PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Yash Wade Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Sienna-Rose Mclaughlin The movie really just wants to entertain people.

oscar-35 Dogma, 1999. *Spoiler/plot- Humanity is put on trial for it's 'humanness' by the heavenly powers. *Special Stars- Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, M. Garafolo, George Carlin, Star & Writer & DIR: Kevin Smith. *Theme- Only suckers believe in spiritual matters from the Bible.*Trivia/location/goofs- Satire film on organized religions. This film and Kevin Smith is very much loved by the college and university crowd.*Emotion- If your a cynical person and anti-spiritual, you'll love this indictment of the Catholic Church from one of it's early initiates, this film's writer, star and director, Kevin Smith. Humanity is helped along by human assistants made up of the most trite biblical characters. These helpers spend their screen time with juvenile toilet jokes and extensive unnecessary cursing using God's name. A total waste of your time to learn anything positive about dogma or biblical or spiritual matters. Just cheap and boring sectarian tripe from a wise-ass dolt who shows you his hatred of Catholic matters by mocking them at every turn.*Based on- Media driven sectarian biblical matters

Jonkeenan-237-838968 Obviously we cannot thank these guys enough.It's almost twenty years since this came out and reviewers here are still rendering plot synopses? Fer Pete's sake, anyone here has already seen the film, therefore recaps are redundant.I got to this film looking for more Damon/Afleck stuff because I watched GWH, again, on a flight to Copenhagen. After six months I've found this movie and have explored the whole Kevin Smith thing.Masterpiece. Then Clerks and Amy, etc. and I'm on to Smith, who's inspiration/business- model can be summarized in two words; Lucas & Bruce. Lucas created a cinematic universe and Springsteen created a fan-base. Good work. Excellent.My hat is off to Smith, who did it all with just his local buds, a bit of sympathetic outside talent, and chutzpah. Plus, Jason Mewes makes it all worthwhile. Don't buy it? Watch his little "Amy" bit again. If you can't admire that, what DO you admire?I won't even go into Rickman, Rock, and Morrisette, their parts made me want them to be here forever.Just give 'isms and 'phobias a rest and enjoy an excellent film.

GusF The fourth film in Kevin Smith's View Askewniverse, this is an hilarious and thought-provoking film which cleverly explores the nature of faith. Due to the fact that it treats Catholicism in a very flippant fashion, it was somewhat controversial at the time of its release and was even denounced by the Catholic League as "blasphemy." However, it is best to take the film about as seriously as it takes its subject matter. It features numerous criticisms, both explicit and implicit, of Catholicism and organised religion in general and I have to say that I agreed with every one of them. Smith's writing is excellent and his direction is getting better and better with every film. He is much better able to handle the stunts and special effects than he was in "Mallrats" but wisely keeps the focus on the characters.I don't generally comment on such things in my reviews but, as far my own religious heritage goes, I was raised Catholic but I am now an agnostic. At one point, Bethany Sloane describes feeling inspired as a child when she attended Mass. I have to admit that I never felt that way. I did not question Catholic teaching when I was younger because I was too young to question it but, in retrospect, there was always a sense of going through the motions. The countless revelations of corruption and abuse in the Catholic Church, particularly in my native Ireland, did not exactly endear it to me either. Other than my sister's wedding, I can't remember the last time that I even entered a church.The plot concerns the fallen angels Loki and Bartleby, played very well by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, who were expelled from Heaven after getting drunk and objecting to the tenth plague of Egypt. They discover a loophole in Catholic canon law in the form of a plenary indulgence in a soon to be rededicated New Jersey church which would allow them to reenter Heaven but doing so would prove that God is not infallible and consequently lead to the destruction of all Creation, which would be a shame. In order to prevent this from happening, Heaven calls upon the services of the last scion Bethany Sloane and the two prophets, namely - who else? - Jay and Silent Bob. Linda Fiorentinio is wonderful as Bethany. By far the most realistic character in the film, she is a bitter, cynical Catholic abortion clinic worker who is suffering a crisis of faith in large part because her husband left her because she cannot have children. She attends Mass every Sunday but she gets nothing out of it and is not even sure why she goes. However, she is thrown into the deep end when she is visited by the archangel Metratron, the Voice of God. Over the course of the film, she struggles to come to terms with the fact that she was uncertain about God's very existence one day and is on a mission from Him (or Her!) the next. The antics of the borderline sex pest Jay are not of much comfort to her.The fallen angels are very interesting characters. Loki is a fun lovin' former angel of death who enjoys messing with people by convincing them that God does not exist. He also gets a giddy thrill out of getting up to his old tricks and killing sinners. At first, Bartleby is the more staid and sensible of the two as he wants to keep a low profile and not risk God finding out about their plans to return upstairs. However, he experiences an epiphany when he realises that God has infinite patience for His favoured creations, namely humans, but He expelled them from Heaven after one mistake. Although Bartleby has learned that their plan will negate all existence, he still intends to go through with it, which astonishes and disgusts Loki. Affleck is no Laurence Olivier but is very good at playing Bartleby's anger and quest for vengeance.Jay and Silent Bob have larger roles than in any of the previous three films and, as the former, Jason Mewes has most of the funniest lines in the film. It is a shame that Mewes has never had a big career outside of Smith's films as he is incredibly funny. Silent Bob is less verbose than in "Chasing Amy" but manages to save Bethany's life numerous times throughout the film. Alan Rickman, a far better comedic actor than he is a dramatic actor, is likewise extremely funny as the frequently drunk Metatron, who is bitter that most Christians do not know that he exists since there has never been a film about him. I have never been a big fan of Chris Rock either but he is very good here as Rufus, the thirteenth apostle who was left out of the Bible because he is black. The same is true of Salma Hayek as the muse Serendipity, who works at a strip club and was responsible for inspiring 19 of the top 20 highest grossing films of all time. Sadly for Metatron, none of them were about him. Jason Lee is both very funny and suitably villainous as the horned demon Azrael. George Carlin does not have much screen time but he is absolutely hilarious as the unorthodox Cardinal Glick, who seeks to revamp the Catholic Church's image through his Catholicism Wow! campaign. Oh, and Alanis Morissette plays God. Isn't it ironic, don't ya think? Actually, like the contents of her dreadful song, it isn't. The film also features great small appearances from Bud Cort, Janeane Garofalo, Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson (making his first appearance since "Clerks") and Dwight Ewell.Overall, this is an excellent film which does not take its subject matter too seriously but manages to say some very interesting things about religion, good and bad, along the way.

sme_no_densetsu "Dogma" is the sort of movie that major studios rarely take a chance on. Poking fun at religion often ends up drawing the wrong kind of publicity. However, back in 1999, Kevin Smith had enough clout to assemble an impressive cast to bring to life this irreverent comedy/fantasy adventure.The story concerns a couple of fallen angels (Matt Damon & Ben Affleck) who discover a loophole that'll allow them to re-enter Heaven. Little do they know that this comes with the unfortunate side effect of negating existence as we know it. Luckily for us, forces for good (including an angel, a muse and the 13th apostle) have enlisted the aid of some unlikely heroes in a quest to save mankind.The cast of "Dogma" is more star-studded than most of Kevin Smith's movies. Buddies Damon & Affleck were among Hollywood's top young stars at the time, so getting them involved was something of a coup. However, the story was expansive enough that there was plenty of opportunity for others to shine as well. Linda Fiorentino plays the story's central character while Alan Rickman, Chris Rock & Salma Hayek offer divine assistance. George Carlin also makes a memorable appearance as a cardinal aiming to reinvigorate the Catholic church. Alumni from past Kevin Smith movies include Jason Lee, Jason Mewes, Smith himself and, in smaller roles, Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson & Ethan Suplee.Smith's script features his usual knack for dialogue and pop culture references but, to me, it seems to be a bit heavy on exposition at times. That being said, having seen the many deleted/extended scenes, it's clear that considerable effort was put into cutting the movie down to a reasonable length. Meanwhile, Smith's direction is consistently well handled and the special effects are decent enough for this relatively low budget production. Musically, there are a few memorable moments but mostly the focus is elsewhere.All in all, "Dogma" is an interesting and original movie, though perhaps lacking a bit in satiric bite. On the other hand, the light tone is probably for the best since it makes the movie less offensive than it could have been. I don't know if Smith really has much to say in the end but it does make for an entertaining couple of hours.