Movie #374 - End of Days

End of Days
1999 - Rated R - 2 hr 1 min
Director: Peter Hyams
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gabriel Byrne, Robin Tunney, Kevin Pollack

Isn't it great that Arnold's returning to movies so he can make more gems like this one? Hehehe.

Okay, it's not sooooo bad.  Gabriel Byrne's a pretty scary devil incarnate and Kevin Pollack plays a nice, sorta goofy sidekick to Arnold's Jericho character. Yeah, his name's Jericho.  Jericho. We already knew it was a religious movie, people. Easy already.

So the devil has to mate with chosen-one Robin Tunney, who's not digging Byrne's sideburns. Arnold has to intervene -- cuz mere priests can keep the hunky devil at bay, ya know -- and gets betrayed by just about everyone (thanks to the devil's mucho persuasive powers, obvi.) And btw, if you kill the devil's host body, you can get possessed yourself.... just an FYI, Arnold. Of course, the only one strong enough to kill Arnold is himself, so it's a good thing he's mentally strong enough to fight the devil inside too....

What a weird ending.

Movie #357 - Last Action Hero

Last Action Hero
1993 - Rated PG-13 - 2 hr 10 min
Director: John McTiernan
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, F. Murray Abraham, Austin O'Brien, Art Carney, Tom Noonan, Anthony Quinn, Ian McKellan, Mercedes Ruehl

Boy Movie Alert!  This is a total 90s boy movie.  Ugh.

Ok, it's cool in that the action scenes kick total butt.  Rad.  Also, who doesn't love a good Ah-nold movie rife with Terminator references, right? 

But a magic movie ticket that transports you into the movie? I don't know guys.  This premise is a bit thin.  (I know, this from the chick who likes Lake House. Fine).  It is pretty funny that the characters in the movie don't know they're not real... not until one Arnold meets the other on the red carpet. Eek!  And oh look, Maria Shriver!

It's a cool idea if you're a boy (or nostalgic about when you loved this movie as a young boy) and the action scenes are pretty good. End of story.

Movie #57 - Batman & Robin

Batman & Robin
Warner Bros. Pictures
1997 - Rated PG - 2 hr 5 min
Director: Joel Schumacher
Starring: George Clooney, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Chris O'Donnell, Uma Thurman, Alicia Silverstone

This movie is like a Who's Who in Nineties Film? project. That dude from Circle of Friends, that chick from Clueless, and oh yeah, the hottest doctor (move over, McDreamy) on TV: that guy from ER. And Arnold. He's cool too.

It's the same director, and yet the only person in this movie from the last is Chris O'Donnell... who plays the kid-brother kind of Robin that you want to punch in the face. Sorry, he annoys me. Whine, whine, whine. Go play on your trapeze, you big baby.

This time, Alfred is sick, his niece (Silverstone) is in town visiting, and a whole bunch of funky stuff is going down at a nearby lab - owned, of course, by Wayne Enterprises. In fact, between Dr. Freeze's cryogenics accident and Pamela what's-her-name's plant problem, Batman & Robin feels like an anti-chemistry advertisement at times. "Don't play with cryogenics at home, kids..."

Again, we have randomly intersecting bad guy plot lines, making things irritatingly complicated at times. At least there's legit girl power in this movie (although it's not much... I mean, really. Batgirl? She couldn't come up with an independent name?), and another dowdy chick turns hot thanks to a freak accident (i.e. Catwoman and Poison Ivy could be BFF's and share weird stories over a pedicure some time.)

But the best part about this movie is what it signifies... the END of the Batman movies before Christopher Nolan rebooted the franchise. Thank God.