Word: hackford
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...Taylor Hackford's Devil's Advocate, Al Pacino expounds on why he has chosen the field of law as the vehicle for his machinations. Although his explanation may be offensive to many Harvardians with visions of high-priced retainers dancing in their heads, it is one of the funniest scenes in a film surprisingly full of funny moments...
...Hackford offers some dazzling visuals, including an artificial lake on top of a skyscraper and a chilling shot of Keanu Reeves walking out of a hospital to find all of Manhattan empty. Milton's penthouse exudes an atmosphere of slick, menacing, kinky-campy decadence--it's Hugh Hefner meets the Marquis de Sade. Hackford is smart enough not to let the cinematography get in the way of Pacino: as Milton, the actor is his own special effect. And when the actual special effects--including a wall sculpture that comes to swarming, slithery life--do appear, they pale in comparison...
...long, clocking in at two hours and 20 minutes (including a pointless 15-minute side plot that wastes the great Delroy Lindo in a clumsily caricatured role). Whenever the film begins to drag--which is pretty much whenever Pacino is off screen for more than ten minutes--Hackford throws in some nudity. Pacino excepted, nearly all the main characters get to run around at least once in their birthday suits...
Gast eventually won rights to the 400 hours of footage, but could find no investors until, in 1986, David Sonenberg, a manager of rock talent, volunteered. After transferring the deteriorating film stock, Gast and filmmaker Taylor Hackford (An Officer and a Gentleman) completed the film in 1994, hoping to promote it with a sound track CD comprising music from the festival stars (James Brown, B.B. King, Miriam Makeba) and new groups like the Fugees, who laid down a rap track over Ali's incantatory doggerel. But no one wanted to distribute the movie--until it won the documentary prize...
...courtroom-melodrama ending ruins any hope of "Dolores" being a great movie. Not only is it unbelievable, but it is so cheesy that one wonders whether or not director Taylor Hackford spliced in an out-take from "The Player," a movie that makes delicious fun of such trite Hollywood endings...