Constantine - 2005

I liked it, might even watch it again, why not, it was not at all bad, much better than I thought. I’ve read that it’s based on a comic book but I’ve never read it, so I have no bias against it. Judging only the movie, it was well done and interesting.
Plot, in details: Heaven and Hell are very real, and there are demons and angels walking our Earth trying to get us to their side, but without doing too much because balance must be kept... John Constantine was a child who could see them, could see things that nobody else could see, and was terribly scared. His family thought he was crazy, he was institutionalized, and when he couldn’t take it anymore he committed suicide. He was dead for two minutes and then brought back, but still he did it and therefore his soul is damned. Now he (Keanu Reeves) works to gain a place in Heaven for himself by fighting demons that take possession of humans. He’s been smoking so much for years that he’s now dying of cancer, but he won’t go to Heaven because all he did was for himself, not to save people. Gabriel (Tilda Swinton) tells him this very clearly. 
Angela (Rachel Weisz) is a cop. Her twin sister Isabel just killed herself. Just like John she could see things and was believed crazy, and was given drugs for it. Angie can’t accept it, doesn’t believe that she did it to herself, and asks for John’s help. At first he’s not interested in helping her, but then he realizes that demos are after her. He takes a quick look in hell and can tell her that Isabel really did it, and is now down there. Angie confesses to him her deepest secret: as a child, she could see things too, just like Isabel, but when her sister begged her to tell everyone she lied, she said she didn’t see anything, she denied her ‘gift’ and ‘abandoned’ her twin sister, and with time she really stopped seeing things. Now she begs John to help her see again. The demons want her because they are trying to bring Satan’s son into this world, and they need someone with the ‘gift’ as a mean to accomplish that. He almost kills Balthazar (Gavin Rossdale), to discover their plan, after he had killed two men that sort of helped him in his ‘mission’. When they take Angela, John goes to get her back but is too late; he meets Gabriel there, and discovers that it was all Gabriel’s plan, because only in tragedy men become worth something, so Gabriel wants to bring horror and pain to this world to make humans worthy of God’s love... basically Gabriel is the only one really crazy ...
It seems like he’s been beaten, so he prays to God for help, and then thinks of something rather peculiar: he slashes his own wrists so Lucifer (Peter Stormare) comes personally to collect his soul - I mean, people told him that he would do that, but this was like an act of faith or a last, desperate resort because he couldn’t be 100% sure, now, could he?
John tells Lucifer about Gabriel’s plan, so Lucifer stops it because he wants to be the only one Satan. In exchange for that little help, John this time doesn’t ask for more time, for more life, he asks for Isabel’s soul to be freed. Lucifer accepts and then tries to take John with him, but because of his sacrifice he can’t. John could get into Heaven now, but Lucifer is not happy with that, so he plays another ‘trick’: he gives him more time, basically cures him of his cancer, so that he’ll now have to prove again where his soul belongs. 
As a punishment Gabriel is now human, apparently. Angela is ok, and John needs to get his life back on track, but it looks like now he’s gonna go the right way. 
I liked this ending, honestly it was obvious from the start that he would have made some sacrifice for Angela and earn a place in heaven, so I liked this twist; after all, it was easier to do a good thing just once than it will be to prove himself for the rest of his life.
I’ve never been a fan of Keanu Reeves, he’s more or less always the same, but this character suits him I think. He was a good choice for the part: John had more or less given up hope, had no real faith. Angela’s character was really good, very complex, full of hidden emotions, I liked her - even if I wanted to slap her face when she left in the car the amulet John had given her!
Djimon Hounsou was a cool Midnite, a character I don’t really know how to describe apart that he wanted to preserve neutrality and balance. Balthazar was also a cool demon, I really liked Swinton as Gabriel, but I didn’t really get the character of Chas Kramer (Shia LaBeouf): a rather useless one I think. A kid who kept following John, driving him around, wanting to help him. At the end he’s able to do just that, before being easily killed just like that, and at the end turning into an angel. I didn’t much care for the character, it was the only one that seemed more annoying than interesting, but I admit that being John very sick, Chas helped him when the strength was leaving him. 
I liked the scene when John helps Angie ‘see’ again: she gets into a bathtub full of water but nothing happens, so she tries to come out but he holds her down: she didn’t expect it, I did. You see her fighting to get out and breathe, and all of a sudden the tub breaks and she falls out and it’s clear right away, even before you can see her or hear her words, that it worked. 
I also liked the three (I think, or four maybe) moments when he got near her and she thought he was going to kiss her but he never did, and somehow those ‘almost kisses’ were more meaningful than if he had kissed her.