7Roulette - THE PROPHECY II

The final decade of the millennium was filled with paranoia over biblical revelations coming to fruition, worldwide electronic destruction, and a vision of the second coming. This completely fictional calendar period (as if accurately marking dates and time is even remotely a real thing), sent the average slack-jawed yokel to the brink of insanity. And there stood the film producer, lucratively rubbing his hands together, eager to reap the financial benefits over whatever cinematic tripe they are gonna spew at you to play right into all of those ridiculous fears.

At the helm of this stood the Prophecy series. Part 2 is littered with character actors, lead by Chris Walken as Gabriel, the angel that God turned his back to. His cohort throughout the feature is played by Brittany Murphy, as a love-sick teen whose attempt at suicide fails, and turns her into a murderer. She is now shackled to the damned divine being forced to do his bidding. And that's really all this film has going for it. There's this whole other story in here involving angels, celestial pregnancies, uniting humanity with heaven, but it's muddled and tired. And I could say that the effects are bad, but they mirror modern Marvel movie effects, so does that make them good?

As far as movies go that peripherally focus on religion, it's forgettable. But then again, a special edition bluray of the first three has me enticed. So maybe it's not so bad after all. C+

-Babes 

I haven't seen the first Prophecy in about 25 years, and as it turns out it doesn't really matter; this movie has its own (sorta) plot that narrowly makes mention of the events in the previous film. Understandably so, as the subtext of the story is a war between angels that goes back thousands of years. Danyael (Russell Wong) has a dramatically edited sexual encounter with Valerie (Jennifer Beals), impregnating her with a half angel, half human baby. Gabriel (Christopher Walken reprising his role) shows up to try and kill Valerie because he's the bad guy, and so there's some cat & mouse stuff leading up to a halfhearted showdown. But "halfhearted" sums up a lotta aspects of the movie: there are exciting stunts and dazzling effects and entire set pieces that occur off-camera, often clearly intentional to save cash, and sometimes clearly on editorial decisions made by the execs with said cash. The film achieves its melodramatic spookiness in very short bursts but the main thread is largely comprised of expository dialogue and is too convoluted and dull to remember. Something that is entirely memorable is Christopher Walken's performance (doing one of his best Chris Walken impersonations here) - his delivery makes it seem as though he's reading from a different, better script. Early on in the movie he recruits Brittany Murphy as his sorta zombie slave and their scenes together are substantially more entertaining than anything else here. I don't know if they have enough screentime to recommend the movie as a whole but I'd certainly revisit a feature of just them. C+

- Paul