Loki (Matt Damon) and Bartleby (Ben Affleck) are two angels expelled from heaven, who have just now found a portal to sneak back in all sind forgiven. What they of course don't know is, should they be able to re-enter Heaven, this would mean the end of all existence, because after all, God (Alanis Morisette) is infallible, and their re-entering would prove her fallible tocreate too big a paradoxon. What the two of them actually don't know, they have put onto this backdoor by Azrael (Jason Lee), a muse banished to Hell who actually wants to destroy everything, even including himself. Now of course, God could prevent Loki and Bartleby from entering Heaven with the blink of an eye - but God is nowhere to be found, she has disappeared during a recent trip to earth. So Metaton (Alan Rickman), an angel who's known as the voice of God, figures he'll get the next best thing, Bethany (Linda Fiorentino), doctor at an abortion clinic who has long fallen from faith but who just happens to be the last living relative of Jesus Christ, who is to journey to New Jersey to keep the fallen angels from entering Cardinal Glck's (George Carlin) new megachurch, as that's where the portal is located. She is soon joined by a few unlikely travel companions, like stoners Jay (Jason Mewe) and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith), the 13th apostle Rufus (Chris Rock), and Serendipity (Salma Hayek), an actual muse moonlighting as a strippper. Now of course, a group this diverse doesn't exactöy make the mission super-easy, and it's also not helped by the fact that Loki and Bartleby have decided to for their last days on earth go on a killing spree - after all, when still on God''s good side, Loki  has been her Angel of Dearth ...

Now when Dogma's good, it's very good, there are long stretches that are genuinely funny, and the religioun-tinged humour comes across as wildly inventive and fresh even these many years later. That said, unfortunately Dogma isn't always good, at times it's just weighed down by its very complex mythology that requires a few too many exposition dumps that slow down the film ande make it about half an hour too long, and unfortunately Kevin Smith isn't artful enough a director to counterbalance these weaknesses visually. That said though, while this might not be a masterpiece, it's still plenty funny, and the cast is top notch, wo prepare to be well entertained.

Dogma will see a re-release in the UK and Ireland from November 7th 2025 through Vertigo Releasing.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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