City of Angels: Critic Reviews

An old-fashioned, big-hearted movie.

The movie has its affecting moments, but the drearily inevitable has come true -- an original and rather haunting poetic conception has been turned into a literal-minded love story.

As angel movies go, this is one of the better ones, not least because Meg Ryan is so sunny and persuasive as a heart surgeon who falls in love with an angel.

Strains to achieve the enchantingly sublime, but ends up sinking to the depressingly ridiculous.

As a remake it's not as poetic as Wenders' masterpiece Wings of Desire, but it's supremely mounted (by ace lenser John Seale) and contains touching performances from Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan deviating from their respective screen images.

A lovely oddity.

City of Angels is more romantic than profound, but Dana Stevens' script is thoughtful and intelligent, and I never felt insulted by what the characters say, do, or think.

It manages to leave a pleasant afterglow for those in the mood for its kind of loving.

Glossy romance as an angel falls for a surgeon.

The movie's eerie, slightly menacing vision of black-clad angels lurking in the shadowy corners of unsuspecting lives is genuinely haunting.

A good deal better than it has any right to be.

Funnier than Wenders' version, and it also succeeds in visualising LA as a magical city while dealing intelligently with the themes of mortality, sacrifice, free will, and the mixed blessings of the human condition.

An emotionally uninvolving flick that attempts to play on the heart strings of the viewer and fails in its effort.

City of Angels is the sort of compromised movie that could have been almost good, but decided to be a great big hit instead.

City of Angels raises theological questions, albeit in a somewhat pedestrian manner, and makes them an integral part of its otherwise formulaic plot.

Superb imagery can't compensate for deficiencies of Dana Steven's script and can't hide the formulaic nature of this film.

This useless remake lacks the sheer ethereal beauty of the original Wings of Desire.

Why would anyone remake Wim Wenders' masterpiece, Wings of Desire? Certainly not for artistic reasons.

A thinking person's film for those who can't think.

A beautiful film in many ways.

Marries romance and faith in a love story as charming as a handmade valentine. It is so lovely to look at and so sincere in intent that its flaws don't matter much.

Walking out of the theater, I felt different. The film made me realize how wonderful life could be, how a thing as simple as wind on your face or the taste of a pear had value.

My face had been locked in that goofy, awestruck expression you experience only in Spielberg movies. City of Angels demonstrates the best kind of emotionally manipulative filmmaking.

Uma pequena perola que faz jus ao filme no qual foi inspirada.

I know a movie is good when I totally cease taking notes and then can find no adjectives to jot down. I was enthralled and yet not stupefied.