Fallen (1998)
Plodding detective thriller sees Denzel Washington on the hunt for someone or something that just might be the fallen angel Azazel.
Directed bu Gregory Hoblit who two years previous gave us the excellent thriller Primal Fear, Fallen is now just as it was when i saw it at the cinema - a bit of a mess.
Whilst Washington is good value as always and ably supported by John Goodman and Donald Sutherland, the script they have to work with is all over the place. Fallen doesn't know whether it wants to be a biblical horror film, a police procedure affair or something else entirely. If it wants to be a horror it fails as it just isn't scary or creepy and crime dramas of the time such as Seven or The Bone Collector ramp up the suspense in far superior style.
The film has a couple of good set pieces as Azazel transfers itself across many people in the street but this trick is repeated once too often and itself becomes repetitive. The final showdown is nicely worked out, as is how it ties into the very first lines in the movie so it's worth watching carefully early doors and should make you ask yourself exactly what you've seen and who was narrating the movie. Other than that, Fallen is as run of the mill as thrillers come.
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