Fallen (1998)

Simply Perfect

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

This movie has twist ever body. But do you no what I hated the twist in this movie. I do like a twist most of time. And really hated twist in this movie. I had great acting. This story line awful. It is a horror movie but it is not scary. So why did it get a 7? That is just overrating it. Do say this is better then Exorcist II. Do not say this is better then Friday the 13th II. This is not a 7. This is a 1. This has the worst ending. Do not even say it is better then Halloween III season of the witch. Do not ever say it better then Troll 2. This is a waste of time. It is also a waste of money. Do not see it. Just because Denzel Washington is in the movie that does make it good.

OK, for those of us that remember the 80s and 90s Denzel Washington sorta kinda totally ruled. He was all that and a bag of chips...And now, for the most part, he is playing the smart clever cop...over and over and over and over and over and over again.What the heck happened Denzel? In "Training Day" you played a cop, but you played a villain cop that was so evil that you made us all hate you! You turned "Malcolm X" into a great movie despite Spike Lee's involvement! And now you play the same role over and over again. You are breaking our heart...But for those of you that love the type-casted Denzel, Fallen will work for you. Again he's the clever and wise detective, but this time the movie has a creepy and delightfully fun supernatural twist...Plus it was made when Denzel was still acting and not just phoning it in, so, you know, you have the REAL Denzel Washington, not the made-for-TV Denzel Washington.And on top of the fact that this was made when Denzel was great and still actually acting, you have a small but powerful Elias Koteas role.Elias Koteas the B-list actor that ALWAYS brings his A-game to every film no matter how small the role is. And in this movie, the role is tiny and so well done that you walk away remembering that tiny little role as powerful, as fantastic, as, well, A-game awesome.Koteas literally outshined Washington when Washington was at his finest. He introduced us to the film and set a bar so high that everyone was forced to deliver their best work.And then the plot, the creepy demon that can jump from body-to-body by a simple touch. You haven't seen that before and you won't see that again. Not only that, but it was done so well that you will never listen to that Rolling Stones song the same way again.The movie is start-to-finish clever. The acting is brilliant. It is a must-see.

As far as the sub genre of supernaturally tinged detective vs. Killer mysteries of the 1990's,(Virtuosity, The Prophecy, In  Dreams etc) Gregory Hoblit's Fallen stands out as one of the best. It's a somber, sardonically written, Gothic influenced chiller that is absolute cinematic joy from beginning to end. Denzel Washington is reliably solid as John Hobbes, a sharp detective who's caught a vicious killer Edgar Reese (Elias Koteas in a cameo so scary you want to hide behind your couch), and oversees his execution. Reese's casually cavalier attitude and malevolent theatrics leading up to the execution unsettle Hobbes, but not as much as when an eerily similar copycat killer begins taunting him long after Reese's death. Enigmatic clues, visits from strangers who mysteriously know him and a sense of impending dread lead Hobbes to believe that Reese wasn't human, and is reaching out from beyond the grave to continue his murderous legacy. The plot gets spiritually ethereal and uses some very unique situational scares that are highly memorable. The colour palate and mood of the film are absolutely gorgeous, using a gauzy, earth toned,  fluttering brown moth wing style aesthetic that haunts the characters, and a darkly humorous screenplay that gives the actors dialogue and character feasts. John Goodman and James Gandolfini are fantastic as Hobbes's detective colleagues. Embeth Davidzt is down to earth and human as a mythological expert with secrets of her own, and other memorable support is provided by Robert Joy, Gabriel Casseus and Donald Sutherland. There are an endless parade of cop vs. serial killer films in the post 70's all the way to present day. Some pedestrian, some with lofty twists on the convention. Some work splendidly, some are crap. But in a sub genre so crowded with entries, you need to give yours a special brand and aesthetic that will make your effort stick in people's minds as something unique. Fallen succeeds very well in this way, and is a spine chilling popcorn flick with a grounded, serious undercurrent of shadowy, haunted house stylistics. Highly recommended.

So, early on in the film we learn that the demon can't possess the body of Hobbes, yet at the end Hobbes kills himself so the demon can't possess his body. They must think their audience have really short memories and it seems many reviewers do, since they thought this movie was "clever" "thought provoking" "suspenseful" etc when a major plot hole like that was was used to hurriedly finish the movie. Stupid = the same ending as other films where the antagonist/ protagonist comes back in another life form (Aliens and Species to name two franchises with such endings).