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Actually, End of Days is not your typical Arnie movie.
It is hugely serious and lacks that nice touch of light-hearted
piss-take that Schwarzeneger usually adds to his films.
He plays Jericho Cane (biblical or what?), a haunted security
agent who has taken to the bottle in a big way after his wife
and daughter are killed.
His current assignment is to keep high-profile businessman
Mr Devil (Gabriel Byrne) alive after several attempts on his
life. Mr Devil is looking for his divine bride Christine York
(Robin Tunney) so he can fulfill the prophecy to bring the
end of the earth as we know it.
It's certainly Arnie's most challenging role and he does
very well in the acting stakes, although being on the same
screen as Byrne - when he's playing the devil - is brave to
the extreme.
Byrne is masterful as the nasty of nasties in a charming,
yet utterly evil portrayal. Robin Tunney is pretty good as
the chased chaste heroine and a nice little role pops up for
Rod Steiger, actor extraordinaire, as a switched-on priest.
End of Days has a real atmosphere to it, brought
about by some beautifully shot low-light scenes and terrific
lighting that has made the jump to DVD very well indeed. It
also has some spectacular and stunning special effects.
All up, the film is a pretty acceptable return from heart
surgery for Arnie but it does fail to live up to some of his
classics such as Total Recall or the brilliant True
Lies.
Conclusion: Movie 80%, Extras 85%
Continued:
DVD details at a glance >
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