But this film in my opinion was not your kind of tongue in cheek action film but set out from the beginning to be taken seriously in terms of religion, faith or lack of in Arnies character and which ultimately boiled down to a showdown between good versus evil which literally transformed Arnie into the messiah (he is even crucified in one scene).

Unfortunately the film lacked total plausibility in a lot of cases, sections of dreadful script writing and some absurd coincidences. To fill you in abit more about what the film is about Arnie plays the aptly named Jericho Cane, a down and out ex Police Officer who is now employed by a very high tech, very well equipped and extremely financial private security firm. The film commences with a shot of an unshaven Jericho alone in his dark, small apartment about to put a Glock pistol to his temple and pull the trigger. He's interrupted by his private security partner and to make sure we know he's on the edge the Director (Peter Hyams) includes in the scene Jericho making and drinking an alcoholic cold pizza milkshake.

From there they are assigned to protect a merchant banker who unbeknown to them is actually Satan (Gabriel Byrne) who has taken over some poor unfortunate's body. A failed assassination attempt on Satan by a local Priest (with a high powered automatic rifle, don't they all have these?) sets Jericho and partner on the investigate path to Christine York (The Craft's Robin Tunney).

Yes, she is the chosen one. The girl born twenty years ago and who Satan needs to hit up on the eve of the Millenium to bring about the end of mankind, hence End of Days. Eventually Jericho tracks her down in what must be the most absurd piece of script writing and reasoning I have ever heard.......(Satan pays the would be killer Priest a visit in hospital and not so nicely carves 'Christ in New York' into his chest. Jericho almost immediately realizes that this must mean "Christine York" and therefore looks up her by her online photographic drivers licence and bingo he's found her!!!) I mean please......

Jericho then must protect her at every turn before Satan finds them and arrives for the final showdown. Gabriel Byrne was very good as 'Satan' and easily outshone big Arnie in just about every scene they were in together. The final climax is abit of a let down and in case you have not yet seen it I won't spoil it for you. Anyway enough of my ramblings, I keep forgetting that this is merely a DVD review and not a critique of the film itself. So here we go......

So How Does This Transfer Hold Up??

VIDEO
Village Roadshow have done a fantastic job with the DVD. The video transfer which is anamorphically framed at 2.35:1 is very, very good. The majority of the film takes place at night and in a lot of low lit dark areas such as basements, churches and so on. Therefore shadow detail, contrast and black level are particularly important. Roadshow did an excellent job as these are all spot on. The video is free of grain and looks natural at all times. Although the film is never actually frightening, it is atmospheric with the film maintaining a gloomy aspect. Village Roadshow have successfully brought this feel to the DVD with the quality of this transfer. The feature runs 117 minutes and the disc is RSDL.

AUDIO
The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack on this DVD is incredible. There is so much bass in it at times that you need a very, very good subwoofer or it'll just bottom out. The opening scene where we first see Mr Byrne make his grand entrance is literally earth moving. The bass is very tight and not at all boomy and it's extremely low !!! The soundtrack is also very dynamic and will test your system time and time again. I recently upgraded my sub and this was one of the first discs I put I to test it. If your sub can handle this DVD at reference level and sound clean and deep whilst free of distortion then you know you've made a good purchase. The surround effects are used constantly whether for ambience, bullets, falling debri , helicopter fly by's and the like.

EXTRAS
The extras are also plentiful and very good. Included is a 25 minute on location featurette, music videos and actor biographies. An excellent audio commentary with the Director Peter Hyams. A nice 34 minute featurette entitled 'Revelations: The Visual Effects'.

Unfortunately the film didn't grab me in the first ten or so minutes and I did not enjoy it overall. There are some excellent demo sequences for your Home Theatre setup and if you enjoy the big Austrian and you enjoy the film then this is the disc for you. If you haven't seen it yet, the rental is the way to go.