Excellent, Without a doubt!!

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

The best part of the movie is the end. Unfortunately, it looks like there were 4 sequels. I got this movie in a pack of 8 films for 7.36 + tax. So, it cost a $1 and time. Here's the first problem. It is in super wide shot. On my TV 1/3 on top, and 1/3 on bottom is black. The center of the screen, 1/3 is the movie. This sucks.From then on, I noticed the audio is crap. Hard to understand the dialogue. The music, sound effects and dialogue had a serious mix problem. OK. Now, the story. Basic idea, some of god's angels are not satisfied and want to turn Heaven into another Hell. I guess that right. Now, the simple idea is fine. The details of the story and the execution sucks. We have a fallen priest that becomes a cop. This guy sucks as an actor. Plain and simple. Then we get Eric Stoltz as Simon as a good angel. He is a decent actor, but his dialogue and character sucks. We get the bad angel Christopher Walken as Gabriel. This guy is probably one of the best actors around. However, his character is one of the worst around. So, he's another fallen angel, via Brooklyn Mob circles. What the hell is up with that Brooklyn tough guy accent? Give me a freaking break. Then we have some school teacher and a little girl. All crappy actors. Satin shows up, because he doesn't want another Hell to compete with his. One more thing. The fx suck too. This thing sucked. It's a sad joke. Christopher Walken fans should not see this. Please don't. No one should see this.Complete failure. F. 1 star. Garbage.

The angel Gabriel (Christopher Walken) comes to Earth to collect a soul which will end the stalemated war in Heaven, and only a former priest and a little girl can stop him.It can be challenging to make a good religious horror film. Especially when you are trying to create a new mythology without destroying the classic or traditional views. This film is among the best in the genre, and it is no surprise it received multiple sequels. The idea of an ongoing angel war, backed up by a holy book? Clever.Of course, you also get some good actors involved and that helps. Walken is among the best (or at least he was), and Elias Koteas is vastly underrated. He is not a household name but should be.

Supporting actors Christopher Walken, Viggo Mortensen and Eric Stoltz pretty much are the only reasons for this movie not to fall utter garbage category. Lead actors Elias Koteas and Virginia Madsen are extremely wooden card board cuts with no emotion, no charisma, no nothing. Where did they find these nobodies makes me wonder? Koteas has the same dumb face for the whole movie no matter whether he finds a box full of human faces or tries to pray for God in a desperate and sentimental act. Madsen has a same monotonous repertoire for emotions and expression. Lady schoolteacher finds a burned dead human body from their schools attic and what is her reaction? Nothing. Just like she would have found a dead rat. Or maybe burned "homeless people" are so common in the states and have no human value that you can just shrug your shoulders and continue with your daily chores. That was just a one example. Sure, you can also blame the script but for some reason, I don't think Walken had any better script and he managed to improvise the hell out of his role.While the story was interesting, it was pretty weak and there wasn't much more into this except brilliant performances from supporting actors. What a waste of a good fantasy/thriller movie. 6/10

Are you saying we have a dead angel on ice?Saw this without any knowledge, but saw the cast, Christopher Walken, Viggo Mortensen and Eric Stolz, which I all admire for their work, and was immediately quite amazed by the tone and excitement. This is dark, compelling, chilling and quite shocking. I would say that most things work. It's so damned we'll played by all, not only the above mentioned. Maybe this is both Walken and Stolz best roles ever! Walken is simply astonishing chilling in his role as arch angel. An absolute must-see!We meet a cop, which formerly tried to become a priest, but fail at the final blessing. After giving up religion, and becoming a detective, he has an encounter with might be an angel. And then what also seems to be an angel, according to ancient scripts, also is an angel, dead after a violent fight. Are we seeing a war of angels?Based on old biblical writings this is way more exciting than any of Dan Brown's stuff. Don't let this mislead you into thinking this is something rubbish. It's scary and worst of all quite believable. Kept in a realistic everyday style, it still gives chill after chill in meeting with the angels, among them the great arch angel Gabriel.I also love the make up effects made for this film. Nasty, well done stuff. Filming is great. Just like some of the best films I saw back in the 70'ies, 80'ies and 90'ies. The feel I get the same good movie feeling I had a long time ago, and reminds me of the classics like "The Exorcist", "Rosemary's baby", "Name of the rose", which all are themed similarly or the dark filming work of "Deliverance", "Whatever happened to Baby-Jane", "Duel" and "The Marathon man". Yeah, it's really that good, and that well done, but even darker! If you liked the chills in those, you'll like this. It's good story telling, which makes this a hidden classic.Maybe the end is too abrupt and positive. The weakest part is the final minutes, but then again this is a story that needs such an ending.The music score is out of this world. Not only this. The dialog is exquisite and the quotes you can get from this are epic. Do yourself a favor, if you haven't seen this! Get hold of it! I just discovered a hidden gem!