This review was originally posted on Garth Franklin's Dark Horizons

The Toronto film festival is wonderful. I got tickets for the very-hard-to-get-tickets-for, Dogma. And i must exclaim, I�m glad I did, it wasn�t the first showing at the fest, that happened on Saturday night, while I was at Mumford�s Gala, but it was the one i got to see, so damnit, it was the exciting one for me.

Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier were on hand to introduce the film to the eager audience, and it was a good thing too. Not all of the audience were salivating viewaskew nuts, in fact there were one or two people who had obviously never heard the word, "snootch", before.

The movie itself was great. From the disclaimer to the plug at the end of the end credits, I was laughing. The plot line WILL offend some religious fanatics, and possibly not just Catholics.. but I wasn�t offended, and that�s the main thing.

Linda Fiorentino is great, i am never let down by her character, Bethany. My only complaint is that handles Jay & Silent Bob like she�s known them for years. Which she hasn�t. Jay�s character, is much bigger than the other three films, and "Mewes", handles the role well, I was very impressed with his maturity. Silent Bob is a bigger role now as well, and both he and Jay are closer to the characters in Mallrats, fun, funny, and much more animated. Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are great, they actually disturbed me at times, which is a testement to Smith�s writing and their acting. Jason Lee as Azareal, is as scene stealing as ever. In Dogma, as well as in Mumford, Lee proves that he�s got a lot of films in his future. Walt Flanagan is ..well what can i say about Walt that hasn�t been said before?? Brilliant. Chris Rock was great, his character, Rufus, was funny without being overly obnoxious, which is a pleasant change from the hyper character we�re used to.

I don�t want to give away anything in the plot, (i had ignored the opportunity to read the script before hand and I recommend y�all do as well, some things are sacred damnit!) But I want you to know that while the viewaskew language is still there at points (Janeane Garafalo and Fiorentino�s Dialogue for example) It is more lifelike, the characters are still too damn witty, but witty in a way unique to themselves, not to Kevin�s only. The Special effects are great, and the tribute to Star Wars is great (jabba?).

I want to think of a criticism, I really do, but i�m just so happy that it not only met my high expectations, but passed them.

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