Kill James Bond! - S4E8.5: Devil's Advocate [PREVIEW]

Episode Date: February 28, 2025

This is a preview of a bonus episode, find the rest here, on our reasonably-priced patreon! https://www.patreon.com/killjamesbond It's Abi's bonus pick this week and we're sticking with the religious theme as we discuss the 1997 Keanu Reeves/Al Pacino movie Devil's Advocate. A slick floridian lawyer gets everything he ever wished for when a big New York firm scouts him- but what if that sucked actually?  ---- FREE PALESTINE Hey, Devon here. As you well know I've been working with a few gazan families to raise money for their daily living costs in the genocide. As a ceasefire has been announced, we hope soon plenty of Aid can get in and help alleviate the dire famine they're being subjected to. But until then, they still have to afford to eat, so we ask for you to keep helping them out, just a little longer. https://www.gofundme.com/f/a8jzz-help-me-and-my-family-get-out-of-the-gaza-strip https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-me-and-my-family-to-find-a-safe-place https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-us-maher-and-my-family-to-leave-gaza-to-belgium https://www.gofundme.com/f/htdcj-evacuating-my-family-from-gaza https://www.map.org.uk/donate/donate ----- WEB DESIGN ALERT Tom Allen is a friend of the show (and the designer behind our website). If you need web design help, reach out to him here:  https://www.tomallen.media/ Kill James Bond is hosted by November Kelly, Abigail Thorn, and Devon. You can find us at https://killjamesbond.com

Hello and welcome to a bonus episode of Kill James Bond. I'm November Kelly, joined as always by my friends Abigail, Thorne, and Devon. Hello! What's up? And we have a guest, it's AJ from the Worst of All Possible Worlds. How's it going? Oh, it's going so good. I just watched the craziest movie I have ever seen in my life, and I'm so thrilled to talk about it. I worked for the last five days on a Pacino impression, and it did not help. So I'm very excited to unleash that today.

AJ is here of his own free will. A man with the power of a king on the podcast. King for the day! The Wickerest of all possible men. So this is going to end with me on fire, I guarantee it. We got you on to help us watch some real mid-career Pacino, an interesting sort of transitional stage in Al Pacino. This is your bonus pick, Abbey, it's The Devil's Advocate.

This is genuinely one of my favorite movies. I really like this film, I always enjoy watching it. It's the movie that was nearly responsible for me becoming a lawyer, which I nearly did, and it's also the movie that is in fact responsible for me owning a pair of red crockskin brackets fake cow boots, which I do. But don't do that. The lawyer thing? They are so sick.

No, don't do that. I very- this is Abbey Law. I very nearly became a lawyer. The only reason I didn't is because... Yes, exactly, Abbey crime. The only reason I didn't is because law school, for what I wanted to do, was exactly as competitive numerically as drama school, and I slightly preferred acting, so I was like, I'm gonna do that instead. But yeah, I nearly became a lawyer because of this film, and I'm guessing being a real

life lawyer is not at all like what this movie makes it as. Not as far as I know. No. Less Pacino, certainly. I do think, I do want to say to my co-hosts up front, let's not spoil it, because one of the things I love about this film is that it tells you kind of what Al Pacino's deal is, but it doesn't really, it doesn't confirm it, or deny it, until very very close to the end, and that is one of the things I love about it.

So let's just keep the mystery alive. So, we begin in a Florida courtroom with a trial for sex crimes. Yes. Yes. Good evening, pedophiles. What's up? And where are my pedophiles at? Sound off in the comments.

I don't want to get a Tumblr ask in a couple of weeks, so I'm just like, I was working and listening to the podcast and you said, where are my pedophiles at? And I just dropped everything, you know? I'm blocking the person who said something like that. So, to be very clear about this, Keanu Reeves is in the scene, and they establish as quickly as they humanly can that Keanu is the lawyer for the guy who's accused of the sex crimes, not the sex crimes guy. It's like, he's sitting next to the sweatiest, boldest paedophile alive.

Yes, Frank Sibadka from The Wire Season 2! It's Fred, actually! It's Fred! I didn't even recognize him! Jesus! This is 1997, Keanu Reeves, this is two years before The Matrix, if you can believe it. He's like, he's so sweet! So baby-faced.

I will say. He's so good at it too, I love him! He's really good in this movie, I will say, and this is somewhat of a mean observation, but it is nice to see him act, isn't it? Yeah, well, it's, I mean, there was that whole thing going around, especially during this time in Keanu's career, where everyone's like, he's like a really bad actor, he's wooden, he's stiff or whatever, and then you watch this and you're like, no, he is incredible. You're like, no, no, no, he gets way worse.

Yeah, he's actually amazing here. Yeah. I don't know who directed this, but genuinely everyone gives really good performances in this movie. It's one of the reasons I like it, just as an actor, game-recognized game. I forgot the name of the director as well, but I will say that one of the guys who wrote it, the co-writer, is Tony Gilroy, who did all the Bourne films. Really?

Yeah. So, the writing on this- NIGEL Mr. Geddes, the maths teacher, is being accused very seriously and tearfully by this young girl of being a paedophile, Kiona, who is his lawyer. ALICE She's on the stand. NIGEL And as this girl is testifying, as she's testifying, Kiona looks over and realizes that this guy is like fucking getting off on the testimony.

ALICE Oh, he's horny as shit right now, he's just like, covering the testimony. Oh, he's horny as shit right now, he's just like, cubbing the table. Apparently, by no means uncommon with sex offenders, it's fucking gross. Yeah. Really? Like, there's an element of... It's one of the reasons why like, kind of a lot of, um, like, reparative justice stuff just doesn't really work, is because it's an opportunity for them to just like, relive

the thing and get off on it. So yeah. But so, he's like... He realises his client is guilty. This is the central question that the thing asks, is like, what the fuck do you do here as a lawyer, when you realise that the guy is guilty of the crime you're trying to get him off for? This is great screenwriting too, like what do you do to introduce your character?

Show them making a decision. ALICE So obviously there's a kind of professional, ethical answer to that, which is not defending them necessarily from, it's the court's job to determine guilt and innocence, and they're entitled to the best representation they can get constitutionally, all the rest of it. What he does is he goes, he like, takes a recess, takes his client aside, and gives him the, your cooked lawyer speech from Rules of Engagement. Except instead of like, I am such a bad lawyer, I don't know what I'm doing, it's- Help me, help me.

Yeah. It's like, you nasty motherfucker, you did it, I know you did it, I can't represent you, you gotta, like, get a new lawyer, or fucking plead guilty, I guess. But he doesn't. He doesn't say, I can't represent you. Instead, he goes into the bathroom, he stares himself in the mirror and he goes, alright, I gotta destroy this fucking kid. Yeah, yeah.

Yep. Well, he's about to. Yeah, we get the stakes, because a journalist enters and says, not suddenly, damn, you've this fucking kid. Yeah. Yep. Yep. Well, he's about to. Yeah. We get the stakes, because a journalist enters and says, not suddenly, damn, you've won every case you've ever tried, I guess maybe this is the one you have to lose, because you're defending a paedophile. And he goes, nobody wins them all?

No. I can still win this one. Yeah. On the way out, this journalist gives him the like, kind of... Wink. Yeah, and Keanu does some echopraxia but too much and screws up half his entire face. This is also the bathroom that is in every single Hollywood courtroom drama, there's the marble on the walls, I think it's the exact one from Liar Liar, I can't be sure,

but it definitely is the one from My Cousin Vinny. The big mirror where you get to look at yourself. I can't be sure, but it definitely is the one for my cousin Finny. ALICE Yeah. RILEY Oh, fun. The big mirror, where you get to look at yourself. Yeah. ALICE Yeah, and so prior to any kind of laws that might, like, prevent you from doing this, he goes in on the child witness slash victim of, like, sexual abuse. RILEY Number one, you're failing school. Number two, shut the fuck up.

Number three. RILEY He shouts in her face. He is like obliterating this kid. Makes her cry. I mean, this is the kind of theme of a lot of cross-examination in like defense of sexual offense cases is to be like, oh, you know, the victim is A, a slut, and B, a liar, right? And so therefore you can't trust anything she says. And he- He's like, you don't have a gender recognition certificate, I am gonna use he-him pronouns for you throughout the trial.

But pretty good cartoonist, I'll say. She does draw a pretty good... a huge hog beast, I think is what she refers to him as. Yeah. He proves that she, like she had it out for the maths teacher. He concocts this alternative narrative where she's like, you hated him because he was giving you bad grades, he kept you off the class where there was nothing sinister in that, and then to sound cool and to get back at him you made up this story. And she still insists that it happened, but you can hear that the jury don't buy it. And one of the families tries to attack him afterwards.

Yeah. This child actor, by the way, I think it's Heather Madarazzo, does a great job with this, by the way. Amazing work. Incredible. Amazing work. Amazing work. Really really good. Well done. Pretty active actually in the late 90s, she was very active this year I'm seeing. Oh hell yeah, shout out to you Heather.

I do like the idea of a criminal defense attorney having to grapple with the idea that their client might be guilty on the sort of like, you know, 60th case or whatever. Like, oh this is my 64th straight win and I've just realized that I'm defending a paedophile. Some of these guys might not be good people, what the fuck. It's like- I got into this game to get people out of going to jail, I didn't realize I'd be getting people who needed to go to jail out of it.

Like not to kind of spoil this, but this does come up in law school. It is something that you have to kind to deal with mentally kind of early. Also, it is extremely remarkable and unlikely that he would never have lost a case. It kind of works in universe if it's absolutely fantastically unlikely that he would ever have been in this situation. His wife, Charlize Theron, celebrates with them. Oh my fucking god. Jesus Christ. Yeah, yeah. Um, his wife, Charlize Theron celebrates with laughter. Charlize Theron! Jesus Christ!

Welcome to the movie! What a fucking amazing performance. She's so good in this movie. Like, a role that is... maybe a little... This role is... All kinda dated now, but... I'll say so. ...in the writing at least.

Yes, I'll say. But she's the kind of definition of being better than the writing in this.