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Dogma Customer Reviews (70 - 72 of 80 Reviews)

Brilliant
Kevin Smith has already established himself as a comedic genius, but he brings it to new heights with Dogma. While it may not have the apathy-charged wit of "Clerks," the honesty and originality of "Chasing Amy," or the silliness of "Mallrats" and "Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back," it balances out all 3 of these elements perfectly. From the opening disclaimers to the closing credits, Dogma is a wildly satirical, irreverent, uproarious, and thought-provoking film.

The heavenly cast is led by Linda Fiorentino as Bethany Sloan, the cynical ex-Catholic. Overall, she could have done a bit better, but her casting is perfect and her performance was better than average. Next come Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, who play the rejected angels Bartleby and Loki. Their constant bickering provides plenty of laughs, as well as some effectively serious moments. Smith regular Jason Lee is terrific as always, this time as the comically evil Azrael. Alan Rickman scores strongly as the delightfully sarcastic Medatron. Salma Hayek steals many of her scenes as the quirky muse. Chris Rock gives an attractive and thoughtful performance as the 13th apostle Rufus. And yes, Smith and Jason Mewes are back as those two lovable stoners Jay and Silent Bob, annoying yet ultimately endearing as always.

The plot revolves around the attempt of Bartleby and Loki to get back into heaven through a loophole created by the Catholic church. They must be stopped, or else they will prove that God is fallible, thus destroying existence.

BUY THIS MOVIE!!!!

If you are Catholic, you gotta see this movie!
This movie is witty and hilarious! Sure there are the prerequisite Kevin Smith fart jokes, but that comes with the territory. Linda Fiorentino (MIB) is believable, Chris Rock and Salma Hayek are hilarious, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are clever, Jason Lee (Mallrats, Chasing Amy) is coniving, Alan Rickman (Harry Potter) is sarcastic and Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith (Jay and Silent Bob) are awesome! This movie has tons of cameos--watch for actors from Kevin Smith's other movies, as well as George Carlin and Alanis Morsette.
This movie shows the good and bad of organized religion and makes you think about the meaning of beliefs, faith and ideas. It also shows you that you can't believe everything you hear...you have to use your head.
The DVD I have doesn't have directors commentary, which I wish it did...but I think that there is now a souped up version of this DVD that has deleted scenes and the like.
Excellent flick....

...and a third of the angels were cast out with him
The original meaning of the word was "that which seems good", and hence it was applied by classical authors as a technical term either to the distinctive tenets of the various philosophical schools or to the decrees of public authorities.

So, what does this have to do with the movie? Ironic as it seems for such a bizarre film, it all turns on a minor dogmatic point -- accepting that Roman Catholic dogma is the operative framework for the entire existence of the universe (something even I have yet to meet ANYONE who holds true), a logical inconsistency would render the universe inoperative, and thus it would blink out of existence.

In an attempt to 'update and popularise' Catholicism, a bishop in New Jersey (George Carlin, of all people) introduces a new campaign that includes a papal indulgence, which will absolve those who walk through the archway of a particular church. The angels discover this, and are determined to exploit this papal pronouncement to their benefit -- in dogmatic terms, whatever the pope says on earth is binding in heaven (not quite, but that's what the movie presents) -- and thus God cannot refuse them re-entry. This sets up the logical problem.

The heavens charge a particular woman Bethany, (Linda Fiorentino), who turns out to be the last descendent of Jesus Christ's family (of course, the Bible left out the details of his family), with stopping the angels from reaching the church. In the course of her charge, she encounters the Voice of God (Alan Rickman) who appears as a flaming, burning-bush type of phenomenon, and promptly uses a fire-extinguisher to put out the flames.

Azrael (Jason Lee), a minor leader of demons, has command of agents to try to stop the Last Scion from stopping the angels. Why? Well, I cannot tell you. This would give away too much of the film. But, suffice it to say, the forces of evil seem to want the angels to prove God wrong (or, at least some of the forces of evil want this). By the way, I am inclined to agree with this demon on at least one point -- central air conditioning is one of the greatest things in creation

Rufus (Chris Rock), the thirteenth apostle (also left out of the Bible, because of his race) appears to the Last Scion and the Prophets to help them in their quest.

Bartleby, who had normally been the voice of reason against Loki's brash fire-and-brimstone approach (well, he was the Angel of Death, after all), becomes upset at the efforts being used to stop them, and turns into a Satan-esque figure bent on opposing God.

But, where is God? We find out that God is missing (something that many in many religions can relate to much of the time, alas), only to discover that God likes to take the occasional holiday. The angels and the choirs of heaven are worried that Bartleby and Loki will succeed in destroying the universe while God is away from his(her) desk.

Oh, ye of little faith. God in the end, in the form of Alanis Morrisette, does show up to save the day, in more ways than one.

Lots of people were very offended by this film (just as some might be offended by this writing!). It does poke fun (scathing, caustic wit is more like it, in truth) at religion in general, Christianity in specific, and the Roman Catholic church in particular. As a priest, I thought there were some questionable scenes and would have preferred a little less foul language; but overall, I thought the premise and the storyline were creative and inventive. I'm quite surprised, actually, that it became a controversy -- I would never use this film for a catechism class, but my fellow seminarians and I had quite productive discussions talking about the topics brought up in the film.

With a fair share of language and violence, this film is not for school age viewers. As a focus point for discussing religion or the growing problems of society, this film will give abundant fuel. This film is uniquely weird, but filled with brains and thought provoking in-your-face statements. A certain cult-candidate.****

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