terrible... so disappointed.

Really Surprised!

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The story is preposterous but funny and the action is great. Plenty of stunts, fire, plosions, mayhem and chases. The devil's reproduction is quite a challenge with complex protocol for the poor animal and only once in a 1000 years.

Peter Hyams​ 's End Of Days is one of those loud, bombastic, stylized Schwarzenegger flicks that's meant to be pure unbridled entertainment. On that level it works amazingly, and nostalgically for me, it's one of my favourite Arnie films. It just has such a palpably evil atmosphere, and good old fashioned supernatural adventure to it that's awesome. Arnie plays Jericho Cane, an alcoholic, tormented private security expert with a sketchy past. When he and his partner (Kevin Pollak) are tasked with protecting a high profile VIP, an assassination attempt is made, and they start to unravel a dark,possible doomsday plot in the making. The man they are protecting (Gabriel Byrne) happens to be none other than Satan himself, hiding in human form, and trying to track down the one girl (Robin Tunny) that he must copulate with before midnight in order to bring about the end of days upon our world. Oh yeah. Byrne brings a gleeful, carefree, alpha male malice to the role, and is one of my favourite cinematic incarnations of the devil ever. Although it's a pretty implausible, fantasy action headbanger, it has a sense of purpose and duty to its own mythology, and takes it seriously, which helps a lot. Hyams also steps in for DP, and there's some truly awesome shots of New York, from dingy back alley chases to helicopter propelled vistas. Schwarzenegger is surprisingly poignant in the role, only allowing his trademark camp to surface once in a while ("you ah ah choiahhboyy compared to me, ah choiahhboyy!!" Is my favourite). Tunny diligently plays the female lead with understandable confusion, but also noble grace when the heat gets hot. Miriam Margoyles is a terrifying little goblin as her evil Aunt with ties to the cult who raised her to be Lucifer's bride. Udo Kier, in his few scenes, is chilling as the head of the cult. The film has a chilling vibe that raises it above the level of other smash and grab Arnie action opuses, a vibe that's almost reminiscent of classic John Carpenter. The eerie soundtrack adds to the haunted house fun,me specially when old Satan first appears in NY as a giant invisible beast and meanders around looking for a human host. If you're looking for slimy supernatural fun anchored by a midnite movie style concept and some awesome at atmospheric chills, look no further.

This movie tries to combine religion mixed with an Arnold action film, but the two don't mix. They just don't. An Arnold movie is supposed to be full of one liners, action scenes and Arnold being Arnold. A religious film is supposed to be clever. We have really stupid dialogue and clichéd action scenes. Satan himself is incredibly stupid. He knows about the guard being a pedophile and Jerico's wife and daughter being killed, yet he does not know the location of where Christine is.Well, if he did, we wouldn't have a movie would we? And for some stupid reason, he doesn't kill Jerico when he crucifies him. He doesn't even hammer nails through his wrists and feet.But he can't do that, cos you can't kill Arnold. He's the hero. He has to save the world.We have some pretty bad special effects. The scene where the Albino smashes into pieces looks like a PS1 game and the scene where Satan makes love to the woman and her daughter and they morph together like a Bosch painting looks unconvincing. However, Satan himself looks okay and the scene where the Church is being destroys looks good. I actually thought they built a giant church set and destroyed it all, but it was a miniature. Fooled me.Gabriel Byrne struggles with his New York accent, to the point where he gives up and does his own Dublin accent. By the way, the scene where Satan takes over Gabriel's body, he walks out of the toilet, kisses a woman and then leaves the restaurant. We then cut to inside the restaurant where we have the woman reacting to something. We then cut to outside the restaurant as it explodes. What, did Satan put an explosive inside the woman when he kissed her? Although full of flaws, I actually liked the film. I thought it was fun. I liked Arnold being Arnold, Gabriel Byrne has fun as Satan and the scene where Miriam Margoyles kicks Arnold's ass was funny.I loved the finale in the church. I thought that scene was really effective. This film came out the same year as Stigmata which also starred Gabriel Byrne. And this film features a scene with Stigmata in it. This film also came out the same year as Dogma, which although was a silly comedy, it was actually quite clever. Kevin Smith is a religious nut and it shows in his dialogue. Between those three films, I prefer Dogma. At least it knew how to be clever in it's religion topics. The whole "The number of the Beast is not 666. When viewed upside down it is 999, like in 1999, the year of his return" was just..........................., I'm no expert on religion, but................... really? I know you have to come with a reason for the world ending in the year 2000, but...... I dunno. I heard that Satan comes back every 999 years. I dunno. But then again, as stupid as it sounds, it IS only a movie after all. If you're expecting a clever religious film, look elsewhere. But if you're looking for Arnold fighting the devil, this is it.

Always been one of my favorite Schwartz movies and I've always wondered why. At best, it's a piece of meaningless fluff adding nothing to the cannon of any of it's genres (action, horror, Satan looking for an excuse for some fun). And, in many ways, it doesn't really make a lot of sense.Nor should it - it's an action movie. Except for their internal logic, no action movies make sense. The point is to get on the roller coaster and enjoy the ride.And that's where I finally figured it out - for me, at least, this is an iconic roller coaster ride. Just watched it on MAX and was a little shocked at how good an action movie it is; everything just worked, even the most ridiculous bends in physical reality (which, after all, are signature to the genre).For me, the movie just flowed, beginning to end, aided by one feature that it does not share with many movies, regardless of genre. It uses dialog only when absolutely necessary. For me, this is what raises it to the level of 'favorite'. I've always regarded film as a visual media and The End of Days tells it story visually, the script is secondary. This, by itself, endears me.All movies require some degree of Suspension of Disbelief and The End of Days is no exception but, given the usual Suspension given to action movies, it becomes a virtually flawless example of its kind and a hell of a good roller coaster ride.Likes and dislikes being what they are and being tied exclusively to the individual doing the liking or disliking, I'd simply recommend 'give it a try' within the parameters demanded by its genre. You might be surprised.