End of Days

Day #159 + 160 - 6/8+6/9/09 - Movie #159

BEFORE: Monday night trivia resumed, so I lost another day and I'm behind on the count again. But I'm at the end of my apocalyptic movie chain, so that's something. It's the end of the "End of the World as We Know It" films and I feel...well, tired actually.

THE PLOT: At the end of the century, Satan visits New York in search of a bride. It's up to an ex-cop who now runs an elite security outfit to stop him.

AFTER: Schwarzenegger faces off against Gabriel Byrne as the Devil, with Kevin Pollak serving as comic relief. A movie about Satan taking over the world on Dec. 31, 1999 seems sort of quaint ten years later... It's hard to tell the good guys from the bad guys in this one, especially when some of the priests are willing to kill in order to prevent the AntiChrist from being born. Also confusing: if Satan's already walking around the Earth and very powerful, what does he need to conceive a child for? The devil's intended mate is a woman named Christine York, which is supposed to somehow mean "Christ in New York" - but shouldn't that be "Devil in New York"? Or "AntiChrist in New York"? Mixed signals, guys...

Ah-nold takes a licking and keeps on ticking in this one, he gets pretty beat up and even almost crucified (Schwarzenegger as Jesus, dat's a good vun...) as he battles Satan, who's more resilient than a Terminator-1000 robot. There's a slow learning curve as he figures out that you can't defeat the devil with bullets and explosions, so a lot of property gets destroyed before he figures out another way to do it.

It's campy and noisy, but action-packed, and I rather enjoyed it. It's sort of like "The Da Vinci Code" meets "Eraser".

RATING: 7 out of 10 stigmata

I suppose logically I should watch "Rosemary's Baby" or "The Omen" remake next, but I'm saving those for Halloween. I've got another plan in mind...