"Devil’s Advocate" plays for all the world like a remake of "The Firm", with Satan and his cronies standing in for the mob. Let’s see if this sounds familiar: a handsome, young hot-shot attorney (Keanu Reeves) is courted by a huge corporation to be its next hired gun in criminal law. Offered a truckload money and countless perks, he and his wife (Charlize Theron) decide that they’ve found heaven on earth and accept. While she spends time with the other corporate wives, he puts in countless hours defending clients whose innocence is suspect. Eventually he learns that the big boss (Al Pacino) is none other than the devil himself and so quickly devises a scheme to get out from under control. Someone must have been taking detailed noted when watching the Grisham thriller starring Tom Cruise.
Watching Al Pacino strut and schmooze as the prince of evil is almost worth the price of the film’s admission. He has such fun with the role that those parts of the film without him suffer in comparison. Keanu Reeves gives a good performance, but when will filmmakers learn to stop giving him accents to play? If you can overlook the film’s borrowed premise, and that’s a big "if", you may find "Devil’s Advocate" to be a moderately entertaining drama. However, be sure to leave the kids, even older ones, at home. This film is not for them.