‘City of Angels’ stale

“CITY OF ANGELS,” directed by Brad Silberling, written by Dana Stevens. Running time: 116 minutes. Rated PG-13 (for language and brief nudity).

The angels in “City of Angels” are a handsome, physically fit tribe of supermodels sporting not wings or halos but black Armani suits, perfect crowns of coiffed hair, bright-white teeth that shine as though freshly capped.

Whether perched on billboards or on overpasses, moving through hospital waiting rooms or standing motionless on sunny beaches, they look less like angels than they do a bunch of Hollywood talent agents seeking out new souls for God. At any given moment, you half expect them to start shouting into cell phones: “I can get you a one-year option on five souls against 10 percent — gross. Satan’s offering 25 net, but he’s got that heat thing and no silver lining. Call me.”

Adapted from Wim Wenders’ 1987 award-winning German film, “Wings of Desire,” “City of Angels” fails to capture the haunting, lyrical essence of that film because it uses a cheap, by-the-book formula that has been exhausted in its overuse. There is nothing new here, nothing fresh or exciting; the training wheels of this genre rattled off long ago and should have been buried. If you come to it hoping to see another “Ghost,” you almost certainly will leave disappointed.

“City of Angels” follows Seth (Nicholas Cage), a dim-witted angel who falls in love with Maggie (Meg Ryan), a plucky heart surgeon currently in crisis. Maggie has recently lost a patient who died on her operating table. Doubting her skills as a surgeon, she is comforted by Seth, who loves Maggie so much he makes the dramatic decision to leave his angel life and become fully human, which he somehow accomplishes by leaping off a skyscraper and falling head-first into concrete.

All of this sounds ridiculous because it is ridiculous. The problem with “City of Angels” isn’t only its script or the complete lack of chemistry between Ryan and Cage, but that the film’s success depends entirely on our suspension of disbelief, which only the most earnest of individuals will be able to do. Ryan is likable as Maggie, but you feel that she’s given this performance before, say in “Sleepless in Seattle.” As for Cage, who now is commanding $20 million per film, his acting continues to thin even as his hairline continues to mysteriously thicken. It’s as if the sudden infusion of cash into his bank account has robbed him of the talent he once possessed in “Moonstruck” or “Leaving Las Vegas.” He needs to either take his acting seriously or take his money and go away.

Still, “Angels” isn’t a complete loss — there is its excellent soundtrack to consider, which features songs by Paula Cole, Sarah McLachlan, Peter Gabriel, Eric Clapton, U2 and Jimi Hendrix, all of which make for a stirring mix. The collection’s standout, however, belongs to Alanis Morissette, whose new song, “Uninvited,” is haunting in ways “City of Angels” could only dream of being. Film: D; Sountrack: B+

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“RED CORNER,” directed by Jon Avnet, written by Robert King. Running time: 119 minutes. Rated R (for violence, language and adult content).

Considering Richard Gere’s fervent off-camera protests against China’s stranglehold on Tibet, it comes as no surprise that he would eventually rage against China on film, which would be fine and good if only his considerable passion would shine through.

Oddly, it doesn’t. “Red Corner” is a great big long-winded piece of mediocre filmmaking whose one strong performance comes not from a spayed-and-neutered Gere, but from his co-star, Bai Ling, who spanks this film to life with an enthusiastic hand that eventually grows tired and sore.

In the film, Gere plays Jack Moore, a cunning corporate lawyer for a telecommunications giant who wants to link China with the Western world via satellite broadcasting. With the deal confirmed, Moore celebrates by bedding a local model, who is found next morning lying not in Moore’s arms put in a pool of her own blood. Is Moore the murderer? Chinese officials think so and quickly throw Moore in jail, which is just one nonsurprise in a flim filled with obvious contrivances.

The long train of boredom that is “Red Corner” does have its moments of tension, particularly with Ling, who play’s Moore’s attorney, but those moments are too often patchy, lifeless, not quite sterile, mind you, but also not quite as virile as one would expect from a film that bills itself as a thriller. Grade C-

Christopher Smith, a writer and critic who lives in Brewer, reviews films each Monday in the NEWS.