The Ninth Gate

Not quite a Critical review, but I'm out of practice. Also, this really doesn't warrant something so in-depth.


Put simply, it's not very good.

The main problem is that there is not much going on in this movie. The concept is that Johnny Depp plays an unscrupulous book dealer researching Satanic books, and people keep dying mysteriously as he gets further into his search. While this has the potential to be really interesting, it is really not. It's a guy looking at books for 2 hours. Plot twists are telegraphed far in advance, and those that are not telegraphed and introduced but never explained in any kind of reasonable fashion. And this is yet another Gainax Ending.

Johnny Depp is pretty good, and Frank Langella proves to be decent enough as well, but the rest are nothing to write home about. The female lead is, at best, passable, but most of the time she is just not good.

So, yeah. Fantastic. Not the worst movie I've even seen, but it was 2 hours I wouldn't mind having back.