Devil's Advocate

After seeing this movie for the second time 18 years after the premiere at the cinema, I’m raising my rating to a full five stars. It’s incredible that such scripts were written for genre entertainment in the 1990s! And those actors! And the set designs, whether interiors or in the city of New York! What’s up with Hollywood today?! (09/22/2015)

This film has four big assets: Al Pacino, whose portrayal of the Devil is unique, Charlize Theron, who’s even better as a woman falling into madness, great music by James Newton Howard, and an interesting and novel plot. Keanu Reeves does his best, but he's no match for the first two. Excellent thriller. (04/13/2003)

Superb thriller with a brilliant demonic performance by Al Pacino. The story develops slowly and I even doubted that the advertised supernatural element would appear at all. Fortunately, halfway through things begin going in right direction, Satan shines, Charlize Theron is impressively crazy and Keanu Reeves is pretty good, too. I can imagine it 30 minutes shorter, but doesn’t matter, it still fun as it is. 9/10 (05/21/2010)

A brilliant thriller with perfect performances, a very, very good script. You won't get up until the end. (09/21/2002)

Satan himself must have had his hands in the perfection of this gem, because I can't think of any other way that a "mere" vanity film would have got to me like this. (01/30/2007)

Who would believe that after a slightly tired introduction, I would be so enthusiastic at the end? After each screening, I look forward to watching it again, already expecting that the beginning will seem better in the context of the rest of the story. It starts off so innocent, but that's when the biggest surprise comes, when the story starts to pick up pace and the atmosphere thickens to the point where you anticipate a fright with every shot. It's no wonder, director Hackford knows how to create very disturbing moments (a brilliant and dark sexual scene) and contrasting visual and sound inserts of mystery in innocent moments. However, it is difficult to judge how successful it would be without the actors. Reeves, in fact, delivers the best performance of his career and thanks to this film, Pacino has definitively become an incomparable acting chameleon. (08/25/2006)

Originally, I had only four stars, but after careful consideration, I decided to add one more because besides the very good screenplay, which moves in a mysterious genre in an original way, the film also has top-notch casting and amazing performances. Al Pacino excels in the role of the ruler of hell. Keanu Reeves has probably reached his acting maximum, Charlize Theron shows that she is not only a beautiful model but also an excellent actress, and Connie Nielsen is wonderfully corrupt in her supporting role. Overall impression: 90%. (06/18/2006)

The bland greasy mythology, which at times literally detonates due to the director giving too much weight to the reality of the surrounding world, clashes here with solid performances and the typically sterile generic script, whose writers follow the mantra “we don't know where when how - as long as we have Al.” Pacino is a typically cocky dude with an amazing array of expressions, smirks, and poses that you can't help but fall in love with, even though he plays the literal king of villains. It's a shame that Hackford is just a plain craftsman who can't bring the necessary drive and fierceness to any movie about anything. The Devil himself would certainly need that at times. (04/16/2007)

This film is hard to rate. On the one hand, the performances are all excellent, Keanu Reeves and Charlize Theron are simply great, and I don't even have to dwell on Al Pacino, he’s one of the best actors ever, after all, and his expression alone foreshadows and represents all the unfortunate events that take place throughout. Those events are truly delicious, by the way, with an appropriate level of nastiness and strong sexual overtones, all accompanied by Howard's haunting music. But there are flaws. First of all, the story is not very strong emotionally, it fails to grab the viewer by the armpits and shake them furiously, instead, it just plays lightly with our curls and pulls out a tuft here and there. OK, the main purpose of the film was certainly not just to scare and increase the psychological pressure, but that doesn't excuse the slightly tedious first half. 80% (01/24/2012)

Watching it, I never would have guessed that Devil's Advocate went through five years of pre-production hell and that the filming was beset with difficulties and delays. Because everything about it feels like a totally coherent original vision that was fun for everyone to work on, from the actors and camera work to the sets and music. After all, even dead wood like Keanu Reeves gives a decent performance here. The best part is how the main story is propelled through interesting and intense subplots, and when the film opens with a close-up of the confused face of an underage witness, no one thinks that two hours later the main character will be shooting himself in the head surrounded by flames and black candles. Given the way the film slowly doles out information and odd situations, I would give anything to see it for the first time with no knowledge of what's behind it all. This is how genre movies were made in 1997, kids. Years later, I was quite taken aback by Al Pacino's prescient monologue about billions of Eddie Barzoons entering the new millennium. Tony Gilroy writes, others cry. (05/25/2020)

But yeah, the beginning is slow and the ending is surprisingly bad compared to what we have been watching and how the film seemed in terms of what should be at the end. But those performances, uniquely dominated by Al Pacino, are simply good. Keanu Reeves fit perfectly for this role, but in comparison, you can still see how great Al Pacino is. Some scenes here are absolutely amazing, such as the one in the subway or the opening one in court. (09/25/2014)

An incredible atmosphere throughout the film, an ensemble cast that reaches to the very depths of their powers, haunting tones of music, and a perfect study of warped psyche and character. Al Pacino was unmatched as the devil and his performance really does border heavily on perfection. It's just a pity that Devil's Advocate had no chance at the Oscars in 1997 because of the competition with Titanic... (08/24/2009)