The Devil’s Advocate

It’s good vs. evil, Heaven vs. Hell and Keanu Reeves vs. Al Pacino in Taylor Hackford’s apocalyptic potboiler – the film that John Grisham might have dreamt up if he’d gotten drunk with a parade of strippers and fallen asleep reading the Bible. The film has grown markedly hammier with age; a gratuitously naked Charlize Theron and a gratuitously dumb Keanu struggle to add any A-list gloss to the prevailing supernatural schlock.

It’s Pacino that rescues it; hooting, howling and hoo-hah-ing his way through the scenery, clearly relishing every minute of his twinkly-eyed Shakespearian Satan – still easily one of cinema’s best Devils.