END OF DAYS review

Hey folks, Harry here.

I’ve just returned from a series of missions out in the city of angels, and man... I’m tired.

But at the same time I’m really energized. Cause... What I saw, what I witnessed and watched did not depress me. Instead I’m left happy as can be, because no matter how many bad movies I see in September... I know that in the middle of the dreadful month, we have AMERICAN BEAUTY and in November we have an honest to goodness Arnold movie in END OF DAYS... And then.... Way off in June or July of next year... there’s that mysterious UK project that Moriarty and I infiltrated in full disguise to bring you the scoop on... You’ll be hearing about that... On Monday.

But tonight, today and this Afternoon, you get to hear about the other two films.

This piece will be on END OF DAYS.

How could I not go see END OF DAYS?

Ever since I was a pup, I’ve been hungering for Arnold movies. From 1982, with CONAN THE BARBARIAN, to 1991’s T2... Arnold ruled in my mind. I mean, sheesh.... CONAN, TERMINATOR, PREDATOR, TOTAL RECALL... Hell, I even liked KINDERGARTEN COP.

Then he made a couple of missteps, recovered with TRUE LIES, but to some that was also a misstep... But then... There was this huge plunge into a pit of hell filmmaking.

JUNIOR, JINGLE ALL THE WAY, ERASER and then the atomic bomb... BATMAN AND ROBIN. Things have really been sucking ass for Arnold fans. I still have hopes for him, but when I see fans like A.B. King, who seem impossibly devoted to the man and his films... Well it brings a smile to my face because I remember being that guy.

I remember not having a clue about PREDATOR. All I knew was it was Arnold vs something that was hunting him. And it was in a jungle. I thought it was a remake of MOST DANGEROUS GAME.

I remember walking in the Lincoln Theater here in Austin and seeing that poster with the pyramid on it that said... TOTAL RECALL. And... not knowing a thing about it, I psyched myself up beyond all recognition.

And Arnold delivered. He kicked the bad guy’s ass hard. A character would hit him, and he’d just smile at him, before breaking his neck or jaw or ribs or whatever.

I remember attending one of Arnold’s Youth Speeches here in town. He is a movie star. First and foremost... he’s Arnold Schwarzenegger.

He’s one of those stars, who’s every move I try to keep up with. I wanna know all about what he’s up to. Where he’s been, and how soon is it being made.

At the same time, he frustrates me beyond all belief. His demand of a movie-breaking up-front salary has kept the really good projects he’s attached to from moving forward. So... CRUSADE, WITH WINGS AS EAGLES, I AM LEGEND, S.W.A.T.... well, they sit in the wings awaiting the extra 20 million to get Arnold on board. I wish he’d just negotiate for a heavy backend with a low up-front so I could finally see him kick the cinematic ass I know he’s capable of.

BUT... Here’s END OF DAYS.

At the time this was greenlit, I was happy. Ya see, I enjoyed the script by Andrew Marlowe. However, it did have the distinct air of being an Arnold movie in the typical... we’ve seen it before fashion.

What I saw... was not really your typical Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. Oh sure there’s a ton of good explosions and bullets flying, and loads of death and mayhem and such... But... The machismo is toned down. Arnold is more human... he’s flawed. He has problems in his life.

The script everyone has read, if you could get your hands on it, had Arnold as this one dimensional head of security badass that just kicked ass.

Well, when Peter Hyams came aboard, he and Andrew Marlowe started rewriting things quite a bit. Why?

Because it needed it.

The movie begins with Arnold hungover, depressed and getting ready to commit suicide. The gun is cocked, it’s at his forehead. The memories around his darkened cluttered apartment depress him. He doesn’t have anything to live for.

Personally, for me, that’s a major tonal shift of a character for Arnold. We’ve seen Mel Gibson do that... IN A LOT OF MOVIES, but then Mel has always been about beating himself up quite a bit emotionally and psychologically as a character on screen.

But Arnold has always been the shining example of single-minded machismo. I’ve never even thought of Arnold thinking or pondering suicide... But still.... there on-screen was Arnold with the gun to his head.

The movie moves from there.

Arnold is human in this movie, hell... He's an alcoholic in this film. And Satan is his enemy. Ya know... Fucking with Satan is just a bad idea. (Life lesson #1) And when Gabriel Byrne is the horned one... Well, it’s a different dynamic.

When fighting Satan, as a human, you are at a distinct disadvantage. Rigging a big rock to fall on him... well that won’t work. Knocking him into a vat of molten metal... Damn man... Satan would just bathe in that stuff and say it smells of lavender. You can’t really shoot Satan. You can’t blow him up. Crosses don’t work. Silver bullets don’t work. Holy Water doesn’t work. Satan’s one of them bad guys that doesn’t have a real easy out. You can’t unscrew his heel and let the molten magma flow out. He’s Satan.

But is Satan the sort of character that would say... shoot a gun at you? Would Satan pick up a pipe and go at your head? How does Satan fight you?

And it is that aspect of this movie that really excited me. Sure fighting Satan’s minions is doable. You can sink bullets into them, blow em up, run them over... You can screw them up.

BUT, when it comes to the big red guy... well. He plays a different game.

There is a scene, about 2/3rds of the way through the movie where Satan really shows you what Satan can do. I’m not talking about fire and brimstone. I’m talking about Satan, the fella that got Eve to take a bite of the apple. He didn’t pick the apple and shove it down her throat. He tricked her into picking it, chomping on it, and had her trick Adam into doing the same.

And boy... I tell you. Gabriel Byrne sooo completely screws with Arnold’s head. Gives him something that we would all want back. Something that’s nigh impossible to turn down, lest you realize that it means the end of mankind and life as we know it. BUT... What he does gives a great moral dilemma for Arnold and folks... it’s electric. I was fascinated.

Now, I don’t want to get you too excited about this movie, cause it still has a lot of work to be done. The FX are far from being completed, but from what I saw... It looks like they are not sparing any expense. The final score has not been laid down. AND FOLKS... To me that’s the biggest missing piece to be filled. A fantastic score has got to be the highest priority for this movie. They have John Debney signed to score it, and I like him. But he has got to write his best score for this film.

For the end sequence he has to Miklos Rosza out. Arnold turns in perhaps his best performance, but Debney still needs to help him a bit more. The score needs to become Arnold’s soul. A soul that is ready to die at the beginning, and wants to live at the end. We have got to hear that in the score. We really need the power of a full orchestra with choir going at it.

Now I’m not going to rank this Arnold film in the scope of his career just yet. I can’t in good conscience do that till I’ve seen the final print. The film still needs a bit of tweaking, but it’s by and far Arnold’s best film since Terminator 2, (Though I really do have a soft spot for TRUE LIES, it’s just not as cool as this movie) and is a different type of film for Arnold.

Hopefully it will be the beginning of a trend. This film is a pretty darn cool horror action film. A cross-genre we don’t really see that much, but if after this film, UNIVERSAL gives us HELLBOY... well, we’ll have a trend of Action/Horror films.

Meanwhile, this is Peter Hyams best movie in a loooooong time. I love 2010 and OUTLAND. I feel his TIMECOP was the best of Van Damme’s movies, but... well you know. Peter is one of those honest to goodness filmmakers. He’s his own DP, and this film I do believe is his most handsome work yet as a DP. Hopefully, Peter will be given the much deserved pat on the back he needs, and the career boost to make more really cool movies.

And... lastly, this is for A.B. KING, the biggest Arnold fan I know. “Hey kid, you got a cool one coming. You can dance around like a maniac and email Moriarty ‘I Told Ya So’ messages out the wazoo.”