Who do you call when you need an actor with no personality and is as dry as a desert? The one and only Keanu Reeves. Welcome to Bill & Ted’s excellent adventure into demonology. Reeves plays John Constantine, an exorcist who apparently has nothing better to do than keep demons from crossing over into our world. All we ever find out about him is he’s been able to see demons since he was a kid and he’s died for two minutes. To this extent, the character is as flat as Reeves; a perfect fit.

According to the story, demons and angels made a deal not to cross over to our “plain,” but all of the sudden the demons want to break the deal. Constantine crosses paths with Angela Dodson (Rachel Weisz) whose sister recently committed suicide and Angela suspects foul play. The two team up to take on the demons, and a very odd angel. To her credit, Rachel Weisz does the best anyone probably could do in this role. To Reeves credit, his lack of emotion seems to work somehow as it did in the first Matrix.

One way I judge entertainment value in a film is how I feel and think after ward. If the film has done a good job of making the world real and inviting me in, it’s done its job well. The quintessential film to use as an example- The Truman Show. For the next month I couldn’t help but feel like my life was a show just like Truman’s. This is a rare quality. Though I loved Gladiator, I never felt like I was Maximus. For Constantine, I did feel like kicking some demon afterward. The plot was at times hard to follow; the “twist” (if that’s appropriate) I still don’t quite get. While it was certainly not of Oscar quality, and neither were any of the performances, it still had some decent entertainment value.

The theology seemed promising at first, but was ultimately a disaster. In an early scene the angel Gabriel tells Constantine that his works (exorcising demons) doesn’t cut it for salvation, and neither does simple knowledge. Instead, he needed to believe and trust in God. This bright spot in the theology is ruined by a works based ending and by God being mysteriously absent during the whole spiritual war.