Rating: Summary: Good to see Arnold back, but Review: this is not a great movie. I'm glad Arnold is back working but End of Days could have been much better. Its worth watching but not worth DVD prices.
Rating: Summary: A reasonable way to spend an evening! Review: I watched this movie the other night, when for once the sun was shining in England, and I needed to get out of the summer sun! I think perhaps I should have watched it on a foggy November eve to create the full horror movie event, but still enjoyed this movie. This will never find its way into my top 10 list, but I thought there were enough original concepts to keep my interested. I thought it was well written, and didn't go down the cul-de-sac that many movies of the genre amble down, of relying too heavily on special effects. Byrne delivers a solid performance, as does Arnold, (NO attempt on the surname you notice!) who proves there is more to his reportoire than 'I'll be back', which I had long suspected. A reasonable movie, but certainly not in danger of any Oscars
Rating: Summary: Nice sound, decent picture.... plot? Review: This DVD can be summed up very easily: if you are looking for a movie that will drive your sub deep into its frequency range with multiple pointless explosions and singe your surround speakers with a vast array of noises coupked with an above average transfer and some interesting special features, then by all means buy this disk for your library. If however you are looking for another T2 or True Lies, you had best skip the disk. Everyone has already commented ont he plot line, so I will leave it alone. Buy this for the quality of effects, not for the storyline.
Rating: Summary: Boring as can be Review: I hated this movie I only gave it three stars because I thought it did have good action scences but other wise the story is boring the plot is basically a fluc. If you want a movie with decent action scence then pic this movie if you want a good entertaning scary movie with a good action adventure dont pick this movie.
Rating: Summary: Ooops, I was wrong again. Review: I purchased this movie on DVD as soon as it came out and watched it last night with great pleasure. Got up this morning to write a quick review since I really enjoyed it. I was surprised with the number of negative reviews from the movie critics and the amazon.com reviewers. May not be the best Arnold movie ever, nor qualify for an Oscar, but it is still very entertaining and a good pass time. It was also nice to see Arnold back in action, and he looked good in this movie with his scruffy face. The DVD has very clear picture and great sound. It contains a lot extras, and gives you an insight on how the special effects were created, especially the train crash in the subway. It was worht my money. Try it with an open mind, you may actually like it.
Rating: Summary: End of Days Review: It is entertainment why do people have to be so critical? Not every movie is the best ever filmed, some things need to be taken at face value. A great way to spend a couple of hours.A fun movie with a very good ending. I enjoyed it.
Rating: Summary: Expertly crafted action powerhouse Review: This powerhouse is an expertly crafted supernatural action flick. It is the story of Satan's attempt to rise and destroy the world as we know it by mating with a woman and producing an offspring. We see the birth of the chosen baby girl as the pope and cardinals, who have read the signs, plan to find her and protect her from Satan. The film jumps to the present and we are introduced to Jericho Cane (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and an adult Christine York (Robin Tunney), Satan's intended. The devil takes control of an investment banker's body (Gabriel Byrne) and with the aid of his sycophantic followers proceeds to stalk Christine for the mating ritual. Meanwhile Jericho finds Christine and assigns himself as her protector. The rest of the film is one big chase scene, as Jericho and Christine run from Satan as well as the clerics who want to kill her to prevent the union. The story is pretty flimsy. It is really nothing more than a vehicle for Arnold to strap on some firepower and wreak mayhem in his return to the action genre. In the featurette included on the DVD, writer Andrew Marlowe states flat out that he wrote this script specifically for Arnold. But WOW, as vehicles go, this was a supercharged nitro burning dragster of a movie. Peter Hyams puts together some of the best action footage I can remember. Overall, his photography was fantastically potent. The technique, camera angles, lighting and use of filters to create various effects were all terrific. But more importantly, his pace was excellent. This film never lets up. There are rest stops from the action, but no real lulls. The visual effects in this movie were outstanding. There were pyrotechnics, digitally created creatures, and exploding models that were so realistic that I didn't pick up they were models until I checked out the bonus features on the DVD (The bonus pack was great. It included a fascinating section on how all the visual effects were produced). The sound design was also excellent (though a bit overly loud at times) and made full use of all five speakers. Schwarzenegger returns to top form as undisputed king of the action genre. There was much speculation that, after his heart surgery, if he acted at all it he would be relegated to nothing more strenuous than roles like 'Kindergarten Cop'. This film completely removes all doubt. Arnold is pumped back up and takes on his biggest challenge yet, in a physically demanding role fighting a foe that can't be killed. That doesn't mean he doesn't try, pouring out projectiles like a fountainhead of fire. This part was written in a way that made Arnold's character a lot more human; actually fighting off despair. He handled this nuance extremely well. This is probably Robin Tunney's biggest part in a feature film and she does a nice job. Her character didn't have a lot of range; just look scared, upset and helpless and make Arnold look strong. She did this well, helped considerably by how petite she is compared to Arnold. I thought Gabriel Byrne took the wrong approach to his character. He is a terrific actor, but he played this role a bit too flippantly, like a sardonic wise guy rather than the evil prince of darkness. Also, his New York accent was an awful attempt to hide his charming Irish brogue. Viewers should use discretion before seeing this film. Anyone who is put off by gratuitous graphic violence, gore, nudity, profanity and sexual situations should avoid this film. But this film is a must see for action fans and especially for Arnold fans. I rated it an 8/10 in spite of a weak story.
Rating: Summary: Priest turned Devil Review: I was really shocked to see the man who was the priest in Stigmata play the devil in this movie. I think that these two movies actually compliment each other. I found Arnold to be good although I find it difficult to relate to him as a normal person...which he plays in this movie. The effects were good although there weren't many and the actor that played the devil did an excellent job..although I think Pacino in Devil's Advocate is still my favorite devil. I don't think this is the best movie ever made but I did think it was entertaining..I believe it is worth watching and if you liked Stigmata you should enjoy this although Stigmata was better.
Rating: Summary: Did They Read This First? Review: Let me start by saying I am a huge fan of Arnie and own most of his movies. Okay, Arnold is not the greatest actor to ever grace the screen, but he usually makes great, suspend-disbelief-and-they-are-entertaining movies. Gabriel Byrne is a great actor and usually appears in good movies. Kevin Pollack plays a side-kick as well as anyone and is good comic relief. Between the three of them, you would have hoped that one of them would have read this script and said, "Oh My God, this story is REALLY BAD!" The plot of this movie is predictable and so full of logical holes that it makes one wonder if anyone actually wrote it or if they just started filming a bunch of "cool" action and occult scenes and thought putting it all together would make a good movie. The Devil is alternately brilliant and stupid. Arnold somehow manages to outsmart the Prince of Darkness and the New York Police Department, despite being an alcoholic burn-out. And, after watching this movie I am still confused as to who Arnold and Kevin actually work for. As for the number of the beast being 999 instead of 666 and that being why Satan has to mate in 1999, I am still confused as to what happened in the year 999. Wouldn't that have been the end of the thousand years they kept babling about in this movie? Did the Devil run into an ancient version of Arnold and get his butt kicked then, too? And if so, why didn't he learn? In addition to the cast already mentioned, this movie also has other good actors who should have known better. Robin Tunney (great in "The Craft"), Rod Stieger ("On the Waterfront"), Anthony Fultz ("For Love of the Game") and CCH Pounder ("Face Off") are all wasted in this suprisingly bad movie. Don't get me wrong. I can suspend disbelief with the best of them, and I know movies are supposed to be entertainment and not reality. But, at some level, the movie must make sense and fill in the blanks. This movie seems to be just a vehicle for Arnold to kick Satan's ass. That is not a good enough reason to see this film. If you are a true Arnie fan, you will see this anyway, despite the flaws (I did). But, it is not up to his usual quality, and is best rented first, before bought. Caveat emptor.
Rating: Summary: End of Career Review: Schwarzenegger has pitted his beefy brawn and Teutonic accent against all manner of formidablity, from Aliens to kindergarteners to Danny DeVito. Now, with Bigfoot too passe, King Kong a chalk outline, and Godzilla a victim of Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin, it seems the only larger-than-life (and '90's chic) foe suited to be Ah-nuld's bicep fodder is that terminal baddy, Satan himself. The Dark One has seen incarnations at the hands of such accomplished actors as Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Walter Huston. Now Gabriel Byrne--hardly in the same league as those aforementioned Satans--gets in line to spout the "God as bad guy" rap. Apparently it was prophesied, according to the "End of Days" plot, that the Devil (Byrne) would rise after 2000 years (which logically we know would actually be the year 2001, since there was no year Zero) to consummate a union with "chosen one" Christina York (Robin Tunney), thereby in some inexplicable way bringing about the End of Days, better known as the Apocalypse. So Arnie, the cinematic uber-Hero of the last two decades, portraying alcoholic-with-a-past bodyguard Jericho Cane, decides to vanquish Satan, Old Scratch, the Almighty Evil, the Archfiend, with-- guns. By far, Cane is among the most ignorant characters devised for the role of hero. The utter stupidity he displays by hurling sass and mere bullets in the face of the powerful Prince of Darkness leads us to believe that if Cane truly is the last salvation of Good, then we'd all better prepare for doomsday. And littering the film with logical flaws and coherency defects--not to mention playing loose and slippery with Biblical prophecies--in no way helps to gild the overall putrescence of the film. Robin Tunney may be the worst actress I've seen in some time. Either that, or she's simply not very adept at pulling off some of the stiffest, hokiest dialogue handed in from a scriptwriter (but given the overarching awfulness exhibited by practically everyone, I'm willing to give her the benefit of doubt). And the dialogue IS bad. Along with just about every other aspect of the film. Hackneyed concepts, trite sub-plots, weak suspense, you name it. Granted, Arnold has never been Olivier (or even tried to be, thank goodness), but even for him "End Of Days" is a performance low. Half-heartedly aping his lines, he almost seems to realize what a stale component his part is. And while seeing his Mr. Olympia body tossed around by a powerful, towering alien in "Predator" is convincing, seeing the same thing happen to him at the hands of an overweight, middle-aged housewife is just, well, funny. Kevin Pollack, an otherwise talented performer, is horridly miscast as a stiff-lipped gun wielder, and even his wisecracking--which you'd think would suit him well--comes off as forced and pathetically phoney, making you long for him to pull his impression of William Shatner or Christopher Walken out of his arsenal. Byrne does his best at playing the Ultimate Heavy, and probably turns in the film's most redeeming performance--which unfortunately isn't saying much. The explosions, of course, are top notch (they'd better be, since it's a 1999 Schwarzenegger action film), but considering the "Lethal Weapon" franchise has exploited practically every permutation of over-the-top explosion effects, anymore they come off as "been there, done that." The sheer concept of "End of Days" may have worked well if it had materialized as Arnold satirizing his larger-than-life character image and scenarios (as attempted in the not-much-better "Last Action Hero"), but the seriousness of this film only results in an unwitting joke of a movie. Director Peter Hyams is responsible for one of my favorite not-so-plausible-but-emminently enjoyable films, "Capricorn One"--but he's tarnished his name with this overblown heap of explosion-laden glop. Bad. Very bad.
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