City of Angels

1998 "She didn't believe in angels until she fell in love with one."
6.7| 1h54m| PG-13| en
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When guardian angel Seth – who invisibly watches over the citizens of Los Angeles – becomes captivated by Maggie, a strong-willed heart surgeon, he ponders trading in his pure, otherworldly existence for a mortal life with his beloved. The couple embarks on a tender but forbidden romance spanning heaven and Earth.

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Warner Bros. Pictures

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Reviews

TinsHeadline Touches You
GazerRise Fantastic!
Onlinewsma Absolutely Brilliant!
Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.
GuRUCLANdotcom This is an excellent simple film based on raw human emotion. No trickery or CGI needed. This is by far Cage and Ryan's best film of all the films they've ever starred in my opinion. This movie is a total sleeper.I have watched this movie at least 20 times and it still has the same effect on me. It makes me shed tears uncontrollably and that says a lot for a film because I'm not an easy cry in film or life.This film should touch you at a level of humanity and frailty because it's something we all have in common no matter what walk of life you come from. Loving someone, loosing them, life and death is something we will all experience if blessed with that much time.***SPOILER ALERT***For some, time is not on their side as you saw with the child in the beginning of the film. For me the first tears flowed with the loss of the husband/father and how unexpected it was for the doctor let alone his grief stricken family.And then for an Atheist arrogant doctor to finally realize that she has no power to save life given all her education and hard work, that it is not up to her for someone to live. All she can do is the best she can do by her profession and let God's will be done is quite an interesting revelation.On a side note last year I was in a house fire and flat-lined within minutes of being handed off from the ambulance to the trauma unit. No pulse no respiratory...nothing. And in that moment the last thing I remember thinking was, i'm going to die and I'm not ready. After being resuscitated and awakening from a coma nearly 3 days later, I talked to the arrogant surgeon who felt I should acknowledge that he saved my life.If that were true by his account, then no one should ever die in emergency rooms. Like Seth's character says "people die when their bodies give out" and the good doctor Maggie replies "it's my job to keep their bodies from giving out, what am I doing here".I know that doctor played a small part in my still being here, but not in the way he thinks. He feels he intervened and restored my life. And that is where he is arrogant. It was God, who intervened and restored my life giving me more time. Had that not been God's will that flat-line would have been permanent and no amount of education, skill or technology would change that.That is what I like most about this film. "Some things are true whether you believe them or not". And when Seth finally reveals himself to Maggie she within an instant physically assaults him without even thinking about it. Her reaction is violent and typical given human beings fear and reject what they don't understand. For me, this was one of the best scenes in the film, though there were many.I don't know how I would respond if a man I was interested in dating,but had become suspicious about, (not because he was a cheat, a liar, a womanizer, but because of his awkward innocence and inexperience and questioning of the simplest things), like "what does a pear taste like". I don't know how I'd react if he revealed and proved himself to be an Angel of God that was in love with me.I'd probably feel ashamed, and wonder why something so perfect would have any feeling for something so flawed and tainted. But I can't honestly say whether or not I would have been afraid or reacted out of fear and become violent. I may have had a similar or worse reaction, like Maggie's character even more so because I do believe in God.For Seth who longed to be with Maggie and gave up eternity as an Angel/Messenger of God, for a short time only to end up being a weak, frail and vulnerable human being. Which so many things about being human are wonderful, like the sense of color, taste, touch smell, orgasm etc. And then for Seth to only have one night with Maggie before being alone in the world, in an lonely existence having no parents, siblings or "human" friends (With the exception of Messenger of course, who was a former celestial body himself). All things being equal and having there opposite/negative side their is much pain in the existence of a human life, mental, physical and spiritual if one is enlightened enough to know there is a spirit. We are not just the lump sum of micro organisms that evolved from pond scum and we are more than just physical cells under a microscope.There is more to life than the limitation of one's flesh. The spirit and the flesh are two separate things. Every time a body dies, a new body is born for which a spirit must reside.This movie touches me on so many levels and I hope it does for you as well if you are open to it. It is definitely a keeper, re- watcher and one of my top 10 in the DVD collection.Enjoy!look4me_1999@yahoo.com
willsmithprinceofbelair This movie sucked ass because there was no fun. It also had bad acting. I hated the settings and the character plot. And I thought it was stupid to have angels come to life. It needs more bang to it. There was no fireworks. And I hated the bad storyline. The director needs to do better. I give it a 1 star. Not bad. But needs work. I think it needs Seth is an angel who accompanies the spirits of the recently dead to the ever after. Seth has never been human and so has has never experienced touch or taste. When in the hospital however he comes across Dr. Maggie Rice, a brilliant young heart surgeon who is devoted to her profession and her patients. Seth has the power to let himself be seen but Maggie finds him far too mysterious. Seth also meets a patient, Nathaniel Messinger, who has news for him - he too was once an angel like Seth but chose to fall to Earth and become human. Seth makes a decision on his future, which does not turn out as he had expected.
ArthurDental I had a feeling this movie wasn't as good as some people made it out to be. You really have to be religious to enjoy this movie from beginning to end. It's very simple, predictable, even vacuous, if you're a bit skeptical.The brilliant female surgeon, who spots an angel, was made to renounce all her scientific beliefs, even training. She was reduced to asking what her roles or actions meant if people died on God's schedule.The answer may have been glossed over a little, but the movie did not offer any alternative. The answer was most emphatically not much.That's the kind of attitude that you need to enjoy this movie. Otherwise, stop after the first half an hour.
utgard14 Loose remake of Wings of Desire that goes less for the artsy approach and more for the romantic drama. Nic Cage plays an angel who falls in love with pretty surgeon Meg Ryan. Cage, as always, is an acquired taste. His usual half-ham approach to acting is on display here. If you are familiar with him and don't like his style, then you will hate this so don't bother. Ryan is adorable and pretty and can cry on cue. So she's perfect for this kind of schmaltz. Dennis Franz appears in a reworking of Peter Falk's wonderful role in the original film. Falk was the best part of Wings of Desire for me. Franz is OK here but not particularly memorable.Despite its flaws, I was actually enjoying it for the most part. Not loving it, but enjoying it. It was pleasant enough. But the downbeat ending killed the whole thing for me. Look, you don't want to make a pretentious art film like Wings of Desire -- OK, cool, I'm with you there. But if you're going to make a mainstream love story, then stick with that and don't give me some depressing ending. It made me feel like I wasted my time with the whole thing. It had nothing profound to say and certainly didn't have the nice visuals of Wings of Desire, so it really needed to make the love story work. Instead it makes an attempt at the last minute to become something more than it is and it fails. Nice soundtrack though.