End of Days(1999).On December 28th, 1999, the citizens of New York City are getting ready for the turn of the millennium. However, the Devil decides to crash the party by coming to the city, inhabiting a man's body, and searching for his chosen bride, a 20-year-old woman named Christine York. [If he bears her child between 11:00 PM and midnight on New Year's Eve], the world will end, and the only hope lies within an atheist ex-cop named Jericho Cane, who no longer believes in God because of the murder of his wife and daughter. Written byRidley Lavine... Synopsis End of Days(1999)
Movie Title: End of Days(1999)
Run Time: 121 min
Rating: 5.6 / 10
Genres: Action |Horror |Mystery |Thriller
Release Date: 24 November 1999 (USA)
Director: Peter Hyams
Writer: Andrew W. Marlowe... and other credits
Actor: Arnold Schwarzenegger,Gabriel Byrne,Robin Tunney
Watching END OF DAYS I got the distinct impression this movie had problems in the early production stage . The story as revealed at the start of the film involves two sets of the clergy , one of which is trying to protect a young virgin from the clutches of Satan while the other set is trying to murder her so he won`t mate with her . So far so good , so why include the character of Jerico Cane , a burned out suicidal cop ? After all the story could have worked without his inclusion even though it may have been too similar to THE FINAL CONFLICT in feel and execution , but I still feel Cane didn`t have to be included while the role of the hero could easily have gone to a good guy priest . Worse still Jerico Cane is played by big Arnie which means through box office necessity ( ie box office bucks ) instead of END OF DAYS being a haunting supernatural drama it ends up being a supernatural action/adventure movie that doesn`t work . It should also be pointed out that Arnie doesn`t have the acting range to play a burned out sucidal cop . How about this as a casting premise: Anthony Hopkins plays a disillusioned priest trying to save Christine York from Satan . Doesn`t that sound a whole lot better ?
Not to be too negative the story is interesting in places , and I`m sure the first draft of the script was very moody and atmospheric until the screenplay was re-written to death . Gabriel Byrne plays Satan with the exact right mixture of charm and menace which leads me to believe he`d be the perfect choice as The Master if Hollywood ever make a big budget screen version of DOCTOR WHO . Peter Hyams direction while not perfect is far better than much of his work in recent years and does manage to inject a fair amount of mood into his work . But at the end of the day ( Pun intended ) this movie would have worked a lot better if we had an acting star instead of an action star as the hero
