User reviews

It's hard to make up my mind about this film. I didn't particularly like the writing or most of the acting, but I really like the look of the film (reminiscent of Sin City in a lot of ways) and some of the camera work was great. It's not a film I really enjoyed to watch, though. I can't put my finger on it, something just didn't make me want to keep watching, so I spent half the film thinking "Should I turn it off now? Now?" And when it hit the love scene I just felt sick. "They *didn't* do that, did they? Oh God, they did." However in spite of myself, I watched to the end. There were some good performances, some really bad ones, and more than a few mediocre. I really think Noble belongs in Home and Away. She had a real "Tammin" vibe and (at the risk of sounding really harsh), it just irritated me every time I saw her. I feel like if this film had gotten better funding and some better actors, it would have been amazing. As it stands, I think the art department and overall look of the film saved it from being plain bad. I'm sorry because I can tell what the film *could* have been, but it missed the mark. Maybe I can hope the sequel is better?

This movie looks great and everyone on the film needs to be commended for doing such a bang up job with so little money. Its good that Sony took the punt and threw some money in to finish the visual effects because it would have made this ambitious project so much lesser for it without all those finishing touches. To that end you can say that this isn't really a low budget film - not by Australian standards if the rumor of a 5 million injection from Sony is true. My big gripe about this film though is that it could have gone somewhere bad ass but apart from looking cool it pretty much spins its wheels the whole time. This could have been a bad ass angel kill kill kill film but there ends up being lots and lots of talking instead and a few inventive but quick action scenes. But if you're an Aussie buy it because these guys deserve to get their due.

I saw the film last night. And i honestly don't think it was that bad. Obviously, the film had a few weaknesses and some of the dialog is a little embarrassing, but the majority of the acting was executed fairly well. The effects were great (remember, kiddies... truck-all budget.. a lot of crew working for free). I think an audience needs to cull out all their ideas of fantastic four and other insanely budgeted Hollywood trash films and go in with an open mind when approaching this film. I honestly found it enjoyable. Even the bad bits. um... just a quick note to the fool who said death proof sucked - You really need to lower your ridiculous standards if u thought that film was rubbish.

There's been quite a few good films coming out of Australia in recent years, but this is sadly not one of them. I found about GABRIEL by looking at the filmography for the director Shane Abbess, after watching the trailer for his new film INFINI. Since INFINI looked pretty good (from the trailer, at least; it could end up being disappointing), I thought I should give this one a look see. Who knows? Maybe it could be decent? This movie fails on just about every level that matters. What it does get right, or at least makes it a little interesting, is extensive mythology it covers and a cool visual style. Unfortunately, those elements aren't terribly original and have been given better treatment in other films, like PRIEST (which still wasn't good), BLADE RUNNER and DARK CITY. The plot is kind of difficult to sum up, but I'll go ahead and try. Basically, Purgatory is the place where souls go after people die but haven't been judged yet (like in Catholicism). But in the film, there is a battle waged between Light and Dark that takes place in this realm, and currently Dark is winning. There's some rather complicated backstory at the beginning along with some narration, but I'd forgotten most of it in 15-20 minutes. That's how little I cared about what happened on screen. The worst part about it was how depressingly dull it was. Granted, this is a low-budget film, so I'm not ragging on it for that, but the color palette was too boring. The acting also wasn't great either. Although there was occasionally some moments where it felt emotionally honest/real, most of the time all of the actors talked in this ponderous manner that really didn't work at all. I suppose I should give credit where it's due, so for what it's worth the special effects weren't too bad for a low-budget film. Even the fight choreography and camera-work were pretty decent, although there were far too many closeups (again, probably to hide the budget). Despite the fact that they cribbed the visual aesthetic from a dozen other, better movies, this film doesn't completely discourage me from potentially seeing Shane Abbess' next film. GABRIEL is occasionally inventive, has more plot than it knows what to do with, but ultimately was just too boring to recommend.

I enjoyed this movie. If you have any interest in film making, I would rate it higher than 7 out of 10. It's worth while seeing what can be made for $150,000 Aussie dollars.

The movie may have some flaws, and I think the biggest one was budget. I would have loved to see this movie remade with a better budget. My biggest problem though was the quality of the film on the big screen. Considering it was filmed with a JVC HD101 camera, it's understandable that the film's not going to be as crisp as what people are used to. I hope someone gives the people who made this a chance at another film with a decent budget. At the very least give them a new camera to shoot with.

Acting was not one of the flaws in this film. I have seen many a bad movie with dodgy acting and this was no where near as bad as I was led to believe from people's comments.

Plot wise, it's an interesting tale. Understanding the concept of Purgatory goes along to help people get a grasp of what's going on. I can't believe how people claim this movie has no plot. I found this movie to be more a thinker with some action rather than a straight action film. Their is action in this film, but it is depicted a lot more realistically than most people probably would have liked.

At the end of the day, this is not the horrible movie that the first reviewer is making it out to be. It has plot, solid acting and the sound was fine. The quality of the picture though is probably the hardest thing to forgive. I think it's sad that a lot of people will read the first person's review and not see this film based on someones ability to write 10 lines of text. 10 lines being the magic minimum before they allow people to submit a review.

If you really think this film was awful go and watch "Ultraviolet" and you will truly understand what kind of films deserve to be given 1/10.

First of, don't expect a blockbuster like UNDERWORLD. This movie was shot with a budget of Au$ 200,000, that's Australian, by a guy who never wrote or made a movie before. Consider all these when you watch the movie and you might forgive its short comings.

Sure a lot of idiots complain that there are better movies with lower budget, yes, well ask how many of them are effects driven action movies with such a large scope like GABRIEL. Clerks !?... um no.

Frankly, Gabriel is a the indie action film. These being said, the movie moves at a pretty typical style and pace until the ending when it really pays off. The fights are quite cleverly choreographed and the editing is pretty tight. Its the dialogs that needed improvement and the story needed to explain itself a more. Half the time you'll be left wondering the rules of the world.

In the end, watch it for yourself and discover. As an independent effects driven action film with a style of SIN CITY, it is definitely the 1st.

B grade acting, slow moving, seen it all before genre/storyline/effects/bad guys/good guy/good guy gets girl/good guy saves the day.

Something I probably would have enjoyed when I was 12. That's what you get when you let friends, who still haven't quite matured with their movie tastes, choose movies for you.

The movie tries hard but it fails miserably on all levels. The bad guys (these are the ones who frown continually so you know they are baddies) predictably get wasted one by one by the good guy( he's the one that frowns really hard at the end so you know he is very angry but in the interim has bouts of compassion, tenderness and not so angry frowning). I am filling in here to get the necessary 10 lines for the review.

Well, after reading some of the reviews here, I was expecting this movie to be awful. I wanted to watch it as the storyline sounded intriguing. From the moment I starting watching this movie, I wanted to hate it. Most of the time, films with these kind of story lines, always seem to mess up, and was expecting the same here. But, it wasn't the case. The time seemed to fly by, usually a good sign when watching a movie. Now yes, if you 're the "critic" type, or work for the Oscars, you might have lots of negative things to say about this film, but then again that would be the case with any movie. It doesn't have the Hollywood glare, nor did it have the budget, but if you're not so concerned about the "aesthetics", you will enjoy this movie. If you enjoyed the movie Constantine, you will enjoy this.

The desolation and deception of the Archangels, the struggle they've been through was a beautiful idea to construct upon in a very solid way. Unfortunately they pushed too far into a haze of nonsense that destroyed the characters aura. Michael is nothing less than a grotesque villain, Uriel is a pathetic drunk and Amitiel prostitutes as Jade whore. It could have been so much better than that. Even at the end when they could make some difference and save the day the mighty Gabriel childishly slides between love and hatred and leaves us with a very big question mark: what was it all about ? The characters missed consistency and purpose, as the whole movie did and I just felt that I have lost my time watching this. Although the directing was randomly OK, the script was weak and disappointing. As a rule of thumb, when you try to direct your own script there is a huge chance of losing touch with reality, so you people take care in the future because you can do so much better than this.

I had my doubts about this film when I first saw the trailer - to me it looked like a ripoff of the Nightwatch premise. However, when I saw it I learned that the story itself was very different. Oh sure, it has a Jesus-like story arc much like the Matrix and a good vs bad that pretty much every fantasy film has.

What I liked about this one was that the story didn't follow the usual formulaic storyline that you can almost time down to the minute. At first I wasn't sure where the story was headed, but as it unfolded I became drawn into it. I enjoyed the story, and it's exploration of the concept of freedom. I found it to be a story of great substance, and bears watching a second time in order to fully appreciate it, much like films such as Donnie Darko.

I liked that the cast was filled with people I didn't know, it gave it a freshness and allowed one to view it without the context of the actors cluttering the story. I liked the gritty visuals and sound - it pulled this off without the need to provide motion-sick tablets with your ticket, unlike movies like the Bourne Ultimatum which took wobbly camera shots a bit too far. It is a look typical of many Australian films, such as Wolf Creek, but the comic-book look of the film gives it a sense of fantasy which suits the story perfectly.

One thing I particularly liked was the way the fight scenes were realised - a fresh approach to supernatural battles which, I think, works well.

I found the effects a little over-done at times, and some of the visuals could have used a bit more polish, but considering the film's budget (or lack thereof), I think it's very impressive.

Sure, it's no Hollywood blockbuster, but that's kind of the point.

I went and saw this movie primarily because this one of very few Australian movies that is trying to be mainstream instead of art house, and I think that effort deserves to be rewarded. There is nothing really new and different here. This film borrows very heavily from others in the genre, most notably "The Crow", with occasional nods to "The Matrix" and even "Ëquilibrium". However having said that the film looks great (especially considering the very low budget), the action is okay, and the acting is competent. So no one is going to win an Oscar here. So what. Its an entertaining way to pass a couple of hours. Don't expect great feats and you won't be disappointed.

It's an interesting concept but I felt the execution of it was a bit lacking, for me it doesn't even fall into the category of guilty pleasure kind of bad.

The film felt like it was trying too hard to be cool with it's stylization and it came off very, very poorly.

It drowned in the stiff and unnatural dialogue and the intrusive musical score was more irritating than rousing. It suffered from poor characterizations (felt no pathos for them whatsoever but that might partly be due to the bad acting) and bad movie clichés (ho drum romance and faintly ridiculous poses).

IMHO, the epileptic lighting and ADD editing seriously detracted from the story. A for the love of god, someone should have stopped the person who went nuts with post production effects. What was with that weird airbrushing thing? Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

Too bad it was such a disappointment, I really liked the trailer for it.

I was quite afraid of quality of the movie before watching it. But, it is definitely not another B class horror/Gothic/cheesy movie.It has a decent story, interesting characters, just enough tweaks to keep everything in place. I should also add the action scenes are quite well done; couple of them are quite remarkable, and no overkill.

You'll find some resemblances with Dark City, Donnie Darko and Blade Runner.

Yes, the scenario is about the history old war between pure good and total bad. But, that war would never loose its popularity and this movie is a good addition to the list.

I am so disappointed I really had great expectation about this movie, however it was nothing new, even interesting. I watched it till the end but I must admit it was hard. Most of the actors I see for the first time and as far as I checked for some of the leading actors this was also the very first or the second movie (no hard feelings here).

Basically the idea is good I liked it but the performance suffered serious lack of acting skills. It is also obvious that the budget wasn't much either.

I am rating it so low because I really don't see anything that deserves more. Once again if the actors were better and more experienced probably the movie wouldn't be such a disappointment for me.

This film is terrible. It runs the gamut of bad movie ideas done bad.

The premise is that in Purgatory, a city that is envisioned as a rundown dilapidated city where every occupant is homeless or destitute in some way, a battle is being fought between 7 Angels and 7 Fallen of which the fate of the universe lies.

Sammael, one of the fallen, has found a way of harnessing the powers of those he has bested among the Angels, and all but one is left, Gabriel, who is obstinate and eager to take on these bastions of evil.

The premise isn't new, and a Gothic metropolis being a battle ground of individuals who look like extras in a Nine Inch Nails video may be tempting as a concept to some, its execution is agonizingly bad.

The pacing of the film is lax to begin with, and never does the film step up from it's first gear of painfully drawn out and wooden-eared dialogue, and even when action takes place, it is painfully short and garish rather than stylised. A particular action sequence with machine gun fire in a strobing effect should come with a surgeon-general's warning because those with epileptic tendencies might fit from the visuals.

The characters are stereotypical and flat and from the number of people leaving the movie halfway, it should not be under-emphasized why you should not pay to have such celluloid agony imposed on your poor selves.

This review aims to warn those unsuspecting but those with a penchant for very bad film may take a liking to it out of morbid curiosity.

Lowest score possible.

Aussie self-consciousness, whether it figures in support of this film or against it, ain't relevant. Gabriel is a great existential-goth-action piece about archangels and their nemeses warring in human form and grappling with their newfound human frailties. For budgetary reasons the film favours the goth and the existential elements over the action one, and it's definitely all the better for it, because what it ultimately develops which is sorely lacking from a lot of films whose stylings it's adopted (the Underworlds, the Crows, etc.) is a ton of genuine involvement. The unknown actors give universally fine performances, and in the case of bad guy Sammael (Dwaine Stevenson) a deeply charismatic and disturbing one.

I was a bit worried by the wordlessness and flat grey look of the earliest scenes, but as soon as we hit the first dialogue two-hander, I got pulled into the characters' situation. Also, the film never looks as grey again as it does right at the start, even if the digital video footage doesn't give much depth of field in this dark world.

The fights are spaced out, but they're very cool. The choreography is of The Matrix almost ESP-martial arts kind, yet filmed in nice clear wide shots with minimal editing (or editing that's well-disguised by passing obstacles) so you can see what's going on. Sometimes it's guns, sometimes hand-to-hand, sometimes both, with bullet time, slow-mo, folks zipping around bullets, all the nifty stuff that's been developed in this genre. There's also an exciting shootout in strobing darkness that reminded me of Equilibrium's gun cabal scenes.

The film Gabriel reminds me of most strongly, however, isn't something super recent. It's Blade Runner. In that film, replicant robots unsure of their identity and nascent emotions variously went into hiding, went insane or fought for their survival in a world that wasn't really theirs when push came to shove. Replace 'robots' with 'angels' and you've got the basic premise of Gabriel. The angels are sent to purgatory to get in amongst the humans and steer them in the right direction, or in the case of bad guys The Fallen, keep them corrupt. But to adopt the mortal form is to become vulnerable to human weakness, and that's what Gabriel has to struggle with as he tries to rally his angel pals who've failed before him for one last battle.

Freakin' good film!

This is like the 80's B movie bastard child of the Crow and the Matrix without any of the good bits. It's so bad that it past where bad becomes funny and it just bad. Coloured contact lenses aren't really all that exciting any more, especially when the guy wearing the white ones can't get them to stay in the middle of his eyes, making him look like he trying to see in two directions at once. To go on about the major plot flaws, a plot twist you see coming a mile off, characters so clichéd as to be almost offensive and all the other aspects of the film that make this film so unwatchable would be to miss a perfect opportunity to go on about the painful accents that most of the cast put on, where there seems a real attempt to sound legitimately American, but it's like watching someone try to lick their elbow. You can ignore it for a while but in the end you wish they'd just stop what's obviously futile. Especially when they shout. Then it just sounds like Crocodile Dundee just burned himself on his crack pipe, but less funny. That's not to say there was nothing good. at least 25 seconds of the action was fun to watch and in fairness the leading man was commendable. But the most telling thing I can say about Gabriel is that when the guy behind me answered his phone half way through, I found the distraction a welcome piece of entertainment.

Firstly, I was actually surprised that this film was Australian considering the virtually unknown cast bar one recognisable name.

The film itself is spectacular to watch in terms of effects and visuals that could stand up to any Hollywood blockbuster, and on only needs to compare that budget aspect of this film to Night Watch to know that it stands some chance at success overseas.

Just seeing the trailer, one assumes a film in the manner of The Matrix meets Underworld. However, even though you may get a glimpse of this, you are more likely to relate the film closer to The Crow than anything else.

The major thing that will probably hurt the film internationally is the strong Australian accent from Samantha Noble (Jade)