OK so after the intensive listings of the doom and dispair and the hope of The Smashing Pumpkins best songs I thought I would do a post on a comedy film, so this one will be on Kevin Smith's comedy film, Dogma, starring Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Linda Fiorentino alongside the comedy duo of Jay and Silent Bob, i.e. Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith. So with that let's give this one a look...
So the film begins with a homeless man being beaten outside a skee ball arcade in New Jersey, by a young group of teenagers with hockey sticks and as a result he is put in a coma. Meanwhile two fallen angels, Bartleby (Ben Affleck) and Loki (Matt Damon) who have been exiled to Wisconsin by God after Loki was persuaded by Bartleby to resign his position as the angel of death, find out that a church in Red Bank, New Jersey plans to celebrate its centennial with plenary indulgence. This would effect allow Bartleby and Loki to pass through the doors of the church, which would absolve their sins and let them go to heaven. However neither of them are aware that by doing this it will reverse God's decreee and ultimatley also destroy all of existence. Elsewhere, Bethany Sloane, an abortion clinic worker who is a catholic who has lost her faith in God, receives a strange visitation from the angel-winged figure named the Metatron (Alan Rickman) who is the voice of God. The Metatron tasks Bethany with the mission of stopping Bartleby and Loki from the passing through the gates of the church, but Bethany initially refuses as she lost her faith in God after her husband left her because she was unable to have children.
Later on Bethany is attacked by the three teenagers, who in fact are actually Stygian triplets (reference to the Styx) but she is rescued by Jay and Silent Bob (Mewes and Smith) who beat up the triplets who scarper. Bethany realises that Jay and Silent Bob are in fact the two "prophets" that the Metatron spoke of to her who were sent to help her. However its far from plain sailing between them as Bethnay repeatedly tries to fend off Jay's crude sexual advances but along the way they meet up with Rufus (Chris Rock) who was the thirteenth apostle, who was apparently written out of the bible as well as the Muse (Salma Hyek) who helps Bethany as well. To make matters worse the Stygian triplet's leader, Azrael (Jason Lee) is a rogue demon who was once a muse himself, but instead he helps Bartleby and Loki in their efforts to reach the church but also explains to them the dangers involved. And from here its up to Bethany and the others to try and stop the two angels from reaching the church and undoing all of existence.
It has to be said that Dogma is one of Kevin Smith's most entertaining comedy films as well as the most controversial given the subject matter of the Catholic church and Smith's take on it, which caused much uproar with protests in many different countries, which contributed towards it delayed release and Smith himself even apparently had received death threats. But the film itself is also really well written, funny, intelligent and even at times quite charming as well and at the start of the film Smith puts up a funny disclaimer about the film and goes as far as to say "But even God must have a sense humour right? I mean just look at the platypus!". And it has to be the first comedy film to have caused such an uproar on the subject of religion since Monty Python's Life of Brian but throughout I think Smith cleverly satrises the notions of religion by updating the traditional presentation of Jesus and instead replaces it with the "Buddy Christ" where the Cardinal in the film reveals a statue of Jesus with a big grin and a thumbs up! But the film also cleverly deals with the themes of religious faith and belief and its main character Bethany is first shown to be a woman who has lost her faith in God, as well as depicting the indignant feelings of the fallen angels in Bartleby and Loki.
As for the performances well Dogma is really good and it features a fine cast, starting with Linda Fiorentino who is excellent in her role as Bethany, a woman who has become disillusioned by her faith in God but is all of sudden presented with the task to stop the two fallen angels in Bartleby and Loki. Fiorentino however according to Smith was never the easiest person to work with and she reportedly said that she felt she was an outsider to the group in the cast. Regardless of that though Fiorentino does have some good moments in the film such as the scene where she reluctantly teams up with Jay and Silent Bob. And Jay drives her car but he clearly hasn't a clue to how to put it into gear and ends up writing it off, and Jay says to her "dude she's never gonna fuck us now!" and Bethany turns round and screams "NODOBY IS FUCKING ME! YOU GOT THAT!!". And when Bethany first meets Rufus, who falls naked from the sky, but Silent Bob gives Rufus his coat to wear, Bethany insists to know where he came from. "Wait a second between guys with wings, guys falling out of the sky, and guys trying like hell to fuck me, I think I've been pretty patient so far, and I'm not taking another step into you tell me where the hell you came from!". Fiorentino also has another good moment where she finally get's Rufus to tell her what God wants with her and he tells her she is the many times removed great grand niece of Jesus Christ and Bethany runs off saying "This is bullshit!". And she runs through a lake screaming at the sky "I fucking hate you! What do you want from me???!" before the Metatron finally arrives to comfort her.
Ben Affleck is also really good in the film as Bartleby, one of the fallen angels, who persuaded his good friend, Loki, to quit his job as the angel of death. Affleck has quite a few good highlights in the film which include the scene where Bartley and Loki go to the HQ office behind the production of a well known cartoon and pass judgement on the board members. And Bartley says "You are responsible for raising an icon which draws worship from the Lord. You have broken the first commandment. Not only that, I'm afraid not a one of you passes for a decent human being!" and he carries on revealing the members sordid deeds before Loki unleashes justice by shooting them all! Another good scene is where Bartleby tells of Loki for teasing a nun about her lifestyle and Bartley says to him "You know, here's what I don't get about you. You know for a fact that there is a God. You've been in his presence. He's spoken to you personally. Yet I just heard you claim to be an athiest!". Another good scene from Affleck is probably his best moment where after Bartleby and Loki are thrown off a train by Silent Bob and Bartleby suddenly sees things in a different light and begins to feel indignant towards God. And Affleck says "The humans have besmirched everything bestowed on them. They were given paradise, they threw it away. They were given this planet, they destroyed it! And in spite of it all he has shown them infinite fucking patience at every turn! What about us? I asked you... once to lay down your sword because I felt sorry them. What was the result? Our expulsion from paradise! Where was his infinite fucking patience then?! Its not right! ITS NOT FAIR!".
Matt Damon is also good in his part as Loki, the mischievious angel, who was once an angel of death, but now banished to Wisconsin. Damon has some fun with his character throughout and he has some funny moments, such as the scene where onboard a bus, Loki spots a couple kissing, but Loki knows the man involved is being unfaithful to his wife, and he asks the man point blank if he is married to the woman and he says "what do you think?!" and Loki takes out his gun and shoots them both! After the bus stops and the passengers and driver flee, Loki and Bartleby calmly get off and Loki grins saying "Say it! Who's house? Run's house! I said who's house! Run's house!". Also there is the scene where Bartleby and Loki arrive at the board meeting and Loki terrorises the members and the head board member, Mr Whitland, and he has a voodoo which he flattens. And Loki laughs saying "I don't believe in voodoo!" and he walks out and a moment later storms back in with his gun and says "But I do believe in this!". And later on after Bartleby and Loki are thrown off the train by Silent Bob, Loki realises that Bartleby has flipped and says "I heard a rant like this before. You sound like the morning star! You sound like Lucifier, man, you've fucking lost it! You're not talking about going home, you are talking about war on God, well fuck that! I have seen what happens to the proud when they take on the throne!". And in the same scene Damon get's his best line where he says to Loki "But what about the humans? And those two guys, Jay and Silent Bob they are alright!". And later on during the street massacre when Bartleby goes nuts and kills people, Loki drunkenly stands around, swigging a bottle, with his wings cut off, he says "This is just eons of repression being purged. If only they'd let us jerk off!".
Now for Jay and Silent Bob! Starting with Jason Mewes who is at times hilarious in the film as the foul mouthed, horny drug dealer, Jay who can't stop yapping on about sex but nonetheless plays his part in helping out in the crisis. Mewes has various funny moments such as in his first scene where Jay says to Bethany why they are there and he says "We figured an abortion clinic is a good place to meet loose women. Why else would they be there unless they like to fuck!". Also there is the scene where Jay wrecks Bethany's car and she walks out on them and Jay yells after her "Guys like us just don't fall out of the fucking sky, you know!" then all of a sudden Rufus falls out of the sky! And Jay looks back up hopefully and yells "Beautiful, big-titted, naked women don't just fall out of the sky, you know!". Also there is the scene where Jay and Silent Bob go and chat with Bethany on their first meeting and he says to her "So do you do anal? Is it true that chicks fart when you blast them in the ass?!" and Bethany wearily says "No sex" and Jay says "I'll take head!". And later on as Jay repeatedly makes advances to Bethany he asks her "OK what if it was five minutes till the end of the world, would you fuck me then?" and Bethany says "In that unlikley incident, sure". And near the end of the film as the others struggle to stop and Bartleby and Loki from entering the church, Bethany and Jay duck for cover and he starts taking off his trackie bottoms and she asks what he's doing "The world's gonna end and you said you were gonna fuck me!". And as Jay tries to make one last advance he inadvertently gives Bethany an idea that could help them, regarding the man in the coma from the start of the film, and she kisses him realising, the man is the key to it all and she kisses him, and Jay says "That's what I'm talking about!" and kisses her back! Another funny moment is where Jay makes the mistake of asking Rufus to tell him something he knows about him and Rufus says "You masturbate more than anybody on the planet!" and Jay says "Yeah fuck, everybody knows that! Tell me something nobody knows!" and Rufus says "When you do it, you're thinking about guys!" and Silent Bob looks shocked and Jay sheepishly says "Dude not all of the time!". But later he backs up the gag when Jay nods off and Bob hits him and Jay says "I didn't come in you, Pete, I swear!".
Alan Rickman is also great in his role as the voice of God, the Metatron, who first arrives in Bethany's bedroom and she sprays him with a fire extinguisher. And afterward Bethany demands "Who the fuck are you and what the fuck are you doing here?!" and the Metatron says "I'm pissed off is what I am! Do you spray everyone you meet with flame retardant chemicals?! Its no wonder youre single!". And Bethany pleads with him "just don't rape me" and the Metatron says "Oh please I couldn't rape you even if I wanted to! Angels are ill-equipped!" and he opens his trousers and shows her he has no genitals "I'm as anatomically impaired as a Ken doll!". And later on Bethany asks the Metatron what God is like and he says "Funny but lonely. He's got a great sense of humour. Take sex for example. There's nothing funnier than the ridiculous faces you people make mid-coitus!" and Bethany asks "Sex is a joke in heaven?" and the Metraton replies "The way I understand it, its mostly a joke down here, too!".
Chris Tucker is also good in his role as Rufus, the 13th apostle, written out of the bible and Tucker provides the film with some of his own snappy delivery. Tucker's best line however probably comes in his first scene where Bethany asks him if he knew Jesus and Rufus says "Know him? Nigger owes me ten bucks!". And Tucker also get's another funny moment where he reveals that Jesus was in fact black, and he says "A black man can steal your car stereo, but he can't be your saviour!". Tucker also has fun with the idea of being the apostle back in the days and he says "In three years I followed his ass around Jerusalem, did I ever get laid?! Hell no! And I was in my prime, and I could have been knee deep in shepherds daughters!". Salma Hayek has some fun in her part as the Muse (and she wears a pretty tight outfit as well!) who was an inspiration for humanity and she says at one point "I was responsible for 19 of the top 20 grossing films of all time. Apart form that one about the kid at home, without his parents, burglars try to get in and he fights them off? I had nothing to do with that one. Someone sold their soul to Satan to get the grosses up on that piece of shit!".
And lastly Jason Lee is also good in his role as the villainous Azrael, who plans to let Bartleby and Loki get back to heaven so existence can end. Lee who even has some small horns on his head, relishes some of his lines, and his best moment comes when in the bar where he asks the bartender for a "holy bartender" and he ends up riddling him with bullets. And Jay get's the joke laughing saying "Holy bartender! I get it! Its a good one!". And last of all George Carlin provides a nice little performance as Cardinal Glick and he unveils the statue of the Buddy christ and says to the press "Now that's not a sanctioned term, its just something we've been kicking around the office, look at it. Doesn't it pop? Buddy Christ!". And last last of all Alan Morrissette provides a strangely charming cameo as God herself, and plays her as a chirpy but silent deity, who when in the film Bethany asks her the often asked question "why are we here?", God simply honks her nose and smiles. Of course God is silent in the film because her voice is said to be so powerful it would cause anyone's chest to cave in and their head to explode!
Finally moving onto Kevin Smith who does a fine job with the film and it looks like a fairly well budgeted movie, despite its rather modest $10 million budget, the effects he uses are pretty good, albet in same cases quite disgusting aswell as we see in the Golgothan shit demon scene, which Silent Bob incapacitates by using a spray that get's rid of filthy odours! Smith's script is also alot of fun, with plenty of great (and foul-mouthed) dialogue and he himself provides his usual good turn as Silent Bob and he only has a couple of lines, but the best being on the train when Bob chucks Bartleby and Loki off it and he turns to a passenger and says "No ticket!" as a reference to Indiana Jones. The film's music score by Howard Shore isn't too bad either and again Shore shows that he is rather diverse as a composer as its not immediately recognisible as one of his scores and it suits the film's quasi-dramatic tone pretty well.
As for flaws..... well Dogma certainly isn't quite perfect as it is a pretty silly far fetched caper, but then so what?! But it has to be said that Smith has always had a rather uneven balance of charm and gross-out humour in his films and Dogma has its fare share of crude dialogue, alot of it from Jay. And the idea of the Golgothan shit demon is pretty silly as its just an excuse to literally have a shit in there as a visual gag, but yet in a strange way it does sort of work! Jay also it has to be said even though he is pretty funny as a character, he can also being a rather annoying little dweeb who can't stop thinking with his knob and is more of an accidental hero, or maybe even anti-hero than anything else. But only Kevin Smith can make a movie about religion, politics, beliefs, war, ideologies, sex and make it charming yet also cram it with as he often has said himself "dick and fart jokes!".
Anyway that all aisde Dogma is still one of Kevin Smith's most entertaining and oddly charming films, which broaches its controversial subject in fine style and you will sure to find plenty to laugh at here.
So with that I shall leave you there and bid you all goodnight!
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