END OF DAYS

Director: Peter Hyams

Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gabriel Byrne, Kevin Pollak, Robin Tunney

Bodyguard Jericho Cane fights with the Devil to prevent  the apocalypse.

It’s the eve of the Millennium, and the Devil (Gabriel Byrne) stalks New York, looking for the woman (The Craft’s Robin Tunney) who is destined to bear his child. Time is running out, and bodyguard Jericho Cane (Schwarzenegger), whose wife and child were murdered, lacks the one key attribute to save her – faith.

Peter Hyams’ overwrought thriller is hamstrung by a typically stoic Schwarzenegger performance, (“You think you know bad? You’re a fucking choirboy compared to me! A choirboy!”), and a complete lack of subtlety, but it has its moments, and there’s obviously been a lot of money spent on it. Fans if the Omen sub-genre, and people who appreciate truly bad movies will undoubtedly get a kick out of it.

Touchstone’s UK disc, presented in 16:9-enhanced 2.35:1 ratio, with a knockout Dolby 5.1 sound mix, comes with a number of supplemental features, including nine fascinating short items exploring the film’s spectacular special effects, an on-location featurette and a couple of music videos. A very worthy effort, but the British disc lacks Hyams’ commentary track, the elaborate animated menus, and various text-based features that were on the American disc. The bits and pieces are pretty incidental, but the commentary adds considerable value to the package, and shouldn’t have been ditched.