and the result is a bit of a messy, meandering tale, intermittently stalled by far too much religious waffle. It certainly has its moments, mostly provided by Affleck and Damon's self righteous bloodbaths, but Salma Hayek is hot yet irrelevant and Jason Lee and his bad guys are all terminally lame. It's made watchable by having a strong premise but it could've been so much better.
