City of Angels (1998)
Average Rating: 6.2/10
Reviews Counted: 60
Fresh: 35 | Rotten: 25
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 6.1/10
Critic Reviews: 17
Fresh: 11 | Rotten: 6
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 323,496
My Rating
Movie Info
An angel must decide if love is more important than eternal peace in this Americanized adaptation of Wim Wenders' modern classic Wings of Desire. Seth (Nicholas Cage) is an angel who hovers over the city of Los Angeles, listening to people's thoughts, observing their lives, and guiding them to the next world when they die. While Seth and his fellow angels try to offer comfort to people as they can, they are discouraged from direct contact with humans and are usually invisible to them. While at a
Apr 10, 1998 Wide
Sep 29, 1998
Warner Home Video
Watch It Now
Cast
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Nicolas Cage
Seth -
Meg Ryan
Maggie -
Andre Braugher
Cassiel -
Dennis Franz
Messinger -
Colm Feore
Jordan -
Robin Bartlett
Anne -
Joanna Merlin
Teresa -
Sarah Dampf
Susan -
Deirdre O'Connell
Mrs. Balford
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All Critics (62) | Top Critics (17) | Fresh (35) | Rotten (25) | DVD (9)
Strains to achieve the enchantingly sublime, but ends up sinking to the depressingly ridiculous.
Top CriticAs a remake it's not as poetic as Wenders' masterpiece Wings of Desire, but it's supremely mounted (by ace lenser John Seale) and contains touching performances from Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan deviating from their respective screen images.
Funnier than Wenders' version, and it also succeeds in visualising LA as a magical city while dealing intelligently with the themes of mortality, sacrifice, free will, and the mixed blessings of the human condition.
My face had been locked in that goofy, awestruck expression you experience only in Spielberg movies. City of Angels demonstrates the best kind of emotionally manipulative filmmaking.
A lovely oddity.
It manages to leave a pleasant afterglow for those in the mood for its kind of loving.
Glossy romance as an angel falls for a surgeon.
The movie's eerie, slightly menacing vision of black-clad angels lurking in the shadowy corners of unsuspecting lives is genuinely haunting.
A good deal better than it has any right to be.
An emotionally uninvolving flick that attempts to play on the heart strings of the viewer and fails in its effort.
City of Angels is the sort of compromised movie that could have been almost good, but decided to be a great big hit instead.
City of Angels raises theological questions, albeit in a somewhat pedestrian manner, and makes them an integral part of its otherwise formulaic plot.
Superb imagery can't compensate for deficiencies of Dana Steven's script and can't hide the formulaic nature of this film.
This useless remake lacks the sheer ethereal beauty of the original Wings of Desire.
Why would anyone remake Wim Wenders' masterpiece, Wings of Desire? Certainly not for artistic reasons.
A thinking person's film for those who can't think.
A beautiful film in many ways.
Marries romance and faith in a love story as charming as a handmade valentine. It is so lovely to look at and so sincere in intent that its flaws don't matter much.
Walking out of the theater, I felt different. The film made me realize how wonderful life could be, how a thing as simple as wind on your face or the taste of a pear had value.
Audience Reviews for City of Angels
Saw it again! Excellent Movie! One of the best tragic romantic story I have ever seen. Great acting!
Angels are among us and when we feel an invisible presence, you better believe they are watching you. For a Los Angeles heart surgeon named Maggie, that is too much of a stretch. She believes that it is her job to save the lifes of her patients and when she meets Seth after visiting hours are over, he tells her it's simply just their time to go. She becomes intrigued by his presence and opinion. Seth is not just normal, he is an Angel. He meets Messinger while visiting patients. Messinger can see him because he was once a Angel but gave his power up to become human. This makes Seth want to become human so he can feel, smell, and love Maggie.
Super Reviewer
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- Messinger: Some things are true whether you believe 'em or not.
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- Seth: I would rather have had one breath of her hair, one kiss of her mouth, one touch of her hand, than eternity without it. One.
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- Seth: To touch you, and to feel you. To be able to hold your hand right now. Do you know what that means to me? Do you? Do you know how much I love you?
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- Seth: I always asked the dying what they liked best about living. Wrote it down in my book. This is it. This is what I like best.
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- Seth: I came to take Mr. Balford, and I saw you. I couldn't take my eyes off you. How you fought for him. And you looked right at me, like I was a man.
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- Maggie: I wait all day, just hoping for one more minute with you, and I don't even know you.
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Latest News on City of Angels
September 15, 2005:
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Credit also should be given to the performance of the lead pair. Nicole Cage, with that soulful eyes and soft-spoken gestures, gives one of his most sublime performances. And Meg Ryan, shedding her customary perky girl image, proves that she is so much more than just a pretty face.