Hahaha, scowling brilliance!

I accept your apology, and I won't say I told you so, cos ya never know until you actually see these things, and apparantly-soulless remakes in the past have surprised. Alas not this one.

Still, a wonderful analysis from yourself. I'm glad they made it for that reason at least.

Heh, thank you Sir Fleming. i feel kinda bad for the excessive venom drippin from those lines up there, but what can you do? Certainly the option of "well, at least it had a nice shot of a carpet" (which it did, i might add) is in no way justifiable here. It's not even that it's so lazy, it's that the tale itself is PERFECT for the nowadays, and yet no, this could have been set at any time, and the couple half-arsed "recent events!!" shots at the start do nothing other than remind you how you maybe hoped this would have played out.

Ah well. At least they haven't yet touched Damien Goes To Military School, so i can still watch that without being reminded of the crushing mediocrity hanging around the cinema screens of the now-times.

excellent stuff! this bit, for example: "Listen here", The Devil would probably have said, "The last thing we want is folks knowing that you're the son of The Very Fucking Devil, so don't be doing anything daft like staring up past your eyebrows every opportunity or scowling all sinister at monkeys for no reason." haaaa. brilliant. that wee spoilt brat damien!

Beautiful Ms Gillian! What a shock to the mentals that was, but a terribly terribly welcome shock. I'm all the glad in the world you found yon screed to be worthy o' a chuckle.

Really, Duke. Listen here. Seriously. This is just too damn good. I have always been knocked out by your reviews, and you remain consistent. I'm no critic by far, but this kind of writing should be making you a heap o' money working for one of the satire magazines or something. It's funnier than anything I've read at theonion recently, for example. Maybe you will take that as faint praise, but I mean well.

But it's not just the humor. It's the references, often surprising, the evidence of an over-developed capacity for recall of particular scenes from obscure movies.

And you have a way with turning a phrase:

...festering in the lash o' the desert sun.

That's just swell.

Mixed in with the references and allusions that come and go by like a flock of crazed starlings (or ravens in this case) is the patient, drawn out focus on a particular point, in this case, the space devoted to imagining scenarios that could account for Moore's decision to do the movie. Several paragraphs devoted to this topic. You grab a point and wring it for all it's worth. Patience. That's not typical, and it works here.

Then there's the juxtaposition (can I use that word without sounding like I think I know what I'm talking about?) of movie expertise and gross images of human behavior:

... slightly less obnoxious than a fella coughing vodka over your shoes at a funeral, whilst telling you all about the time he sucked off a Shetland pony.

Where do you get this stuff?

... many shall gaze upon it, and will say Oh fuck aye...

Excellent use of irreverence for the sacred tone -- Monty Python would be proud of such a line.

... There will be great wailing and gnashing and laughing and mocking and lamenting about how the thing about Tim Allen is a dog is on couple doors away.

Classic Duke stuff. I almost soaked my monitor with the morning coffee.

Listen here, Duke. I know that my appraisal doesn't mean shit. It's like Johnny Ramone complimenting Julian Bream on his knowledge of guitar chords. But I mean well.

duane, i dunno how best to respond to such a comment, other than all the thank-you's in the world. certainly your appraisal lifted me towards some sort a giddy narcotic delirium, that's for sure, and yeah, i thank you no end.

I, as ever, wasn't so sure about this, but obviously it seems to have pleased a person or two, and that's all is required.

again, thank you. a hell of a lot.

With no plans to watch this Omen thing, I almost felt it unnecessary to read your review. What a great loss I narrowly escaped!

I hope you get to see some good flicks soon, and still feel as inspired to write about them. Your reviews are a great ride whether the film was good or bad, which seems to be a rarity these days. Lots of critics shine only when tearing a bad movie to shreds. And we've also got the horde of zombie critics who never write anything but the hollow praise that inspires corrupt movie studios to send them free tickets to gala opening night parties.

Then we've got you, always putting your full effort into entertaining the reader while still giving us an honest take on whether it would be worth our time to see the movie in question. Keep it up, man!

Thank you Victor! Well, i suppose it's all to do with the ol' wanting to make something worthwhile even if the subject is of no particular interest to the folks reading it. I dunno how succesful it always is, but i'm glad you dig the approach.

Duke, Duke, Duke.....'s got a lady friend? Did I miss a journal or something? Ms. Gillian, whoever you are, please don't distract our dear Duke so much that he stops writing. If this inspired creed is anything to go by, you seem to being doing him some good.

Great stuff, Sir Duke, as always.

heh, Sir Brewster, i had intended to have a highly detailed instalment of Pop Cult... telling the tale of the miraculous development in question. Alas, i got hit with a funk in the middle of it and this, as fate would have it, got finished first. The tale will be told, however!

And thank you for the compliments right there! I'm glad you liked it. And thanks also to whomever is responsible for spotlighting my screed on the front page and the sidebar and so on. That was terribly nice.

A Duke Review is an event, and a pleasurable one at that - now all we need is the Mondo Irlando podcast:)

This will be cross-posted, methinks, to Desicritics for adulation

Duke, you're welcome for the spotlight--and believe me, it was my pleasure.

I look with great pleasure for a new tale of love or lust and hopefully not loss from the likes of you Sir Duke.

Aaman and Gordon - thank you, fellas. Aaman, i hope the mondo podcast might be revived in the near future, but it's proving somewhat difficult gettin that fire in the belly anew after such a lengthy hiatus.

Sir Brewster, not a hint of loss in this forthcoming tale, which is a terribly radical move on my behalf, i feel.

firstly, i haven't thought of the film Angel Heart since..well, when i saw it in the theatre...and i don't remember a damned thing about it (ok..deniros' long fingernails...i remember that) except that i was there because lisa freaking bonet was in it.

two: sprayed out The Devil's very ball-bag...another fine addition to the duke's dictionary of phrases that nearly killed me because i read them while drinking a soda.

three: does my heart good to hear about this "ms. gillan" stuff. truly.

Let's add to Marks comment that it had Lisa freaking bonet in it, and she was naked!

mat is attempting to prove scientifically that you can work "boobies" into every review on any topic.

;-)

p.s. i swear to gawd, i happen to be listening to Dylan's Street Legal: "I had a pony/her name was lucifer"...

oooo!

Tis trues, I was talking to George Stephanopoulos the other day and he mentioned that Hillary Clinton's poll numbers looked good for a bid at presidency.

But I said, "yeah, but her boobs are slipping."

Sir Saleski, thank you, and whilst it pains me to admit that anything might be worthwhile about Angel Heart, well, that lady was awful good.

And it did look beautiful, no doubt about that. But oh what a nasty, horrible bastard of a flick. And please, surely the devil would have thought of a better name for himself than Louis Cypher. Why not George Hill? No chance of anyone finding him out then.

And Sir Brewster, you're two "boobies" shy o' givin me a ruptured bladder on account o' the chuckles!

Oof. I shoulda listened to you. That was... atrocious. Stupid evil talent-free kid.

Steve C, we need to make these decisions for ourselves. Unfortunately, it oft' results in far more stupid scowling devil pictures than anyone has any tolerance for. Still, at least you can join the debate in full confidence. "It WAS awful, who'd a thunk it??"

'Tis true, what you say. I dunno what it is... for some reason, I cannot resist paying to see even the worst horror film in a theater. Hell, I came this close to paying for See No Evil just because a friend dared me. I'm a sucker like that sometimes...