Piece of Garbage, but Byrne Shines
Rating: 2 of 10 
Highly anticipated, 'End of Days' seemed to promise a great comeback of Schwarzegger's times as an action hero rather than a comedian. However, high hopes didn't pay off - nearly nothing in this movie was worth memorizing or even worth watching.
Apart from Gabriel Byrne's splendid performance, very much equalling Pacino's greatness in 'The Devil's Own', and apart from some nice theological aspects, the movie has to count amongst the greatest disappointments and failures of all time. As soon as the hero of the story confronts us with his Austrian dialect, the film gets a touch of comedy, which doesn't suit it well at all. That would've been endurable if it weren't for further attempts at making a serious movie, a horror movie even; attempts which aren't executed further and which have to remain attempts, fragments.
The story turns out to be rather silly, overblown pathos which only becomes pathetic, on the other hand, it is not big enough - let's just summarize it: A suicidal drunkard who happens to be an ex-cop trying to stop the devil doing the wild thing with a chosen girl. The most abhorring of it all is the crucifixion scene, it would go way down from there if it hadn't already be low already. The effects in the climax are nice, but nothing more: They aren't suited to the task. A story about the End of Days could deserve a lot more greatness, decency and dimension. The much I like Schwarzenegger as an actor, this is the wrong movie for him, depicting not the End of Days but the end of art and entertainment.
January 27th / February 15th, 2000
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