The Devil's Advocate (1997)
Average Rating: 6.4/10
Reviews Counted: 47
Fresh: 31 | Rotten: 16
Though it is ultimately somewhat undone by its own lofty ambitions, The Devil's Advocate is a mostly effective blend of supernatural thrills and character exploration.
Average Rating: 5.6/10
Critic Reviews: 12
Fresh: 5 | Rotten: 7
Though it is ultimately somewhat undone by its own lofty ambitions, The Devil's Advocate is a mostly effective blend of supernatural thrills and character exploration.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 205,867
My Rating
Movie Info
Supernatural forces hover over the courtroom in this devilish drama adapted from the novel by Andrew Neiderman. Attorney Kevin Lomax (Keanu Reeves) doesn't heed the Bible-based warnings of his mother (Judith Ivey), who views New York City as "the dwelling place of demons." Instead, he leaves Gainesville, Florida, with his wife Mary Ann (Charlize Theron) to put his legalistic skills to the test at a leading Manhattan law firm run by John Milton (Al Pacino). It all goes smoothly -- with Milton
Oct 17, 1997 Wide
Nov 16, 1998
Warner Home Video
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Cast
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Keanu Reeves
Kevin Lomax -
Al Pacino
John Milton -
Charlize Theron
Mary Ann Lomax -
Jeffrey Jones
Eddie Barzoon -
Judith Ivey
Mrs. Lomax -
Monica Keena
Alessandra Cullen -
Connie Nielsen
Christabella -
Craig T. Nelson
Alexander Cullen -
Tamara Tunie
Jackie Heath -
Ruben Santiago-Hudson
Leamon Heath -
Debra Monk
Pam Garrety -
Vyto Ruginis
Weaver -
Laura Harrington
Melissa Black -
Pamela Gray
Diana Barzoon -
Heather Matarazzo
Barbara -
Delroy Lindo
Santeria Practitioner -
Gloria Lynne Henry
Tiffany -
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All Critics (52) | Top Critics (14) | Fresh (31) | Rotten (16) | DVD (8)
Regrettably, an overblown finale and redundant trick ending undercut the mild subversiveness of what's gone before.
Top Critic[Hackford] seems stuck in a private limbo, unable to decide whether he's making a special-effects flick or a pop-philosophical tract.
The movie's greatest strength is that it becomes more complex and rewarding as it goes along.
Although it's nice for a film to be ambitious, there is such a thing as overreaching.
The movie never fully engaged me; my mind raced ahead of the plot, and the John Grisham stuff clashed with the Exorcist stuff.
Lurid advance ads for Devil's Advocate make it look ridiculous. It's not.
Far too bland and mediocre to really pull off such heavy handed themes...
Outrageously entertaining ... The picture's most superlative turn comes from Charlize Theron, who's a revelation in the first role to really show off her talents.
Stylishly seductive and well-acted by Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves, but thematically flawed, Taylor Hackford's film is yet another version of the Faustian morality tale.
This supremely silly supernatural potboiler is slickly entertaining for just under two hours and absolutely hilarious for 10 minutes near the end...
This is tongue-in-cheek, fun thriller and a variation on a classic theme -- would you sell your soul to gain the whole world?
Great fun, with a mildly horrific edge, and a great portrayal of demonic glee by Al Pacino.
Charlize Theron makes an incredibly good impression in the role of a woman with deteriorating mental health.
Despite its dull first hour, The Devil's Advocate becomes an OK, recommendable film.
Despite a wooden performance by Keanu Reeves, this is still a thoroughly enjoyable film for those who enjoy an intelligent horror flick.
The worst thing about The Devil's Advocate is how it squanders the little chance that it had to be a truly creepy and engaging film.
A literate meditation on human weakness and a hipped-out horror movie all in one.
A hell of a lot more fun than any film bearing John Grisham's name.
Audience Reviews for The Devil's Advocate
Super Reviewer
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- Kevin Lomax: Satan.
- John Milton: Call me Dad.
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- John Milton: Vanity, definitely my favorite sin.
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- Christabella: Look but don't touch. Touch, but don't taste. Taste, don't swallow.
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- Kevin Lomax: Lose?! I don't lose! I WIN! I'M A LAWYER!
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- John Milton: Vanity, definitely my favorite sin.
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- John Milton: You were right about one thing. I have been watching. Couldn't help myself. Watching, waiting, holding my breath. But I'm no puppeteer, Kevin. I don't make things happen. Doesn't work like that.
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Foreign Titles
- Devil's Advocate (DE)
- Devil's Advocate (UK)
Things here are not helped that the young and hot headed lawyer is played by Keanu Reeves whose performance does not differ from the work he did in his abysmally bad Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey. And when it comes to Al Pacino as the satan himself, it is once again Pacino doing all the same over the top tricks and gestures as he has done in nearly all of his films. His performance as John Milton, or should i say as a satan, is one his very worst by far.
Director Taylor Hackford tries some interesting visual ideas here but nearly all of them falls flat and feel out of the place. It seems that the main problem of this film is it's own ambition. It just tries so very badly to be so many different things at the same time. It is part courtroom drama, part horror film and part supernatural thriller. None of these elements actually work and none of them really truly add to nothing in the end. Jonathan Lemkin's and Tony Gilroy's screenplay does clearly aim for somekind of loopy structure but seriously it all feels like a bad joke. As a black comedy this could have worked better but Hackford clearly takes this material way too serious and there are hardly any humour to be found from this film, except unintentional certainly.
Yes, there is one creepy scene here involving Charlize Theron that happens in a empty home and of course at the midnight. This kind of scary and hallucinatory scene is what this film would have needed more. Hackford is capable of creating tension and even shock. He just needs material good enough. The Devil's Advocate does not provide that kind of material to Hackford or for us in the audience.