TMR 053 – The Devil's Advocate

Total Movie Recall

This week on Total Movie Recall, it’s Steve’s turn to not get it when Ryan forces him to snooze this way through the 1997 hambone, The Devil’s Advocate. This movie has it all -- a grand guignol of sex, violence, operatic depictions of Hell and Satan, Keanu swinging and missing, Pacino putting his blood pressure medication to the test -- and yet, somehow, it’s still boring! Please don’t waste Steve’s time with these faux-provocations. Show him something really controversial, like a basketball game. The Devil's Advocate (1997) d. Taylor Hackford Based on the novel by Andrew Neiderman Starring: Keanu Reeves Al Pacino Charlize Theron Jeffrey Jones Judith Ivey Connie Nielsen Craig T. Nelson Don King

Aspiring Florida defense lawyer Kevin Lomax accepts a high-powered position at a New York law firm headed by legal shark John Milton. As Kevin moves up in the firm's ranks, his wife, Mary Ann, has several frightening, mystical experiences that begin to warp her sense of reality. With the stakes getting higher with each case, Kevin quickly learns that his mentor is planning a far greater evil than simply winning without scruples.

Things discussed in the show: Psychedelic horror Mandy (Panos Cosmatos, Nicolas Cage, Andrea Riseborough, Linus Roache) Midsommar (Ari Aster, Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, Vilhelm Blomgren) Beaches (Garry Marshall, Bette Midler, Barbara Hershey, John Heard) Romeo and Juliet (Franco Zeffirelli, Leonard Whiting, Olivia Hussey, John McEnery) West Side Story 1960 (Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise, Natalie Wood, George Chakiris, Richard Beymer) West Side Story 2021 (Steven Spielberg, Ansel Elgort, Rachel Zegler, Ariana DeBose) The political divide: Boogaloo boys & Antifa making out Irreversible (Gaspar Noé, Monica Bellucci, Vincent Cassel, Albert Dupontel) Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray, James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo) Natalie Wood's mysterious death Step Brothers and the Catalina Island wine mixer (Adam McKay, Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Mary Steenburgen) Romeo + Juliet (Baz Luhrmann, William Shakespeare, Leonardo DiCaprio, Claire Danes, John Leguizamo) The Great Gatsby (Baz Luhrmann, Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, Joel Edgerton) Moulin Rouge! (Baz Luhrmann, Craig Pearce, Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, John Leguizamo) Strictly Ballroom (Baz Luhrmann, Paul Mercurio, Tara Morice, Bill Hunter) Tromio and Juliet (Lloyd Kaufman, James Gunn, Jane Jensen, Will Keenan, Valentine Miele, Sean Gunn, Lemmy of Motorhead) My So Called Life (Winnie Holzman, Bess Armstrong, Wilson Cruz, Claire Danes, Jared Leto)

This iconic photo of Monica Bellucci and Leonardo DiCaprio

O (Othello, Tim Blake Nelson, William Shakespeare, Mekhi Phifer, Julia Stiles, Martin Sheen) Titus (Julie Taymor, William Shakespeare, Anthony Hopkins, Jessica Lange, Osheen Jones) Raised By Wolves (Aaron Guzikowski, Travis Fimmel, Amanda Collin, Abubakar Salim, Ridley Scott) The Great Deluge & Nephilim The Book of Enoch Noah (Darren Aronofsky, Ari Handel, Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Anthony Hopkins) Barabbas 1961 (Richard Fleischer, Christopher Fry (screenplay), Pär Lagerkvist (novel), Anthony Quinn, Silvana Mangano, Arthur Kennedy) She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (Noelle Stevenson, Aimee Carrero, Marcus Scribner, Karen Fukuhara, Keston John) The Vow (NXIVM, Anthony Ames, Sarah Edmondson, Bonnie Piesse, Mark Vicente) Seduced Inside the NXIVM Cult (Jaclyn Cangro, Tabitha Chapman, Steve Hassan, India Oxenberg) Apocalypse Now – Redux (Francis Ford Coppola, John Milius, Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall) Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse (Fax Bahr, George Hickenlooper, Dennis Hopper, Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando) Chuck Berry: Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll (Taylor Hackford, Chuck Berry, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Bo Diddley, Etta James, John Lennon) Ray (Taylor Hackford, Jamie Foxx, Regina King, Kerry Washington) Blood In, Blood Out (Taylor Hackford, Damian Chapa, Jesse Borrego, Benjamin Bratt) Angel Heart (Alan Parker, Mickey Rourke, Robert De Niro, Lisa Bonet) The Wire (David Simon, Dominic West, Lance Reddick, Sonja Sohn) Pedophilia in Hollywood yet again Rosemary's Baby (Roman Polanski, Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon) V.C. Andrews Villains based on Trump Home Alone 2 Lost in New York (Chris Columbus, Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern) Free will and time travel and the butterfly effect Sliders (Tracy Tormé, Robert K. Weiss, Jerry O'Connell, Sabrina Lloyd, John Rhys-Davies) Lethal Weapon 4 (Richard Donner, Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Joe Pesci, Rene Russo, Chris Rock, Jet Li) Once Upon a Time in China (Hark Tsui, Jet Li, Rosamund Kwan, Biao Yuen) John Woo Double Impact (Sheldon Lettich, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Geoffrey Lewis, Alonna Shaw) Black Mask (Daniel Lee, Jet Li, Ching Wan Lau, Karen Mok) Knock Off (Hark Tsui, Steven E. de Souza, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Rob Schneider, Lela Rochon) Next week: Kung Fu Cult Master