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City of Angels Customer Reviews (46 - 48 of 51 Reviews)

This film is to be avoided at all costs. It loosened my bowels. Do yourself a big fat favour and give it a skip and see the original film, "Wings of Desire" by Wim Wenders, which is one of the best films. Ever. "Wings of Desire" is worth owning. City of Angeles isn't worth visiting, in oh so many ways....

Angels Among Us
CITY OF ANGELS is an interesting movie that opened my mind a bit and was easy to get into. The story surrounds Maggie (Meg Ryan) who loses a patient, and an angel named Seth (Nicolas Cage) comes to comfort her. What he doesn't expect is to fall in love with her. Maggie too, is smitten with him, but is frustrated by their distance, and that she truly doesn't know him. The more she learns about him, the more she pushes away from him. Seth realizes he has a choice, between living as a human or staying immortal. When he does take the plunge, he finds her and their love story begins. Ryan and Cage convincingly play soulmates, but by the time they find each other and can be together, is very short lived, and near the end of the movie. It made the movie all that more sad, but I think the underlying theme is that time is so precious and shouldn't be taken for granted. The movie was very well made, I was slightly disapointed that their happiness together was very short lived. Ultimately, it was well worth watching and I would reccomend it.

Unusual representation of angels.
Meg Ryan (as Maggie Rice, a heart surgeon) and Nicolas Cage (as an angel only known as Seth--well, Seth "Plate", actually;-) star in this serious, but warm-hearted fantasy, and both do their usual fine job. But it was Dennis Franz (as an angel that has already "fallen") that added some real heart that this movie, on occasion, strangely lacked. What a fine actor he is!

A remake of "Wings of Desire" (which I haven't as yet seen), this film has some wonderful moments. As the title suggests, the story concerns angels, and the part they play when interacting with the dying. This story becomes more interesting when Seth becomes attracted to Maggie after complications arise from a bypass surgery that she performed on a patient. Soon after, Seth becomes obsessed with Maggie and in a wonderful scene, becomes visible to her as she walks the halls of the hospital after visiting hours. Their interactions with each other throughout the film were touching.

When I think of angels, I think of beautiful people in white flowing robes, halos, light, and often wings. "City of Angels" keeps the beautiful people concept, but to their credit, dresses them in ankle-length, dark gray leather coats. Also, these angels don't really interfere with life, or fate. Their sole purpose is to comfort. This also created a rich, but subdued feel to the film.

The basic plot question is, will Seth take the "fall" and become human so he can have a life with the woman he loves? It's not a cut and dried answer, as Seth finds tremendous beauty and comfort being an Angel of God. And again, to the films credit ... well, you'll just have to purchase or rent the film to find out.

I had wished, however, that the footage that ended up on the cutting room floor could have been added to this film (fortunately the CD contains these deleted scenes on side B, along with some interesting commentary). I would have also loved to have seen scenes where Maggie begins having a true revelation about Seth. This important part was played down in the film, and ultimately hurt it, making it less satisfying for this viewer. And because key scenes were deleted, which would have filled in things so very, very nicely, the final product came off as rather odd, or even a bit cold, at times.

I do however, highly recommend this film. Along with what I've already pointed out, there are some nice special effects, some seductive scenery, along with a memorable soundtrack (especially McLachlan's "Angel", which played in the background of a rather poignant scene). In many ways, I feel that parts of this film could be considered works of art. Between 1 and 10, I give "City of Angels" a solid 8. It's a very good film, a touching film, but a film that missed being a "don't miss gem" because of some surprising (to me, at least) editing decisions. If we're lucky, maybe one day we will get to see the "Director's Cut".