Apocalypse

`An instant classic!', screams the promo on the back of the box. Well, if you like unintentionally funny drama, this is one for all time.

This `film' bears all the hallmarks of an amateur promotional video for a firm of cowboy builders, and twenty times as many jokes, though none of them scripted.

Cobbled together from a skim-reading of the book of Revelation, this might just as easily have been lifted from the pages of Nostradamus. This is an amateurish production, boasting fifth-rate acting, shoddy scripting, home video-quality photography, and not-so-special special effects. There is also some bizarre product placement for, of all things, Jack Van Impe Ministries.

How on earth something so monumentally dreadful could have come from the same company that produced `Left Behind' simply beggars belief. As my friend so eloquently put it, `There aren't enough words in the English language to describe how bad this film is!'.

Whoever greenlighted this one should have walked the plank.

I can't believe how bad this film is. It's amazing. The low budget stock footage, bad acting, bad directing, bad lighting, bad sound track and just tons of exposition on the end of the world according to the Christian myth!

I am glad I am not swept up into this like all the other responses on here! It's fun to watch and laugh at! I don't know what's funnier, the film or people who think this is good and take it seriously!

This film begins with a crisis in the Middle East which causes several nations to send their armies into the Valley of Megiddo (also called Armageddon) to defend their national interests. While everyone is concerned that this showdown will result in a massive nuclear war, one person adamantly suggests that he will not allow this to happen. This person is the President of the European Union who goes by the name of "Franco Macalusso" (Sam Bornstein). Also involved in this crisis are two reporters named, "Helen Hannah" (Leigh Lewis) and "Bronson Pearl" (Richard Nester) who are responsible for covering it for the international news organization "WNN". As part of the coverage, Bronson travels to the Valley of Megiddo while Helen anchors the news desk at WNN headquarters. It is at this time that millions of Christians suddenly disappear in an event known as "the Rapture" which causes an impending nuclear war to cease due to the massive chaos that follows. Anyway, rather than reveal the rest of the story and risk spoiling the film for those who haven't seen it, I will just say that this movie wasn't too bad for this particular genre. At least I didn't think so. However, that is not to say that it didn't have some faults. For starters, some of the acting was definitely second-rate. Additionally, there were quite a few spectacular events which were so crammed together that the film failed to convey the magnitude that each of them would have deserved if they had actually happened. On the other hand, while some of the secondary actors were clearly amateurs, the main actors managed to perform their jobs adequately enough to get the job done. Likewise, the film was punctuated with some good music in key places which gave the film a certain amount of respectability. Having said that, I fully realize that this movie is definitely not going to appeal to all audiences due to the simple fact that it involves a controversial religious topic that isn't shared by many people outside of a limited group. Be that as it may, my primary concern was on the entertainment value of this movie. As I stated earlier it has some good points and it has some noticeable flaws. All things considered then I give it an average rating and I recommend it to those people who enjoy movies of this type.

The film is an odd- well at least odd for the mainstream- mix of drama, stock footage and evangelism. Several scenes consist of the main characters watching the televised pontifications of the producers. . .not exactly very gripping. The packaging claims that the film was 'Shot on location on six continents' and I guess that is technically correct- of course the stock footage was shot by _someone else_-- seems a little misleading for a film destined for the Christian market. The soundtrack is perhaps the one thing that saves the film, and features popular songs from top names in Christian music.

It is too bad that such a potentially good film with such a great plot has to be flawed by such poor talent in every other area. If only the production of this film, and others like it, would JUST TELL THE STORY with good acting and let the message be intuitively realized by the viewers instead of being rammed down their throats with soap operatic soliloquies and didactic preaching. Christian films, such as this one, tend to influence the viewer to seek salvation in other places than Christian Heaven.

However, with all its flaws, it may, for some, be worth watching and can even have you on the edge of your seat at times.