THE FINAL CONFLICT

Son of Satan: Sam Neill

THE FINAL CONFLICT aka Omen III: The Final Conflict/1981. Director: Graham Baker.

"Most people confuse 'evil' with their own trivial lusts and perversions." -- Damien Thorn

Damien Thorn (Sam Neill), the anti-Christ, is now grown and still causing bloody mischief after the events of The Omen and Damien: Omen 2. Thorn becomes the new ambassador to Britain, then discovers that the Christ child has been born in London. Even as Thorn has his minions murdering male infants in case one of them is his adversary, Father DeCarlo (Rossano Brazzi) and his monks attempt to kill Thorn with special daggers -- only the little devil outwits them every time. Thorn develops a relationship with reporter Kate Reynolds (Lisa Harrow), but seems more interested in indoctrinating her teenage son, Peter (Barnaby Holm), into the ways of evil and lord only knows what else. But Damian's plans may come to nothing despite his best efforts ... The Final Conflict is a highly-enjoyable, slick and well-made horror film if you don't take it seriously, which is impossible to do for all but the sub-literate. On that mindless level the film boasts an excellent performance from Neill [Daybreakers], and a very notable turn from Don Gordon, who is Damien's executive assistant, and unbeknownst to Thorn, the father of a boy born on the wrong day. Brazzi [Summertime] doesn't seem to take anything that seriously, and probably didn't; Harrow and Holm are fine. The set-pieces in the film -- an assassin gets caught in a fiery trap while trying to kill Damien in a TV studio; the assorted suspenseful murders of the infants -- are well-done although a scene with dogs allegedly tearing a monk apart doesn't quite work because the rather cute doggies don't actually seem to be doing anything. The film is tremendously bolstered by a near-operatic score by Jerry Goldsmith, who has delivered an epic and beautiful theme with demonic undertones, and embellishes every scene with a sweeping and majestic backdrop. When Kate is, to all intents and purposes, raped late in the movie, she has virtually no reaction! But then the filmmakers have no more compassion for the assorted victims than Damien does.

NOTE: This was followed by the TV movie Omen IV, and just this year A and E had a series entitled Damien detailing the further adventures of Damien Thorn; it lasted one season.

Verdict: Comparatively empty but engaging and rather clever horror flick. *** out of 4.

JURASSIC PARK III

JURASSIC PARK III (2001). Director: Joe Johnston.

In this third installment of the Jurassic Park series -- the fourth, Jurassic World, is just about to open -- paleontologist Alan Grant (Sam Neill) is importuned to travel with his associate Billy (Alessandro Nivola) to an alternate dinosaur-riddled island due to the manipulations of an estranged couple, the Kirbys (William H. Macy and Tea Leoni). The Kirbys don't tell Grant that they are searching for their young son, who was lost on the island when he and his mother's boyfriend unaccountably went paragliding near the island. After their plane is destroyed by a dinosaur, Grant has to wonder if anyone can survive let alone if they can find the boy, assuming he's alive after all this time. Jurassic Park III is an entertaining film with outstanding special effects, and if you ignore its stupid moments and uneven characterization you can concentrate instead on that wonderful and scary spinosaurus who keeps popping up for a snack when you least expect it. As usual in movies of this nature, the pilot and another man are quickly eaten and then forgotten about, but even stranger, even the boy and his mother seem to have zero feelings about her boyfriend, whose half-eaten corpse she comes across. As for the acting, Macy and Leoni are so busy being "cute" that they never quite get across that a.) their son may be dead or b.) they may never get off the island even if they find him. Neill and Nivola strike a more realistic note. Along with that marvelous spinosaurus, there are also the usual complement of nasty, intelligent raptors, big apatosauri, and of course flying pterodactyals, who carry off more than one member of the cast. The climax on the river is a bit disappointing, but basically this has more than enough thrills to keep fans of the genre satisfied and it has less ugly scenes than the first two pictures.

Verdict: Give that spinosaurus his own movie! ***.

DAYBREAKERS

DAYBREAKERS (2009). Written and directed by Michael and Peter Spierig.

Taking its cue from such films as The Last Man on Earth, Omega Men [a remake of the first film], comics like Planet of the Vampires and so on, Daybreakers presents an Earth in which a plague of vampirism has erupted through the world and only 5% of the population are human. Although humans are captured and harvested for their blood, there is still a severe shortage, resulting in violent outbreaks by "subsiders," the name for vampires who attack other vampires and drink non-human blood. Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke) is a vampire with a social conscience who is trying to come up with a substitute for blood so that the human race he once belonged to won't become extinct. His boss, Bromley (Sam Neill) believes that even if he invents a substitute there will always be vampires who want and can afford the real thing. Dalton's brother Frankie (Michael Dorman) is a hunter who captures humans and the very one who turned his brother into a vampire. Edward hooks up with a band of humans fighting to hold on to their humanity, which include Audrey (Claudia Karvan) and "Elvis" (Willem Dafoe) who's discovered the way to turn a vampire back into a human.

Daybreakers is one of the more intriguing treatments of vampirism. The film has real suspense and is directed with flair and assurance. Hawke, Dafoe, Neill and the others turn in fine performances that help you stay absorbed in what's happening on the screen. There are some powerful moments such as when a bunch of deteriorating "subsiders," including Bromley's daughter Allison (Isabel Lucas), are forced into the sun where they burst into flames and become ashes. Since the film is not afraid to have "humanistic" moments, it seems a shame that its intelligence is blunted by obligatory, over-familiar and dumbed-down moments of extreme gore meant to please the Fangoria crowd but which aren't really necessary in a film of real quality. They prevent Daybreakers from being the outstanding horror drama that for much of its length it is.

Verdict: Comes close to being a very memorable horror film. ***.

IRRESISTIBLE

IRRESISTIBLE (2006). Written and directed by Ann Turner.

Sophie (Susan Sarandon) is convinced that a married neighbor named Mara (Emily Blunt) is sneaking into her home, stealing things, masquerading as her, and so on. Sophie's husband, Craig (Sam Neill), thinks that his wife is having a breakdown due to his neglect. A vase full of wasps causes problems for Sophie and she breaks into Mara's home and is arrested. Is she crazy -- or is Mara the nutty one? This is the type of movie where a certain bit of information is suddenly introduced into the story which instantly clues the viewer into just what's going on -- but the clueless heroine just doesn't get it. Irresistible is reasonably entertaining and well-acted by all, but it's very forgettable, and the confusing twist at the end -- or is it? -- doesn't help at all.

Verdict: Watchable -- but that's about all. **1/2.

EVENT HORIZON

EVENT HORIZON (1997). Director: Paul Anderson.

It's the year 2047 and the spaceship Lewis and Clark has gone off to find out what happened to the deep space research vessel, the Event Horizon, which disappeared seven years before, past Neptune. Now they are receiving signals from the ship, which turns out not to have been a research vessel, but the site of a secret government project attempting a kind of faster-than-light speed which employs gravity cores and manufactured black holes. What really matters to the fascinated viewer of course is the fact that the Event Horizon went somewhere and has come back with its crew missing and the ship turned into some kind of hateful living organism. As the crew of the Lewis and Clark try to find out what became of the Event Horizon crew, they experience terrible hallucinations, and one poor fellow (Jack Noseworthy) has a harrowing experience in an airlock. Laurence Fishburne is Captain Miller; Sam Neill is Dr. Weir, who is taken over by the evil of the ship; and Kathleen Quinlan (who is terrific) is medical technician Peters. The movie has perhaps too many climaxes, but it is a very interesting and creepy combination of science fiction and the supernatural with an excellent premise. Good special effects.

Verdict: Stay out of the airlock! ***.

MY BRILLIANT CAREER

MY BRILLIANT CAREER (1979). Director: Gillian Armstrong.

Judy Davis is Sybylla, a young woman from the Outback who is sent by her poor parents to live with her wealthier relatives where she meets a handsome neighbor, Harry Beecham (Sam Neill), but is determined to preserve her feisty independence. This is a well-made, well-acted, and entertaining picture, but while it was trumpeted as some kind of feminist manifesto and is based on a true story, it comes off more like a typical "Bette Davis" movie. [Remember, Davis and other actresses of the golden age often played feisty and independent women.] Having the guy who is tall, dark and handsome improbably fall for the "homely" Sybylla taps into the same wish-fulfillment fantasy of many another movie starring Davis and others and is pure "Hollywood" (even if this was made in Australia). The scene when Sybylla snubs Harry at a ritzy party and then dashes out to the barn to dance with the poor ranch employees, snatching one guy away from his girlfriend, is pure [Bette] Davis. Yet fans of the film seemed to see it as something new and original. Still, Judy Davis gives a solid performance and Neill is quite good as well and the film does present an interesting lead character.

Verdict: Not so original but otherwise not bad at all. ***