La Malédiction finale

In the first two Omen films, we were presented with a boy learning to adjust to his unusual personality and his future position in the destiny of the cosmos, but in this last film, Damien is in complete control as he prepares mankind for a " paradise of pain. " Sam Neill exudes a aura of amoral humanity, befriending a female reporter and her son while he seeks to defeat God; One very good sequence has Damien describing man as being naturally evil, claiming that God seeks to keep man from becoming truly innocent. Even though the atmosphere bounces from materialistic to spiritual, the film still gets a powerful message about corporations and their link to politics to the audience. Again, Sam Neill shows us a flawed, but arrogant man-beast, who pushes his way through without a backward glance. With such a performance, it is no wonder that Sam Neill is a great actor.

Firstly, it has a seemingly fool-proof concept: the Antichrist, now a successful corporate CEO, is appointed U.S. Ambassador to England, AND president of the UN youth council. It practically writes itself. But, no, social commentary isn't brought into it; he doesn't kill his way into the U.S. Presidency, and the country is never thrown into a third world war. And to think I believed in him! You think this might also present a good chance for some overacting- but, once again, only missed opportunities. It was quite talky; Damien plays it cool, and Sam Neill's performance mostly involved making sinister expressions (at which he's a natural, granted,) and, frankly, the big lines he delivers come out kind of funny-sounding when modulated through his fake American accent (he has one of these in Jurassic Park, too, but at least that role didn't call for any serious acting.) I blame the director more than my man Sam, but I've seen some pretty terrible movies salvaged by one good performance.

Why, this film even let down my bloodlusting side. It opens with a nice, gruesome death, but subsequent killings are either too silly to even guffaw at, or just plain uninspired- especially the climax.

This film begins with a construction project uncovering some ancient daggers which were buried many years earlier. It is then revealed that these 7 daggers are known as the "Daggers of Megiddo" and they were made for only one purpose--to kill the Antichrist when he finally appears on Earth. The scene then shifts to a corporate CEO by the name of "Damien Thorn" (Sam Neill) negotiating with the "President of the United States" (played by Mason Adams) on his conditions for accepting the ambassadorship to Great Britain. For purely political reasons, the President gives Damien everything he wants. In the process, however, he unwittingly fulfills an ancient prophecy that the Antichrist would begin his rise to power in the British Isles. Not long afterward, a special astronomical event occurs which is interpreted by certain monks in an Italian monastery that Jesus is about to be reborn. Not only that, but in order to facilitate this event, they are now obligated to use the Daggers of Megiddo to kill the person they know to be the Antichrist--Damien Thorne. What they don't realize, however, is that Damien is fully aware of their intentions--and he is willing to do whatever it takes to ensure his claim to world power. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this turned out to be a satisfactory final installment of the Omen Trilogy as it contained some decent suspense along with solid performances by both Sam Neill and Lisa Harrow (as "Kate Reynolds"). Admittedly, I didn't much care for the rather phony religious mumbo-jumbo thrown in at various times, but even so, the film still managed to pass the time well enough, and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

This was great i think,, you have Damien all grown up,, not a kid anymore,, this is pretty cool i think,, now you have all that evil in an adult, which by the way is very scary, Sam Neill does a wonderful job in this, and is very creepy evil at the same time. Add to the fact that the plot was very good too,, you have the monks trying to kill Damien for one,, then you have Damien trying to kill all of the male babies born of the 24th of March,, makes for a very interesting race against time for Damien. If you follow the trilogy though the timeline is quite off, but i guess when they made the first one, they didn't realize it would become a franchise,, but nonetheless, over the past week i have watched all 3 of the Omen's and have seen the new one in the Theatre's when it came out,, i think the trilogy is very good with the story tied together the way it is, overall i give this part 3 a definite thumbs up.

The horror in this movie is so bad it's funny! Every time a monk gets anywhere near Damien the poor guy falls off a bridge or drops down a hole or just slips on a banana peel or something.

On the other hand, the smart and pretty lady reporter gets her hands on Damien right away, without any trouble. It's said that Sam Neill who plays Damien and Lisa Harrow who plays Kate Reynolds were actually falling in love for real as this movie was being made. It really shows! Aside from being just gorgeous, Lisa Harrow was a good actress. You can see that her character has at least three sides to her. As a reporter, she's intrigued by Damien's vast wealth and growing political power. As a mother, she's frightened of his influence over her troubled teenage son. And as a woman, she can't help responding to the sheer excitement of his darkly sexual charisma. But what makes this interesting is that the story line always treats her character with respect. Her sexual feelings don't cancel out her heart or her intelligence, they just make her more mature and sympathetic.

Why is it that major stars like Julia Roberts and Meg Ryan never play anyone half as interesting as this?