End of Days

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

May prove too dark to make the list of Schwarzenegger's biggest hits. But the movie suggests the actor still has a lot to offer -- and he's willing to take some chances, too. Welcome back, Arnold.

TNT RoughCut Christopher Brandon

A devilishly fun blow-em-up that pits The Terminator vs. The Fallen One.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

A credible action spectacular.

Philadelphia Inquirer Desmond Ryan

Arnold has a gem for the third millennium in End of Days.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

For the most part it's a blast.

Variety Todd McCarthy

It's good to see Schwarzenegger doing his thing again after what, for him, was a long sabbatical.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Frequently silly, yet eminently more watchable than such leaden Schwarzenegger efforts as ''Eraser.''

Film.com Robert Horton

Beginnings don't come much more lurid than this, and the rest of End of Days never quite reaches this level of flat-out wildness again.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

A hokey, overblown and deeply unsatisfying movie.

Newsweek David Ansen

It's not as cool as it sounds.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Peter Hyams, a pretty good cinematographer but a mediocre director, goes to work on a script by Andrew W. Marlowe that's designed to carry us from one bit of hyperbole to the next.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

An overblown, overspectacular, oversold movie without an original idea in its head.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Not a campy film, but it revels in extremes, and has the same sort of appeal.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

There are forces here you couldn't possibly comprehend...You can say that again.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Lacks a sense of bone-chilling dread.

Los Angeles Times Eric Harrison

Half-baked.

Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson

Nothing worse than a silly movie that takes itself seriously, that bores us to death while we wait for the finale that comes too late.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

It seems endless. It's also unusually crude and stupid, even for an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie.

USA Today Andy Seiler

The actors take a back seat to computer-generated demonic images and apocalyptic special effects.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Best laugh at the movies all autumn.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

All fire-and-brimstone bunk, a tired compendium of involuntary crucifixions, grim messages carved into human flesh, fly buzzings, ominous choral chants on the soundtrack and at least one head twisting.

Film.com Sean Means

Drab and depressing.

LA Weekly Manohla Dargis

A dud.

The New York Times Elvis Mitchell

Two ridiculous blood-soaked hours.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

85 percent explosions and editing idiocy (a window can't break without director Peter Hyams cutting between five different angles) and 15 percent Arnold trying to grow a third dimension. Seeing him try for "sad" is like watching a dog try to talk.

San Francisco Examiner Walter Addiego

The movie equivalent of the fruitcake you get every year from the folks back home. It's brick-heavy and full of nasty bits you don't want to put in your mouth, lovingly wrapped in pink cellophane.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

It's brain-dead start to finish.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Too bad (Arnold) can't save the movie from it's superstitious clap-trap, sadistic violence, and sheer silliness.

Film.com John Hartl

Full of sound and fury, signifying absolutely nothing, End of Days is the loudest and least of the year's end-of-the-world movies.

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

Such a witless, bombastic, by-the-numbers hunk of millennial hooey it made me nostalgic for Commando. This one throws in every hoary hellfire cliché.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

I do have one overpowering Y2K fear: that Hollywood will keep belching out movies as excruciatingly dull, brutal, mindless and overlong as End of Days.

Baltimore Sun Ann Hornaday

Idiotic, ugly and ridiculous.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

We're treated to such a broad panoply of godawful dialogue, righteously shoddy acting, and, worst of all for an action blockbuster of this sort, subpar effects work, that's it's all you can do not to giggle helplessly.