City of Angels (1998)

I really liked it back in the day. Good love story. Still kinda average movie.

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 [email protected]

Another OK film. The concept is interesting. The shots of the black clothed angels all over the City Of Angels are cinematically impressive.I used to actually get the quinzies just watching Nicholas Cage but, I have learned to at least not hate him. It was difficult tho' because of all those extreme closeups of his carefully non-blinking eyes and non-smiling mouth. Romantic leading man ? Not quite ! Meg Ryan is her usual cute as a button self with a pretty nice curly haircut. It's a bit of a stretch to see her as a driven heart surgeon with personal issues.Best of the bunch character wise were Dennis Franz (he was the most believable and appealing character in the whole film) and Andre Braugher as another angel, friend and confidant of Cage.If you have not seen this one and have a spare couple of hours, it's worth a one time watch, imo.

Okay, so this is a movie made on the backdrop of our guardian angels and yes I believe in them. Nicholas Cage plays Seth who falls for Maggie played by Meg Ryan, yes the astonishingly cute Meg Ryan. For all I could remember, Nicholas Cage is all about action roles but this shade is a must watch too. A fantasy story, an angel falling for a beautiful soul on earth and it ends with the most unexpected of endings, the lady dies in her angel's arms.. As sad and teary that sounds, I kinda have my peace with it. For true love is not always about the years together but sometimes that one tiny out-of-the-world true moment is all that is enough to cherish an entire life with someone's thoughts. That was the learning and it was delivered to perfection!