4:44 Last Day on Earth

4:44 The Last Day on Earth is an existential film by director Abel Ferrara that made me wish he went back to making those video nasties that earned him notoriety in the first place.

The film focuses on a couple in love on the last day of earth just before the planet is about to be destroyed by cosmic radiation. Cisco (Willem Dafoe) is an actor, his wife Skye (Shanyn Leigh) is an artist. They are rather benign about the world coming to an end and accepted their fate which incidentally so has many other people in the planet hence the lack of worldwide panic.

Cisco and Skye make love, they argue, talk to other loved ones, she still paints and they are generally bewildered

Interspersed throughout the film are news clips of reporters, commentators and celebrities who contemplate what the end of the world will be like such as Al Gore and the Dalai Lama.

The film is tedious, grim and empty.

How would you spend your last days on Earth if you knew the world was going to be destroyed in the morning? That's the premise in Abel Ferrara's (King of New York, Bad Lieutenant) claustrophobic new movie, starring Willem Dafoe and newcomer Shanyn Leigh in where the two play a Manhattan couple coming to terms with their final moments of existence.

Ferrara's choice to shoot the majority of the film in one setting with a minimal amount of takes made me feel as if I were watching a play - not at all a bad thing, especially when the lead actor is Dafoe. This play setting, along with the 'the sky is falling' scenario practically begs for fueled performances to which both Dafoe and Leigh delivered. The actors made the most of their surroundings and turned their emoting skills on high, only occasionally finding themselves being caught in fits of overacting. This is where the movie falters, when the attention pays too much to the acting and not the scenario. Still, the little bursts of over-the- top moments weren't enough to detract me from the movie as a whole.

Fans of both doomsday scenario movies and movies that show close-ups of Willem Dafoe's pubic region should walk away eerily pleased from this one.

This is a film where the title sounds good, but the writing and execution suck. Supposedly something (humanity's destruction of the environment) is leading to rapid ozone depletion and it will disappear at 4:44. At this point the writer, having no idea what the ozone layer is and how it works, says the world will end (though how is never stated). Having totally misrepresented the science (since even with no Ozone layer, life would initially continue and man could adjust, though in 5-10 years the global effects would be bad), the rest of the script goes into a tailspin as well. For a planet where it's predicted everyone will die at some specific time within one-day ... life seems to be getting on pretty well (at least what we can see of it since the scenes all take place in the females apartment so, other than TV shots or the few rooftops shots near the end). I mean come on now, would someone be sitting on a TV show calmly discussing the end minutes before it comes? This movie seems to be more of something shoved together so the directors wife (the female star) could say she was in a movie. Not worth watching.

This movie is a joke!! The best quote from this movie is, "Al Gore was always right and we just didn't listen." I want the time I spent watching this back the movie owes me that part of my life back. Please oh please if you have half a mind stay away from this flick. Meditation, sex(ugly sex at that), drugs, and blues music. In this movie the sky is literally falling since the ozone layer is depleting faster than anyone expected. This movie is to scare you into being environmentally straight. I went out and tossed some litter while driving my gas guzzler for no reason except pure spite at this movie. If everyone knew the world was ending there would be mass hysteria which includes mass murders, robberies, shootings, break-ins, rapes, no one would be working (especially delivering food or working a 7-11 also most cops would not stay away from their loved ones either). WAKE-UP!!!!!!!!!!

OK so the flick is far from perfect but it does make you think. The main characters are not the types you would invite to dinner. The female artist is totally absorbed in her painting even though the end is soon to come. She only takes a break for sex, Chineese takeout or, to consult with Mom after a spat with her much older boyfriend. The boyfriend at least makes an effort to connect with family and friends as the clock winds down to zero hour.It is very gritty from the scenes in the couple's loft to the city streets. Made for interesting conversation between my wife and me afterwords. Worth a look on a rainy day.