Enter Bethany (Fiorentino), an abortion clinic employee who also happens to be a Catholic who has lost faith. The irony is not lost on the audience. She is tapped to stop the two angels because she is the last Scion and apparently God is nowhere to be found. It get's a mite confusing, but it's all explained by the end of the film. Bethany is not on her own, she also has the assitance of two modern day prophets, Jay (Mewes) and Silent Bob (Smith). Anybody who has seen any other Kevin Smith film, knows that this is one of Kevin's best friend and Kevin himself. She also has the help of the 13th Apostle (Rock), The Muse (Hayek) and Metatron (Rickman), who is the voice of God. Against the group, the one trying to get the angels to go through the door and end existence is Azrael (Lee) a Demon of Hell who would rather blink out all of the universe than spend another second in Hell.

The big deal about this film is lost on me. I don't know what all the religious rabble seem to have a problem with. The message in the film is quite clear, faith, is the most important thing a person can have. It doesn't matter which religion you practice or follow, just that you believe, is what is important. Sure there are some jibes taken at the Catholic church but, it's all done in fun. Then there are all the sex and fart jokes, which are amusing at times, the film could have done without the over abundance of them. Kevin keeps with his references to other movies. Most notably, Star Wars. I also enjoyed the reference to "The Inredible Hulk" TV series, "The Six Million Dollar Man" TV series and "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," although Kevin's utterance of the line from that movie, needs some work.

The acting was done well, Damon and Affleck, of course being the good friends that they are had no problems getting into character. I do believe that Bethany's role, played by Fiorentino was miscast. I'm not sure who I would have chosen, but she would not have been it. Rickmand and Rock were fine in their respective roles as the Voice of God and the forgotten 13th Apostle with a chip on his shoulder. Hayek's turn as the Muse, Serendipidty, was well done. I notice that she had the coaching of a dialect coach in the credits, which helped. I've said it before and I will probably say it again, we could have done without both Jay and Silent Bob, I realize that Kevin feels the need to distinguish his films by having these recurring characters, but, they're unnecessary. This could have been done with two more "normal" characters and it wouldn't have lost anything.

The problems I had with this movie, involve more technical aspects. Specifically with Smith's direction. I am a firm believer that Smith should stick to what he is good at, writing. He is an incredible writer and the need to direct his first film "Clerk's" was necessary to facilitate his ideas and motivations. Now, though, he is "bigtime" and I think he ought to have someone else, a little more accomplished to direct his scripts. The music score by Howard Shore was absolutely horrible. It was uninspired and random and lent nothing to the film. Shore is usually quite an adept composer, this time though, he left a lot to be desired. I have and always will be, a believer in the fact that sound is half the movie experience. The score is one half of that. The reason this movie is not getting an A- is the music score. Oh and for some reason, the film stock had a "washed out" look in some scenes, not sure why.

Grade: B-

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