Dogma movie review

Dogma is a 1999 film by Kevin Smith, staring an amazing cast featuring Jason Lee, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, George Carlin, Chris Rock, Alan Rickman, Selma Hayek, Jason Mews, Kevin Smith, and many others. This is a religious comedy, which created a lot of controversy and protest when it came out. It is the story of two angels Loki and Bartleby who were kicked out of heaven and condemned to living in Wisconsin, they find out that through a Catholic church loophole they can return to heaven. However if they return to heaven they will negate all of existence because it would show that God is not infallible. So a woman named Bethany is called upon by an angel to stop the angels from entering heaven. She is told that she will meet two prophets, who will accompany her to New Jersey to stop the angels, so here enter Jay and Silent Bob. Later they are joined by Rufus the 13th apostal who acts as kind of a spiritual guide to Bethany, along the way they meet a muse named Serendipity who helps them along their way as well. Bethany also learns why she was chosen by god to stop the angels, as she is actually an important person as she learns about her family history. There is also a fallen muse named Azrael who is condemned to live in hell, he is trying to help Loki and Bartleby because by negating all existence would free him from hell, because not existing is better than being in hell. Who will win, Bethany and the cast of biblical characters or the angels who will destroy all of existence? This is a great thought provoking comedy, that will make you think about concepts of religion and beliefs. The movie is perfectly cast, all of the actors were perfectly cast for their roles. The sets and special effects are all wonderfully done, and look really good. The themes are actually done really tastefully, this is not a movie that bashes religion, this is actually a movie that encourages you to critically think about your religious beliefs and what we hold onto through faith. I would honestly say though this movie is pretty critical of Catholicism, it is actually not anti-christianity, and in some ways is kind of pro-christianity, so I think the folks who boycotted and protested this movie could actually have benefited from watching it. Some of the information is actually pretty factual, so this is actually a pretty well researched movie. As far as plot and pacing goes, this movie flows really well, even when it slows down, it doesn't do it at the expense of the over all pacing of the movie, there is also some very amazing character building/developing. Overall, all I can really say that this is an amazing movie, and deserves the high praise that it gets from its fans, Kevin Smith for being a comedic writer is actually a very talented writer and all of his Jay and Silent Bob movies are actually really well done and though provoking and satirical in addition to just being comedies, unlike say a Adam Sandler movie, Smith's movies are not just mindless comedies, and actually have something more to say. One downside, and this is like the only one honestly, this is the first of the Jay and Silent Bob movies not to feature a Soul Asylum song on the soundtrack, which i honestly think is a bit of a bummer, because I always look forward to hearing their music in these movies, honestly, this movie has the weakest sound track compared to the other movies they've done. Would I recommend this movie? Yes, without a doubt, everyone go out and watch this, it is an amazing thought provoking comedy.