End Of Days is a comeback for Arnold Scwarzenegger who has returned to the big screen after his absence due to open heart surgery. The last time he appeared in a movie before this it was in Batman And Robin, which is an excellent candidate for worst movie of all time. End Of Days is a flawed production, but in my opinion Arnold's best and most interesting project from the worst period of his career(the late 90's/early 00's). The premise of the film is where Arnold is to save the world from Satan, who in the new millennium wants to create Armageddon and Hell on Earth. Sounds good to me. However, End Of Days is not without its problems. I think because Arnold was cast, there is too much action for this action/horror hybrid to work. I do think much of this action is great. However, it is a bit overdone for a film of this type. While Arnold is killing tons of bad guys on the screen, much of the atmosphere and suspense is killed off as well. Which is not good as such components are key elements in making material like this work. Also, the abundance of horrible late 90's CGI hurt this as well. Even though the visual f/x are garbage and the action is so much that it dilutes the supernatural/horror elements, End Of Days still has quite a bit working in its favor as well. After a serious operation, Arnold still is more than capable on delivering the action. He also gave an excellent, character driven performance. He definitely held his own against great dramatic actors Kevin Pollak(his cop partner/best friend) and Gabriel Byrne(the physical embodiment of Satan). Gabriel Byrne gives an Oscar worthy performance as fallen angel Lucifer. His presence and performance is remarkable and he brings a lot of class to a production that relies heavily on action and special f/x. The support cast is very strong also. Although I feel that this could have been done better, End Of Days is still pretty entertaining and you could do much worst for an evening's entertainment.
Review of End of Days
