Suing the Devil

.jpg” alt=”" width=”262″ height=”370″ />Do you enjoy suspenseful law dramas such as The Devil’s Advocate? I do, too, which is why when I was looking for a new movie to check out on Redbox’s website the other night, I saw the movie Suing the Devil. “Interesting,” I thought to myself as I read the plot outline, which reads: “Luke O’Brien, a washed up janitor turned night law student, decides to sue Satan for $8 trillion dollars. On the last day before Luke files default judgment, Satan appears to defend himself. On Satan’s legal team are 10 of the country’s best trial lawyers. The entire world watches on Legal TV to see who will win the Trial of the Century.”

The movie has a cast of mostly unknowns (I know I’ve never heard of them) with the exception of Tom Sizemore,who plays a lawyer on Satan’s defense team, and Malcolm McDowell, who plays the role of Satan. Now, I’m not one to turn away B-movies, in fact, I am a huge fan of B-movies (or as I call them, “awesomely bad movies”) but if I could turn back time, I would find something to watch on TV instead of watching this movie.

First off, the acting is amateur at best, except for Sizemore and McDowell, who are seasoned actors. There were moments in the movie that were so poorly done, I lost focus. Another point was that even though the story is suppose to take place in Australia, most of the actors did not have an Australian accent. With the recruitment of the lawyers from around the world, I could understand maybe all of them not having accents, but key players, such as the other lawyer (besides O’Brien) on the plaintiff’s side not having an accent, and with even Mrs. Luke O’Brien herself sporting an American accent herself, it just didn’t seem right. Bad acting I can forgive most of the time, as long as the plot stays interesting, but it didn’t.

There were a few different plotlines going on at once. O’Brien’s whole reason for starting the lawsuit was because of all the “injustice” in the world, including his mother dying in an accident. Along with the trial going on, we learn that our protagonist’s wife, Gwen, is terminally ill with brain cancer, but that’s about all we hear about it along with her coughing a lot in the beginning, though I’m not sure what THAT has to do with brain cancer. The evidence the plaintiff used to back up their case was mostly verses from the bible, which made me think that I was watching a Cchristian movie and not a drama. I was a tad bit disappointed.

There were a couple things I did enjoy about this movie, though. For starters, Malcolm McDowell was spectacular as Satan. He was snarky, vicious, charming, and deceitful as you’d expect Satan to be, and I found myself rooting for him to win this trial. The other thing was the ending, it wasn’t what you’d think it would be.

When I rented this movie, I was expecting a suspenseful drama, what I got was a movie with a feel-good hidden agenda and only two actors that really carried the film. In my opinion, save yourself the $1.30 and find something on TV to watch.

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Written by:

Katie Sperduti