End of days

Language : English / Italian

Year of release : 1999

Run time : 2h2m

Genre : Supernatural Horror / Action

Cast : Arnold Schwarzenegger, Robin Tunney, Gabriel Byrne

The movie opens in 1979, when Christine is born, and the priests from Vatican see the Eye of God in the sky, a sign which signals the arrival of the end of days. The satanists working at the hospital she was born at take her in the basement where they perform a ritual on her.

20 years later, detective Jericho is contemplating su1cide, as his wife and daughter were k1lled as payback for his testimony.

Pipelines under the city explode, and an unseen entity is released, roaming the streets. It finds a banker it possesses, and when he leaves the restaurant he was in, the place explodes.

Jericho and his best friend are on a mission to protect a banker, and we see it's the one from the restaurant. Jericho runs after a man who tried to k1ll him, and discovers he was a priest! He thinks the man talked to him, but finds out he doesn't have a tongue!

Christine lived her whole life having visions of this man (the banker) who "takes" her. The people around her, the satanists who performed the ritual on her, tell her these are just dreams, they don't mean anything, and medicate her. Sometimes her visions happen while she's awake and have nothing to do with the banker.

 

Looking through the priest's place, somewhere in the underground, Jericho finds the sentence "Christ in New York" with a picture, and he starts thinking maybe it means Christine York, and he finds Christine, right when a few priests were trying to k1ll her, so she won't be birthing the antichrist.

Jericho takes her to a church and leaves her there, but she's not safe, as more priests come to k1ll her,so she won't usher in the end of days.

This was one of my favorite movies 20 years ago, and I still liked it now when I watched it. I liked how it was directed, I liked the colors, the places chosen to film at, like Christine's place which was so beautiful, I can't believe they ruined those beautiful items!

One thing that bothered me was the fact that Satan is portrayed as stupid, and pure evil, as he doesn't reward or even like those working for him and worshiping him, as he discards them way too easily.

Another thing is, if he is Satan, why does he need to be protected? Couldn't he work on the down low, moving around smoothly and stealthy? We are shown later, he can't be k1lled that easily, so one bullet in the h3ad wouldn't have k1lled him! It makes no sense!

He is asking his followers to bring Christine to him, but he could have just as easily gone to her!

The actors were good. I think the best was Robin Tunney as she had to cry a lot. I don't know why Gabriel Byrne plays this character anyone could have played, because he doesn't talk much, and doesn't have much screen time.

The soundtrack was good. It was composed by John Debney who also wrote the soundtrack for "The passion of the Christ".

The visual effects stand the test of time.

The movie received negative reviews, but Cinema Score audiences graded it a B-!

It was nominated for 3 Razzie awards, for Worst Director, Worst Supporting Actor for Gabriel Byrne, and Worst Actor for Arnold!

The movie grossed 212 million dollars at the box office, against a budget of about a 100 million.

Before Peter Hyams was hired to direct the movie, Sam Raimi and Guillermo del Toro were approached. Tom Cruise was offered the role of Jericho, but he turned it down to play in Magnolia. Liv Tyler was the first choice to play Christine, then Kate Winslet was hired, but she dropped out.

Rating : Worth a watch !