Did you like Mel Gibson's portrayal of a suicidal cop who puts
an automatic to the middle of his forehead as he thinks about his
murdered wife? Well, it's in The End of Days, with Arnold playing
Mel Gibson.
Did you like the Usual Suspects, where a trechcoated Gabriel
Byrne pisses on a burning stream of gasoline? Well, it's in The
End of Days, with Gabriel Byrne playing Gabriel Byrne.
Or did you like it in the Usual Suspects when Kevin Pollack
buys it while in a van? Well, it's in The End of Days, with Kevin
Pollack playing Kevin Pollack.
Or did you like Al Pacino's summation in the Devil's Advocate,
where he defends himself (Satan) and attacks god, urging the
protagonist to put down the guilt he's carrying around? Well,
it's in The End of Days, with Gabriel Byrne playing Al Pacino,
and Arnold playing Keanu Reeves.
Did you like the woman speaking in tongues in The Exorcist,
thrashing about on a bed whose bed-posts have been thickly
covered by bed-sheets tied with rope, making them look like short
chubby phalluses? Well, it's in the End of Days, with an older
Polish woman playing the Linda Blair role.
And of course there's the rip-offs that are just too de riguer
to make much of a fuss about-- a CGI Satan with a "body of
air" when he first appears, looking just like the Water
Creature in the Abyss, but a bit more transparent; the inevitable
face-off in a gorgeous Catholic church; and the secret society of
misguided but not-quite-evil religious fanatics who oppose BOTH
the bad guys and the good guys, first used in Indiana Jones and
the Last Crusade, then ripped-off recently in The Mummy.
2.0 out of 5. The only thing the film has going for it is it
actually TRIES to be a competent entertainment (I bumped up Deep
Blue Sea for the same reason). And it takes religion SOMEWHAT
seriously; the Devil is ultimately dispatched not by the typical
PC-substitutes for religion ("Love," "Friendship,"
etc.) but by Salvation itself.
