Posted by The Dancing Tree at 212.85.30.2 on December 29, 1999 at 04:56:22:
Well, it finally arrived after a year of waiting and months of scouring
NewsAskew for tidbits (and after FilmFour had a "funny" moment, deciding to
release it on Boxing Day). I have to say that, like many people, I was
beginning to sway under media pressure and my expectations were somewhat
mixed; Dogma has certainly had something of a bashing from a fair section
of the British press. Mind you, Barry Norman liked it, and his taste is
usually pretty good!
The disclaimer was a nice touch, relaxing everyone in the cinema and making
them feel all gooey. Of course, this was utterly counteracted by the old
guy getting the tar beaten out of him.
The one thing that was overtly obvious about this film was how pro-faith it
is, and how utterly misinformed the protesters have been and indeed still
are. If only they'd go and see the film they'd find that it is more likely
to reawaken someone's faith than push them off the path. And it has to be
said, the film's more controversial moments aren't stuff that hasn't been
discussed before anyway ...
Thankfully, Dogma doesn't fall into the field of being preachy, which I
thought it might. Only towards the middle of the film does it have its one
really slow moment which kind of drags (everyone shared this opinion),
otherwise the script was very tight.
As an aside, it was kind of good to see Jeff Anderson back, even if his
role was a "blink or you'll miss it". And just how many Hicks are there in
the NJ area?!
I did initially worry about giving Jay and Silent Bob major roles, but this
paid dividends, most notably due to the fact that Jay got most of the funny
lines. I feel that if his character had not been around so much this movie
could have been very dark indeed.
In fact, most of the criticisms levelled at the film - dodgy direction, bad
special effects, some rough performances, were, in my opinion, mostly
without foundation. I've always been of the opinion that Kevin is a much
better writer than director, but this film was carried off with some style.
Perhaps there were a few too many close-ups at times, but that's just being
picky! The special effects, which I'd been reliably informed were awful,
were actually quite good. The wings certainly looked the part, and
although a certain "gross" character looked a bit rough I'm sure that's the
point! And as for the performances, surely the one failing point of past
Smith flicks, no problems at all - even from the less thoroughbred actors
like ... well ... Jay and Silent Bob :-)
As usual for a Smith flick, I stayed until the end of the credits to
discover the name of the next film (although this doesn't always come
true). If the one mentioned is to be the case then that does bring a cause
for concern as single standalone movies that are great should probably be
left that way, and sequels are never, ever better than the originals.
However, I'd be very happy to be proved utterly wrong!
Overall, congratulations Kevin (if you read this!) on both having the guts
to see this one through and for making a great movie at the same time. I
only hope it ends up getting the recognition it deserves, and it does seem
to be doing pretty