4:44 Last Day on Earth
Metascore
54 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 14 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 14
  2. Mixed: 11 out of 14
  3. Negative: 0 out of 14
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  1. New York Post
    Reviewed by: V.A. Musetto
    Mar 23, 2012
    75
    If the end of the world was just hours away, would New Yorkers still be able to get takeout? Yes, if Abel Ferrara's mind-bending 4:44 Last Day on Earth is any indication.
  2. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Sam Adams
    Mar 21, 2012
    75
    The improvised dialogue takes hairpin turns, some less fruitful than others, holding onto just enough traces of structure to sustain the film's brief length.
  3. Movieline
    Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    Mar 23, 2012
    65
    The picture is also weirdly compelling, maybe most notably for the way Dafoe's character - who is, in this respect, perhaps a stand-in for the Bronx-born Ferrara - seems to be grappling less with the idea that the world is ending than that the city is ending.
  4. NPR
    Reviewed by: Scott Tobias
    Mar 23, 2012
    60
    Best of all is the half-surreal, half-touching scene of the couple ordering Chinese delivery - needless to say, the tip is sizable - and inviting the courier to Skype his family one last time and share in a moment of common humanity.
  5. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Mark Olsen
    Mar 22, 2012
    60
    Dafoe, who also starred in Ferrara's woefully underseen "Go Go Tales," brings a quiet grace to his role, while Leigh has a rough-hewn emotional directness.
  6. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: A.O. Scott
    Mar 22, 2012
    60
    Your last day - or, as it happens, the whole planet's last day - will be just like every other one. Mr. Ferrara makes this point with ingenuity and characteristic thrift by using found news footage to provide images of apocalypse.
  7. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Karina Longworth
    Mar 20, 2012
    60
    The use of stock footage eventually approaches overkill in the montage-heavy climax. Much more impressive is the way Ferrara uses his own "documentary" footage of the city.
  8. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Walter Addiego
    Apr 20, 2012
    50
    The movie is probably best appreciated by devotees of the cult director, who has made some good films and some interesting ones (and some that are both): "King of New York," "Bad Lieutenant," "The Addiction." "4:44" isn't quite in that company.
  9. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Scott Bowles
    Mar 22, 2012
    50
    An hour into Earth and we're waiting for the film to end, not just the planet.
  10. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    Mar 21, 2012
    50
    One of Dafoe's deadbeat friends observes, ''The world's been ending ever since it started, man,'' and you may think the same thing about this movie.
  11. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: John DeFore
    Mar 18, 2012
    50
    In his 4:44 Last Day on Earth, the auteur imagines the apocalypse from an aging NYC hipster's perspective, hitting melancholy notes that may ring true for a small segment of the art-house audience but, without the compelling presence of Willem Dafoe, would have little hope at the box office.
  12. Slant Magazine
    Reviewed by: Jaime N. Christley
    Mar 17, 2012
    50
    It's only natural that Abel Ferrara's vision of the end of the world should take corporeal form as a quasi-autobiographical hangout movie.
  13. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Joe Neumaier
    Mar 22, 2012
    40
    Feels stagy and anti-visceral.
  14. Time Out New York
    Reviewed by: Joshua Rothkopf
    Mar 20, 2012
    40
    Let's not make 4:44 Last Day on Earth sound cooler than it is. Compared with Lars von Trier's histrionically doomed "Melancholia," the film lacks any serious attempt to grapple with mortality.

User Reviews

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User Score
4.1 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 7 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 3
  3. Negative: 1 out of 3
  1. aud1969
    1
    this movie was sick - like frickin gross! dafoe was possibly old enough to be his costar's great-grandfather. i wouldn't be surprised if a local ministry for children was on the casting individual's back. so creepy and uncomfortable watching certain scences. i'm sure for certain scences they had to have a fan blowing up his wrinkles to allow for her to breathe when he leaned down for a kiss (extremely disturbing). yuck, & i likED W, Dafoe. SO DISGUSTING.

    horrible movie- i want my$ back.    … Full Review »
  2. pinattar
    4
    What a disappointing movie. When I saw the trailer for this movie I got really excited, a movie about the end of the world with Willem Dafoe. It should be great. But sadly it's not. It started out strong but just went downhill after that. It is very, very boring, it's really just focuses on the experiences of the two main characters as the clock counts down. You watch them have sex, paint (a lot), talk on skype (a lot), watch/listen to tv (Al Gore, the Dalai Lama, and some Buddhist monk), and briefly interact with a few other people. That's it. It is a very minimalist and concentrated movie the majority occurring in one location with only two people. I normally don't mind movies like this (slow paced, little dialogue), I really enjoyed "The Hunter" and "The American", both movie that are low on dialogue but high on atmosphere. But this movie is not like those movie, it is just very boring, and honestly I felt like it made no attempt at establishing any kind of atmosphere a movie like this should have. The movie is also (at parts) very preachy with regards to the reason why the world is going to end, and although I agreed with the message it was trying to convey, it felt like overkill. And I found it especially hard to believe that the world was going to end with all the normal day activity going on streets below their apartment. But the worst part of the movie was the ending, I don't want to spoil anything so all I'll say is that it did not do a very good job at ending the story. Really poor direction in my opinion, although this is my first Abel Ferrara movie so I'm not sure if that was his style. The only remediable factor was that Willem Dafoe goes a good job and the movie introduces us to a relatively new actress, Shanyn Leigh. This could have been a really great movie. It could have explored the human nature and how people might react to this scenario. But it didn't and suffered from, in my opinion, really poor direction. if you want to watch an end of the world type movie watch "Melancholia" (very slow but very powerful acting) or the Australian sci-fi "The Quiet Earth" (a very good end of the world/apocalypse movie) or a purely dialogue based movie one location movie try "The Man from Earth" and skip this movie. It will not entertain you in any way. 4.8/10.… Full Review »
  3. MegWhiteley
    4
    This is a good intention to do a good sci-fi film, but is not the better example, have much mistakes, the story is same like the other films. The cast have good (but not excellent) performances. If I need select between 4:44 Last Day on Earth and The Darkest Hour, I select this movie.… Full Review »
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