The greatest movie ever!

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Playing God (1997): Dir: Andy Wilson / Cast: David Duchovny, Timothy Hutton, Angelina Jolie, Peter Stormare, John Hawkes: Intriguing action film about life rendered to the hands of another. David Duchovny stars as a surgeon who loses his license after practicing on a patient while on dope. After a shootout at a bar, he assists a wounded individual using a bottle. This impresses a criminal, played by Timothy Hutton who wishes to employ his services. Duchovny is hired to patch up associates who suddenly end up dying. Great setup grows repetitious but the climax is powerful. Andy Wilson directs with insight with an excellent performance from Duchovny. He is seen as a total wipe out whose life spirals downward after losing his license. Now his skill finds new ground that leaves him asking questions and eventually facing right and wrong. Hutton steals the film as a gangster who employs Duchovny's services to dire orders until the two have a great showdown that presents a strong conclusion. Angelina Jolie as Hutton's girlfriend will obviously become romantically linked to Duchovny and become nothing more than a prop. Other roles are flat and serve mainly as fillers or faceless thug criminal drug dealing idiots. The message regards the value of human life and the idea that nobody can play God but we often destroy what God creates. Score: 7 / 10

'Playing God' would be nothing without three of the best actors around to bring a tired genre piece to new heights and make it intriguing.David Duchovny stars as Eugene Sands, a former surgeon who was disgraced when his attempt to balance pill popping caused him to lose a patient. Instead of trying to save his shattered career, he chose to take the easy road to addiction. As the movie opens, he is trying to buy heroine in a bar when a man is shot in argument. Quick thinking Dr. Sands becomes McGyver and fashions a breathing apparatus out of a coke bottle.His quick thinking saves the man's life and captures the attention of Claire (Angelina Jolie). She is so impressed that the next thing he knows he is being invited to the home of millionaire Raymond Blossom (Timothy Hutton). Blossom offers the good doctor a job in which he will be paid to take care of some of his friends who run into, let's just say, some unfortunate gunshot wounds of which hospitals would ask too many questions.The story is, of course, completely stupid and so is Duchovny's quicksilver surgical methods. But it didn't bother me because the realm of this kind of hard-boiled story allows it some freedom. It's helped by Duchovny who is a good looking guy but doesn't seem to be standing around posing all the time. He isn't afraid to look foolish, a quality the most actor's shy away from.Hutton is never a slouch, he goes into even the most tedious screenplay and acts his heart out. Playing the villain is easy when all you have to do is look mean, kill people and issue threats. But Hutton, as Blossom allows us to see what seduced him to his life of crime in the first place. He is an amazing presence in this film because watching him I'm drawn into his character so that I more easily identify with him.Angelina Jolie is a rare case of a gorgeous young woman who doesn't just stand around behind the actors. There is an intelligent person beneath her looks and her screen presence is as welcome as her looks. She could step into the window dressing in this film and simply be the object of lust but we sense a smart woman who is a sucker for a stray dog like Sands.We know that what we are watching is preposterous but with these three wonderful actors they are able to break away from the confines of the screenplay and absorb us.

David Duchovney creates a role that he was to replicate somewhat in Californication - the troubled talent. And it is a role he plays well.This thriller starts off at a good speed and carries you through to the end. Timothy Hutton plays a fine villain and Angelina Jolie pouts. The story of a disgraced doctor finding his way into a criminal world is well scripted. Drug addiction and a desire for the sultry Jolie mix a heady cocktail. Unfortunately towards the end the story gets a little weaker and the relationships between villains and the FBI is muddled and rushed as if it was created only to develop the final scene. But, that aside, a movie worth seeing.

Smart, funny script with interesting original premise of the doctor forced to work for criminals. The movie wanders, though, as there's no real central plotline. Great dialogue, but maybe the subsidiary characters are more interesting than the main characters. Script is dramatic/comedic; movie is played down, but the choice to do so seems to have robbed the movie of much-needed juice. The stakes don't seem to be too high for any character. Direction is competent, but doesn't match the script. Hutton is scary, but doesn't have much to do except act scary. Duchovny is fine, but I think he was cast mostly for his X-Files fame at the time. He's not exactly the most charismatic lead actor.