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End of Days

End of Days

List Price: $14.98
Your Price: $11.98
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not His Best
Review: While Arnold plays the heck out of the role he was paid to play as always, I think this movie lacked a good storyline. It was okay but nothing original. There were so many movies made last year about the end of the millennium that it kind of played out. I think they could have selected a better actress to play the female lead. The ending was kind of stupid but if you want to see an Arnold action movie, this is one of them but definitely not his best.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Pretty bad!
Review: The problem with "End of Days" was the Catholic Church getting in the way of a religous masterpiece.

Major problems just get in the way:

Cons: 1. Lead actresses incapability of acting. 2. Catholic churches protest hinders the ending (which was the biggest dissapointment).

Pros: 1. Graphics.

Make a wise decision. If you are looking for excellent graphics, you just might like this movie. Otherwise, it was a flop!!!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: interesting story
Review: It's pretty good and i like how they explain the world doesn't come to an end for something stupid like it's 2000. You should see it.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: End Of Days Review
Review: He has battled nuclear terrorists on Earth and power mad conspirators on Mars. He has taken on alien predators in the darkest reaches of the jungle and morphing cyberkillers that seemingly nothing can stop. So, after all those fights, what's left for Arnold Schwarzenegger? How about Satan? Now that all of the universe's lesser evils have been dispatched with lots of powerful explosions and a few grunts of dialogue, it's time for Arnold to move on to Mephistopheles, who, as luck would have it, is taking a few days off in New York City (so he can get laid).

End of Days is the latest Armageddon story to steal a few of its themes from the Biblical Book of Revelation. It also represents one of the flurry of millennium-ending movies popping up in theaters all across the world. The previews make End of Days seem a little on the dumb side. In that, they are misleading - the movie isn't a little dumb, in fact it's a lot dumb. This is easily the dopiest apocalypse script to make it to the screen in a long time, but this time, Schwarzenegger is attempting to play a character with a little more background and depth than the comic book action heroes he usually portrays. And, although the former bodybuilder has more personality than Steven Seagal, Jean Claude Van Damme, and Christopher Lambert rolled together, he's still not an impressive thespian, and he clearly lacks the range necessary to make his End of Days character into a believable, tragic figure. He gives it the old college try, though, and at least manages to look the part - unshaven, unwashed, and unkempt.

Jericho Cane (now there's a Biblical name) is a former NYPD cop turned Striker Security guard. He left the police force after his wife and daughter were brutally murdered, and now he endures things one day at a time, taking life-threatening risks with the vague hope that some accident will allow him to join his family. Then, on December 28, 1999, an event happens to alter Jericho's destiny: Satan arrives on Earth and takes over a body that looks surprisingly like Gabriel Byrne. He's here for one reason - to impregnate a woman. For some reason that is never made clear, this has to happen between 11 pm and midnight on New Year's Eve. If it does, the world will be plunged into endless darkness. The girl, named Christine York (Robin Tunney), has been marked from birth as the Devil's bride, and now only Jericho's intervention can save her from a fate that is literally worse than death.

From a theologial standpoint, End of Days is laughable. Most movies don't get the little things right when it comes to religion, but this film stumbles when it comes to the bigger issues. Quite a few of the things Satan does (like walking into a church) go against commonly held doctrine, and the script has to go through a lot of contortions to explain why December 31, 1999 is so important. In order to do this, the Number of the Beast is changed from "666" to "999" (the explanation: when Saint John, who wrote Revelation, had this vision, he dreamed the number upside down and backwards), and, for some reason, a "1" is added in front to make "1999" (this must be the latest version of "new math"). Not following this? IT DOESN'T MATTER! Trying to make sense of End of Days is a futile endeavor. The intent is to watch all the well-executed explosions, see Schwarzenegger participate in several Bond-like action sequences, gaze at a few choice shots of gratuitous nudity, and stare at director/cinematographer Peter Hyams' stylish photography.

The bottom line is that Schwarzenegger fans will probably be pleased, action lovers won't be bored, and the Catholic League will be angry. Everyone else will see End of Days for what it is: a (deliciously) bad motion picture.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Arni at his best !
Review: Just wana say it's a great movie,lots of action, and the satanic background-story sure makes up for the one or two weaknesses in the plot ! GO GET IT !

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Look Who's Coming to Dinner!
Review: An Alcoholic ex-cop working through his own personal hell. A doom-fated girl in the clutches of evil. Little do they know that Hell itself is just hours away from becoming reality for everyone. Every millennium, Satan gets a chance to take a bride and turn the tide in his eternal conflict with Heaven. Gabriel Byrne is the Prince of Darkness going toe to toe with The Last Action Hero. But in the end, can bullets and bombs really defeat evil? A must see in Letterboxed format to fully experience the special

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Evil Losing Momentum
Review: Like so many apocalyptic movies spawned by the demonseed *Omen* in the early seventies, the plot of this poorly written film is discernable once those ubiquitous "occult" symbols appear in the opening sequence. The movie begins promising enough (and I cannot fail to mention that the opening menu sequence on the DVD is quite impressive), but quickly delves into tried territory once we are introduced to an alcoholic Jerico (Arnold has difficulty playing a suicidal drunk -- you don't get buff on booze, that's for sure) with a gun to his head. Having established the character of the lead in what seems like three mintues, action is introduced in a very "incidental" way (helicopter chase)--as if to force the movie into the "action genre." Even with the brain turned off to enjoy the "fun," bad acting and predictable scenarios (of course Satan's chosen bride is weak, young, and needing) makes this action movie fan sleepy. Essentially, the film attempts to appeal to our own sense of "evil" as it is related to various insignia and iconography by simply stringing these items together with little narrative depth (e.g., we're shown shots of Satanic symbols scrawled on walls, tongue-less priests ramble on in mumbo-jumbo before crucified on ceilings, etc.). THe problem is that we're so saturated and familiar with this sort of stuff these days that the ominous connotations don't seem to work as well any more (witness Polanski's *Ninth Gate*--the film suffers similarly). Because this film doesn't develop any sense suspense or attempt to deepen the apocalyptic narrative, it looks like a collection of urban explosions with a weak "occult" narrative layered on top. Hence, this movie is pretty bad by most standards. Even action movies lead you up (tease you) to the explosions. I like things-blowing-up, but I also like there to be reasons. If you are content with things-blowing-up just because it's cool, you may like this. If you demand a bit more plot/story . . . don't buy this. Rent it.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Awesome sound
Review: I prefer the DVD format over VHS purely for the increased experience of the sound. End Of Days has amazing sound which draws you even deeper into the story. Only once you reach the end of the movie do you realise that in fact you were watching a movie, and not actually living in it. The story itself is very good as well. It keeps you constantly guessing the outcome.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: lame big budget spectacular
Review: It usually takes a few decades, or at the very least, a fewyears for a film to become dated. "End of Days," ArnoldSchwarzenegger's latest action film spectacular, achieves that distinction in a mere few months - truly a record-setting time. Released in November, 1999, the film, dealing with the apocalyptic events surrounding the dawning of the 3rd millennium, already seems hopelessly foolish just a few months into 2000. Not that it played much better in the last century. For, in any and all eras, this film is a washout.

Apparently, having run out of villains for the indomitable Schwarzenegger to go up against, the filmmakers simply went straight to the top - or bottom - and found none other than Satan himself waiting in the wings. This screwy, laughable tale of the devil and his minions wreaking havoc in pre-New Year's Eve Manhattan runs through all the cliches we have come to expect from all the films (from "The Omen" movies on down)that have attempted to turn the biblical account of the final days into dubious horror movie entertainment.

Not directly inspired by the Book of Revelations, the story puts forth the notion that, at the turn of every millennium, Satan has one opportunity to mate with the preordained woman of his choice in order to overthrow God and destroy the world. Schwarzenegger, as a former cop driven to alcoholism and suicidal despair by the murders of his wife and daughter, somehow becomes the sole protector of the innocent woman whose fate has become so inextricably entwined with that of the whole human race.

The villain of the film - in this case Satan himself - lacks even a modicum of consistency in terms of his supernatural attributes. He can bend time, eliminate anyone he chooses at will and in the most unlikely fashion; he can raise people from the dead, yet he is unable to locate the whereabouts of this one defenseless, unenlightened young woman. Time after time she manages to slip through his fingers as he bumbles his way through the subway tunnels and dark city streets of a drizzly Manhattan.

By combining two genres, the film simply doubles up its cliches. Thus, in addition to all the action film paraphenalia one expects from such a film - countless explosions, runaway subway cars, improbable helicopter stunts, gruesome deaths and, even the oldest cliche of all, a cat jumping out to startle a gullible and easily fooled audience - we are subjected to the usual array of black masses, psychotic, self-mutilating priests, debased religious imagery and, of course, warring factions of Catholic hierarchy who huddle in the dark recesses of the Vatican and debate the morality of killing the innocent girl chosen to be Satan's bride - all elements invariably associated with stories of this kind.

In the sunset of his career as an action hero, who would deny Schwarzenegger his little bit of self-indulgent self-aggrandizement? But, really, turning him into a Christ figure does seem a trifle much to swallow even for his most devoted fans. As to his "acting," the less, as usual, said about that the better. But, after his recent appearance in the similarly themed but equally awful "Stigmata," perhaps Gabriel Byrne (who plays the part of Satan) should start seeking out his own absolution - or, at the very least, some better movie roles.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Pitiful.
Review: This movie was just that, pitiful. With Arnold and Gabriel Byrne, and an obviously large budget, this movie should have rocked. The acting was embarrassing. Arnold can defeat the devil? Rent this movie before you buy it.


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