StunnaKrypto Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See

Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

jwiley-86292 Is it wrong that I was raised secular and still found Dogma a surprisingly meaningful experience? I mean, regardless of whether Kevin Smith intended it to be so, the movie feels like pure wish fulfillment. One morning, a woman is awoken by Alan Rickman, who tells her she's some kind of Chosen One and must go on a quest. Okay, I'm sold!The dialogue is on the whole pretty funny. The message might be painfully obvious to anyone raised secular/liberal, but I think there's a bigger lesson to be learned that's not quite apparent. For instance, Bethany works in an abortion clinic and the plot doesn't punish her for it. She does get pregnant at the end, but she wanted a child before, and I can't see her job as resulting from frustration with her infertility. This movie demonstrates a tolerance for abortion that I haven't seen much in pop culture. Bethany is also in her 30s, usually an awkward age for a woman to be since you usually don't look virginal anymore and you might feel past your sell-by date. Hopefully characters like this might keep female audiences from being afraid of turning 30.Lots of movies with frequent strong language and sex talk sound immature because of it; in this one it's not at all gratuitous because of the sincere sentiment driving the story. After I first watched Dogma I was in the gladdest of moods--I even cried during the lake scene. Bethany is horrified to discover that she is the last descendant of Jesus. Metatron pulls her out of despair by telling her to be who she always saw herself as; not to feel limited because of the new label applied to her. She is "a redefinition of that identity." This exchange resonated on a deeply personal level with me, not because I'm a descendant of Jesus, but because I have high- functioning autism. For a long time I really wanted to be rid of this diagnosis--I am not Sheldon Cooper. But when I heard "redefinition of that identity," a cloud lifted. I can't articulate how much it means to hear those words come from my favorite actor. A million thanks, Kevin Smith.

Python Hyena Dogma (1999): Dir: Kevin Smith / Cast: Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Linda Fiorentino, Chris Rock, Salma Hayek: Extremely original in its theories with a warped view of Christianity. We are given a vision of Alanis Morrissette as God when the Bible indicates that Jesus refers to him as "Father." Matt Damon and Ben Affleck star as archangels banished from Heaven yet believe they have found a loophole. They must travel to New Jersey where a century year old Church is holding a ceremony. This would prove God fallible thus threatening human existence. God sends a woman who works at an abortion clinic to stop them. Unique achievement by director Kevin Smith who previously made such intriguing comedies as Chasing Amy and Clerks. Damon and Affleck have tremendous chemistry as two corrupt and lost souls out to escape judgement but ultimately meeting damnation in a violent showdown. Linda Fiorentino brings out the frustration of a woman thrown into the bizarre. Chris Rock plays the 13th Apostle who gives amusing speeches that are not Biblically accurate. He claims that racial discrimination dismissed him from scripture. Salma Hayek plays a muse who appears as a stripper before battling a monster made of toilet waste. There is something here to offend everyone but the the result is a visually stunning attack on organized religion. Score: 8 / 10

lasttimeisaw A revisit of Kevin Smith's subversive religious comedy DOGMA, "subversive" may it seems in a story where God is a woman (played by the one-and-only Alanis Morissette, whose voice can shatter anything into fragments, deservingly to be the choice chanteuse during my adolescence); there is a 13th apostle Rufus (Rock) who has been omitted in the Bible simply because of his skin colour; two fallen angles Loki (Damon) and Bartleby (Affleck) find a loophole induced by a new "Buddy Christ" propaganda from Cardinal Glick (Carlin) in New Jersey, they will get the supposed plenary indulgence and re-enter Heaven, until one of them goes berserk becomes a human-killing winged creature. A blasphemy cannot be dodged for sure, but eventually the film appears not as subversive as the synopsis suggests, au fond, Smith simply picks various characters from religious myth and squeeze them into a wacky adventure of fantasy without even bouthing Catholicism, there should be no hard-feeling (as the opening pointers amusingly noted).So the dogma is "God is infallible", two angels' plan will precipitate the undoing of the present human world, thus the last scion of God's bloodline, Bethany (Fiorentino), is a divorcée works in an abortion clinic who is infertile, is informed by Metatron (Rickman) to stop them with the allies of two prophets Jay and Silent Bob (Mewes and Smith himself), the said Rufus and the Muse Serendipity (Hayek), who is trapped in a writer's block and moonlights as a stripper. Also involved is the evil force led by a demon Azrael (Lee) and the Stygian Triplets, not to mention the crass excremental creature Golgothan which Azrael summons.All these modifications and additions are reflecting Smith's geeky upbringing, a bit vulgar nevertheless, but also straightforwardly amusing, and it even becomes more topical as a cultural phenomenon now. Among the motley crew of the cast, Alan Rickman pops out with his noble persona as the second-only-to-God Metatron (in spite of his unconventional look), who is allocated with the forbidding task to materialise in front of the unwitting Bethany, explain the whole absurd scenario convincingly to her and persuade her to fulfil the mission, believe it or not, he actually carries it through wonderfully. Florentino (now completely retired from the screen) discharges a phlegmatic quality contrary of others' comedy-leaning dramatisation and loquacity (bar Silent Bob). Damon and Affleck are quite at ease to play off each other and Hayek is at the crest of her physical beauty whereas Rock is in his own comfortable zone without being too irritating. All in all, any film who has the guts to cast Morissette as the almighty God (even only for a paltry of minutes) deserves its place on my guilty pleasure list.

nurit-horak "Dogma" is a comedy from the creator Kevin Smith (1999), a director that tends to create genre cult films that often displays plots with supernatural themes, and grotesque characters.In "Dogma" Smith criticize organized religion, primarily the Catholic faith, while presenting new biblical characters like the denied Christ's apostles Rufus that was not mentioned in the New Testament because he is a black man (Chris Rock). But "Dogma" does more than inventing new mythology. It seems to also include an important discussion on issues of gender as it presents images of women that challenge the existing order, and 'men' and 'Women' that actually don't have any sex organs and their gender identity is in doubt. This discussion is not unusual to science- fiction and fantasy movies and TV shows today (especially the works of creators like Joss Whedon), but in my opinion this was quite innovative in the year in which the film was made.The muse and other supernatural beings in the film are portrayed as sexless (except Rufus). The Two angels and God's voice don't have sexual organs. The angel Loki (Damon) even complains about his inability to masturbate and Metatron (the God's voice) says that in heaven the act of sex is considered a joke.The revolutionary aspect of the film is expressed most notably in God character. Throughout the film, a discussion is being held between the characters whether God is male or female when every time he/she "are" treated differently. God as he / she is represented in the film as a creature that combines the two genders and rises above them so it does not really matter what is the truth and the ongoing discussion in the movie as it is presented by Smith is futile and ridiculous..The film es the Bechdel test. It presents a number of main women characters who talk among themselves even though for most of the film the main character (who is a woman) speaks primarily with male characters.