Keanu Reeves‘ best and most successful films have largely taken place in the action genre, with the internet’s favorite actor having headlined some genuine greats over the last 30 years including Point Break, Speed, The Matrix and John Wick, but he’s hardly averse to dipping his toes into other waters from time to time.
The 56 year-old has starred in a large number of sci-fi projects, and even explained why he’s always been so interested in the genre, but there’s barely a type of movie that he hasn’t appeared in. Indeed, the legal thriller was all the rage in the 1990s, mostly due to Hollywood’s fleeting obsession with John Grisham adaptations that were briefly everywhere, and as an A-list star, Reeves was obliged to take the plunge.
However, The Devil’s Advocate is about as far removed from the typical tales of corporate subterfuge and courtroom machinations as you could possibly hope to get, with the entire narrative pivoting during the second act and diving headlong into pure supernatural fantasy. The story follows Reeves’ hotshot small town lawyer, who joins a big New York City firm only to soon discover that something malevolent is going on under the surface.
The Devil’s Advocate was a decent-sized success at the box office after raking in $153 million, and you can guarantee if the internet was as prevalent back then as it is now, Al Pacino’s very loud and entertainingly hammy performance as the Devil would have no doubt been the subject of countless memes. It’s clearly caught the attention of Netflix subscribers, too, and is currently the fourteenth most-watched title on the platform according to the global chart, while it could easily continue to rise further up the rankings over the coming days.
