Révélations

This film was such a heap of flushable waste that I suggest all who view it wash their hands afterward. If someones wants to make this kind of story into film and broadcast it on a big network they should stick to full fiction rather than try to make it look like it has a credible fact base. This has no such base, anyone who has read the Bible can tell you that. I will not make myself a preacher here, but I really am offended by this thing and am sorry it was given such a large audience. Just let me say this, the true translation of the word Antichrist in the Bible book Revelation (not plural, it's one vision John had), that word means "instead of Christ", as in someone who will pretend to be Christ. This entity will not reveal himself as an evil being, he will try to convince the populace that he is good in order to draw away the true followers of the true Messiah. I hope that people are not convinced by this garbage and should watch carefully as they will be fooled by those pretending to be good, not someone who shows their true evil nature. Also please note, I know people who were in prison and those institutions are not full of people who will go against Christ in some awful army. Most of them are sorry about doing wrong and many are repentant people who would rather do good with their lives if given the chance. This movie is crap!

Having actually seen the first installment, I can say I didn't miss the bloated 40 minutes of "American Idol" commercials mixed with 20 minutes of overwrought "you are safe, you are in the bottom 3" hyperbole in order to rid the field of wannabes of one more person.

Instead, I was mesmerized by the first one-hour installment of an intriguing story about people being brought together to consider a proliferation of unexplainable signs and events that might mark the end of the world.

Unless America is simply brain dead, this extremely well-produced limited series should rack up good numbers in the ratings.

Bill Pullman plays a Harvard professor who has recently seen the murderer of his teen-aged daughter captured and imprisoned. Not giving any credence to this man's claims that he can never be killed and will never bleed, he sees one of the man's fingers sliced off...and the non-bleeding hand is raised defiantly.

A nun who is part of a research foundation is an investigator checking out unexplained phenomena with religious connections. One is the appearance of a shadow on a mountainside. It appears to be the shadow of a cross upon which a man has been nailed. The shadow of the head moves as if the victim were alive. There were neither clouds,nor trees, nor anything else between the sun and the mountain that could have cast that shadow.

Another phenomenon is a girl, declared brain dead, after being struck by lightning. Now in a hospital bed, she speaks Biblical verses in Latin. And on one occasion, she was given a pencil and pad and began auto-writing, drawing a map....which linked, it was revealed, to Bill Pullman's daughter. These miraculous goings-on only happen during storms with lightning and thunder.

As hokey as I make it seem, it was beautifully done; the acting is first-rate. I am eager for part 2.

What is it about David Seltzer that he can so touch the innermost bogeyman of Christian nightmares? The Omen, then Revelations! While Revelations is scary for anyone, of any religion or none at all, it is particularly so for Christians. Seltzer finds the most potent images of evil and gets one on a roller-coaster ride that is mystery, detective story, theological and he amazes, thrills, terrifies. Also there is hope in each of these two productions. Talented people doing good work, well worth watching.

The performance by Michael Massee is stunning, truly scarier, for this viewer, than that of the great Anthony Hopkins' portrayal of Hannibal Lecter. Massee has to be seen as Isaiah Haden words are not descriptive enough to convey the malevolence of his characterization.

Seltzer creates an alternative Christian apocalypse however its plausibility is no less credible than the orthodox rendering. I do know that after viewing the Omen and Revelations I was on my best behavior for several weeks afterward.

There seems to be a common dislike in the public for this miniseries, for any number of reasons. Therefore, the majority of people out there seem to be influenced by these opinions rather than their own. I watched every episode starting at the premiere, and I can say that while I was rather alarmed at the constant misquoting of scripture (which is really the only true negative I had regarding this show), overall it was an engaging show. This show seemed to be honestly striving to have a purpose on television, to tell people about what is inevitable, though likely not in the way it is being described in the show itself. This, in a world where religion is so controversial that the very mention of God can spark heated debates between opposing sides. There are always going to be people offended by the mention of religion (but why they bother watching the show in the case, I don't know). With subject matter like the Apocalypse, in which every side has a different idea of how it's going to come about, there will always be sides unhappy with the way it is presented. Instead of focusing in on all the little things that conflict with your own personal beliefs, watch the show for its entertainment value, which I found to be rather high compared to most of the stuff on television nowadays. I would highly suggest that people give it a fair shot, get rid of all your biases, and watch it for its purpose: to serve as entertainment for religious and secular audiences alike.

REVIEW: Wed + Sun 9pm NBC: "It's as probable for a tornado traveling through a junkyard to produce Buckingham Palace than for life to emerge from the Big Bang," says the teacher at the start of Revelations… and he's the scientist. The series, produced by Omen maker David Seltzer is relatively well done, with the likable Bill Pullman playing a scientist whose daughter has been kidnapped and murdered by a Satanist who excised her heart in a ritual sacrifice. Pullman goes to Chile and helps capture the fiend, and later is confronted by a Nun (the other-worldly Natasha McElhone – the wife in Solaris) whose sister has died in an apocalyptic cult in Africa, and who drags him to the bedside of a young brain dead Florida girl who was hit by lightning. Of course, this girl is talking.. in Latin, and it's about the end of the world. Evil secular doctors are eager to harvest her organs while the Sister's foundation staves them off (doctors love to pull the plug on speaking patients). The girl draws a stick figure (with ancient writing) that is the same as Pullman's daughter used to. The parallels with the Florida Schiavo allow-to-die circus are probably coincidental, but jarring. Signs abound: a shadow of Jesus on the cross on a Mexican cliff, a lone child pulled from floating wreckage of a Greek ferry, the Satanist chopping his finger off without bleeding.

I personally love these apocalyptic movies, but feel this is in so many ways a sop to the religious right, whose penetration into government is alarming. It feeds the creationist fervor, the cheap exploitive political acts behind the Schiavo carnival of fools. At the first meeting the Sister wisely advises the dubious Pullman to start contributing to religion. "All the signs and symbols are currently in place for the end of days." They allow Pullman to visit the killer of his daughter in prison, dubiously unmonitored, who chops his finger off in the feeding slot, and doesn't bleed. This sends Pullman on a quest for the Answers, being dragged kicking and screaming towards the Truth, like Gregory Peck so long ago in The Omen (actually saw that world premiere in LA). Portentous Bible quotes start each section. When the girl dies, Pullman holds her hand, and she.. awakes. Personally I don't think we should rush this apocalypse business- some nightmare virus may make it real for hundreds of millions soon enough. Not as intense as I thought, but then NBC isn't cable. Rating: 6 out of 10