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Movies / On DVD / City of Angels
City of Angels

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City of Angels (1998)

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Reviews Counted:57

Fresh:34

Rotten:23

Average Rating:6.3/10

Runtime: 2 hrs 2 mins

Genre: Dramas

Synopsis: Based in part on Wim Wenders's 1988 film, WINGS OF DESIRE, this is the story of Seth (Nicolas Cage), an angel who wanders the Los Angeles area invisible to humans. As someone's death approaches,... Based in part on Wim Wenders's 1988 film, WINGS OF DESIRE, this is the story of Seth (Nicolas Cage), an angel who wanders the Los Angeles area invisible to humans. As someone's death approaches, he spends time near that person and becomes visible while acting as traveling companion during the trip to the great hereafter. His discovery of a distraught heart surgeon, Maggie (Meg Ryan), inspires him to forego his immortality and exist on earth with her as a feeling and mortal entity. [More]

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Meg Ryan, Dennis Franz, Andre Braugher

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Meg Ryan, Dennis Franz, Andre Braugher, Colm Feore, Robin Bartlett, Joanna Merlin, Rhonda Dotson, John Putch, Jay Patterson, Brian Markinson

Director: Brad Silberling

Director: Brad Silberling
Screenwriter: Dana Stevens
Producer: Dawn Steel, Charles Roven
Composer: Gabriel Yared

[See More Credits]

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Release:

Sep 15, 1998

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Reviews for City of Angels

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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: rec.arts.movies.reviews | comment Comment
01/07/09
Jon Popick
Jon Popick
rec.arts.movies.reviews

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Detroit News | comment Comment
10/18/08
Susan Stark
Susan Stark
Detroit News
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The movie's eerie, slightly menacing vision of black-clad angels lurking in the shadowy corners of unsuspecting lives is genuinely haunting.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
09/18/08
Maitland McDonagh
Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide's Movie Guide

A good deal better than it has any right to be.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
09/18/08
Channel 4 Film
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Strains to achieve the enchantingly sublime, but ends up sinking to the depressingly ridiculous.

Full Review Source: New York Observer | comment Comment
04/27/07
Andrew Sarris
Andrew Sarris
New York Observer
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

As 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.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
06/01/06
Emanuel Levy
Emanuel Levy
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
02/09/06
Geoff Andrew
Geoff Andrew
Time Out

An emotionally uninvolving flick that attempts to play on the heart strings of the viewer and fails in its effort.

Full Review Source: Reeling Reviews | comment Comment
04/09/05
Robin Clifford
Robin Clifford
Reeling Reviews

City of Angels is the sort of compromised movie that could have been almost good, but decided to be a great big hit instead.

Full Review Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette | comment Comment
01/02/05
Philip Martin
Philip Martin
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

City of Angels raises theological questions, albeit in a somewhat pedestrian manner, and makes them an integral part of its otherwise formulaic plot.

Full Review Source: Looking Closer | comment Comment
12/06/04
Jeffrey Overstreet
Jeffrey Overstreet
Looking Closer

Superb imagery can't compensate for deficiencies of Dana Steven's script and can't hide the formulaic nature of this film.

Full Review Source: rec.arts.movies.reviews | comment Comment
06/02/04
Dragan Antulov
Dragan Antulov
rec.arts.movies.reviews

This useless remake lacks the sheer ethereal beauty of the original Wings of Desire.

comment Comment
10/06/03
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Jeffrey M. Anderson
San Francisco Examiner

Why would anyone remake Wim Wenders' masterpiece, Wings of Desire? Certainly not for artistic reasons.

comment Comment
08/11/03
Carlo Cavagna
Carlo Cavagna
AboutFilm.com

A thinking person's film for those who can't think.

Full Review Source: Palo Alto Weekly | comment Comment
05/20/03
Leonard Schwarz
Leonard Schwarz
Palo Alto Weekly

A beautiful film in many ways.

Full Review Source: Film Quips Online | comment Comment
02/08/03
John R. McEwen
John R. McEwen
Film Quips Online

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.

Full Review Source: Cincinnati Enquirer | comment Comment
10/15/02
Margaret A. McGurk
Margaret A. McGurk
Cincinnati Enquirer

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.

Full Review Source: Montreal Film Journal | comment Comment
09/10/02
Kevin N. Laforest
Kevin N. Laforest
Montreal Film Journal

No review available.

comment Comment
08/08/02
Cory Cheney
Cory Cheney
Urban Tulsa Weekly

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.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
06/18/02
Mick LaSalle
Mick LaSalle
San Francisco Chronicle
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Uma pequena pérola que faz jus ao filme no qual foi inspirada.

Full Review Source: Cinema em Cena | comment Comment
05/31/02
Pablo Villaca
Pablo Villaca
Cinema em Cena
 
 
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