(Courtesy The Daily Evergreen)

BY Marcus Michelson & Candace Baltz

“Dogma,” the fourth movie in Director Kevin Smith’s five-movie “trilogy”, is the story of two angels heading for salvation in New Jersey and the woman divinely chosen to stop them.

The movie opens with Cardinal Glick (George Carlin) announcing that anyone who walks through the doors of a church in New Jersey will be granted absolution. This comes as good news to two friends in the Midwest. Bartleby (Ben Affleck) and Loki (Matt Damon), two fallen angels banished to Wisconsin for going against the wishes of God.

Due to a loophole in divine law, whatever the church on earth says , also goes in heaven. So if the fallen angels can walk through the door in New Jersey they will, by law, ascend to heaven. Thing is, if they succeed, they will prove God to be fallible and in the process destroy all existence. That’s the rub.

The voice of God, Metatron (Alan Rickman), a member of the highest choir of angels, is sent to earth to recruit a human to carry out God’s work.

The person chosen is Bethany (Linda Fiorentino), an abortion clinic worker who is questioning her faith. After being saved by prophets Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Smith) from three street hockey playing demons, Bethany agrees to try to stop the angelic duo.

Joining our reluctant and sometimes dense heroes on their quest are: Rufus (Chris Rock) the 13th apostle who claims he was left out of paintings and The Bible because he was black; and Serendipity (Salma Hayek), the muse of creative inspiration.

Where the movie slows is when Smith gets away from what makes his movies great, the dialogue. Smith said in a Qustion and Answer session after a screening that he “likes to make movies about people sitting around talking, and this one just has angels.” But it is not a simple as that.

Smith’s earlier works, especially “Clerks” and “Mallrats” were merely about episodes in people’s lives and, hopefully, not the defining moments of them. “Dogma” goes off the board a bit and focuses on not only the defining moment in the character’s life but possibly the defining moment in the whole of human existence.

Smith succeeds at walking the thin line between the super-spiritual and the farcical by making all of the characters, even God (Alanis Morisette), seem very human. Although some of the dialogue, especially when Rock or Hayek attempt to make a large philispohical point, seems forced.

On Dogma: “It’s a very static movie, no sweeping shots or anything. I just like to make movies about people sitting around talking and this one just has angels.”

On Explaining The Meaning of his Movies: “If you watch the movie and you don’t get the message it’s my bad. Its up to the viewer at the end of the day to figure out what it means.”

On Community College: “I took wierd stupid courses like criminology, because Batman was a criminologist.”

On Why He Makes Films: “All the films I make are for me first, not just crap I could make money off of.”

On Fatherhood: “I never want to be so in love with mny child that I make a baby picture.”

On Catholic League Reaction to “Dogma:" “In terms of its treatment of Religion, I don’t think its offensive unless you are a total atheist.”

On The High Body Count in “Dogma:” “One of the characters is the Angel of Death. I’d be hard pressed not to have lots of people die in it.”

On “Batman and Robin:” “Twenty years of comic history was changed because Alicia Silverstone couldn’t stay away from the Twinkies.”

On Jay and Silent Bob: “I think there is maybe one more movie for them because it would kinda suck to be 45 and hanging out with Snootchie Bootchie.”

On Artistic Growth: “I’m not going to keep making Chasing Amy.”

On How He Wants to be Remembered: “Six-foot five, 105 pounds, big fucking cock, loved the ladies and the ladies loved him. And he made ‘Clerks.’”