Saturday night I went to the movies with Girlfriend and Sister. We got our popcorn and filed in to see Constantine. I gotta say, I was kinda impressed. If you don't want me to spoil it for you, stop reading here.

***SPOILER ALERT***

Frankly, the movie was better than I expected. But of course it wasn't as good as I'd hoped. (After all, things are seldom as good as one hopes.)

The movie is the latest big budget comic book adaptation. For the uninitiated, the comic series on which the film is based is called Hellblazer. The titular character, John Constantine, is played by Keanu Reeves. A friend of mine once said that Reeves "couldn't act his way out of a nutsack." I still have no idea what that's really supposed to mean. How does one act one's way out of a nutsack? Is that like pantomime (walking against the nutsack?) Is the nutsack metaphorical? And if so, a metaphor for what? Can you act your way into a nutsack? Is the nutsack punishment for bad acting?

But I digress.

John Constantine plays kinda of a supernatural gumshoe, like Humphrey Bogart meets The Exorcist. In that sense, Reeves's acting kinda works for him. The character is supposed to be jaded, so monotone and expressionless actually plays pretty well.

I dug the story well enough, but there are a few things that I really enjoyed. The first was the supporting actors. Gavin Rossdale put in a suprisingly good turn as the demon Balthazar. Tilda Swinton was a lovable/hateable archangel Gabriel. And Peter Stormare as Lucifer was completely cool.

Most movies featuring the Devil portray him/her as suave and likeable. (Think Pacino in Devil's Advocate, Hurley in Bedazzled, Byrne in End of Days.) Not this one. Stormare comes off as really skeezy. You wanna wash your hands after you see him.

I also really enjoyed one of the ideas presented. In one scene, there's a reference to Corinthians chapter 17. The Epistle to the Corinthians has only 16 chapters. Constantine says that "hell's library" has a more complete Bible than we do. Which brings to mind a question: what are books made of in a land of fire?

But I digress again.

I liked the idea that there is more than we know. I like anything that challenges an established idea, even if it's an idea I believe.

So anyway, I liked the movie. I'll probably buy it when it comes out on DVD. And maybe I'll read some of the comics, after I've worked my way through Preacher.