oulamies This film gets a bad rep on this page here. Personally, I didn't think it was that bad at all. The main problem with End of the World (as every other review lets you know) is perhaps the movie's rudimentary script and the lack of trying to keep its audience stimulated. Though I do think it also works to the film's advantage.The absence of action scenes and special effects combined with the often abysmal lighting creates a pretty cool ominous atmosphere. The soundtrack plays a big part here; without the dark, droning electronic ambiance and sound effects this movie would surely turn to a chore to sit through.But there I was, end credits rolling, wide-awake and alert. In retrospect, a lot of the scenes were absolutely pointless, not bringing the ultra-simple plot forward (the story is seriously that of a 30-minute short film). Don't expect interesting characters, escaping tidal waves, thrilling suspense, lasers.... Here's what you get: a few explosions, stock footage and a cool set towards the end of the film. Deal with it, or go watch Star Wars.If you don't mind low-key cinema, give End of the World a try. A lot of people here seemed to be expecting a disaster movie, given the title. This is essentially a movie that does not care about your thirst for vibrant cinema. It's cheap 70s science fiction. Oh yeah, and Christopher Lee is great as always!

talisencrw First of all, let me tell you straight off the bat that my rather high rating here has nothing to do with the film's quality. It has some decent aspects, mind you, but has 'TV-movie' or 'late-night time-waster' written all over it, despite Sir Christopher Lee's presence and a really good ending, for such a low-budget production. The beginning is also quite good and intriguing--it's everything in between that lets the film down. I like Sue Lyon (Stanley Kubrick's 'Lolita', although she's not a good actress, just an intriguing presence) and Macdonald Carey--but these actors are clearly at the stage of their career when if they're not doing theatre, they're taking TV-work or B-movies such as these, that fine actors such as Ray Milland, Bette Davis and Joan Crawford gave credibility to, in their declining years.There isn't a lot of action. It's full of lulls and rather boring--you get a lot of sequences of looking at screens or printouts from those clunky old computers and printers that used to take up so much space. Lee does the best he can, there's good chemistry between Lyon and her protagonist-husband, there's good use of stock footage of disasters happening all over the world, and the climactic shot at the end is excellent despite the low budget. It made me wonder how it would have looked if shot a few years later, when 3-D made a brief comeback as a fad.I gave one star (out of five) for one of my favourite horror actors ever, one for that shot at the end, and one for the way the poster reminded me of my favourite album cover--Oxygene by electronic music pioneer Jean-Michel Jarre. How I wish his music from that album had been utilized instead of the shtick that was used. So, in total, 3/5, or 6 out of 10.

MARIO GAUCI That Christopher Lee wanted to put Hammer Films behind him after two decades of solid service is perhaps understandable given that, as he is reported to have claimed, the quality of parts being offered to him within that stable had steadily deteriorated over the last few years. However, considering that what awaited him outside its boundaries was generally more of the same – only cheaper still and mostly downright exploitative – the choice may not have been a wise one! As it happened, the famed British company was actually on its last legs and, indeed, their last horror outing (before the recent, rather low-key revival) would prove to be the maligned TO THE DEVIL…A DAUGHTER (1976), co-starring Lee in the role of an evil priest.That alone should have spelled disaster for the movie under review as Lee was again called upon to don the habit – in the promising first scene of technological mayhem in a small-town café – not to mention play a dual role, to no evident benefit, this time as the leader of a small alien community (his cohorts, hiding with him inside the safety of a convent, under the guise of nuns!) bent on destroying Earth before its 'excesses' throw the entire Universe in chaos!! That is basically it for this truly lame sci-fi effort – seldom has the impending apocalypse been depicted so dully, uneventfully and unimaginatively! To add insult to injury, the producers managed to recruit a serviceable cast – Sue Lyon (far removed from her signature role in Stanley Kubrick's LOLITA {1962}) and old-timers Dean Jagger, Lew Ayres and Macdonald Carey – but then forgot to give them anything at all worthwhile to do. For instance, the leading lady simply tags along (throwing an occasional, and most unconvincing, hysterical fit) with hero Kirk Scott – whose help is somehow sought by the enemy in getting back home (is that not a tired concept, one which I have always found ludicrous to begin with!) – on his mission to thwart Lee's plans, but she could just as well have stayed home for all the good she does him or his cause! The script, too, does not even attempt to explain itself: coded messages from outer space precede natural disasters occurring here on Earth (are they meant as fair warning before complete annihilation, or just a gratuitous display of the latest – albeit by-now cumbersome – computer machinery?); Lee is confronted with the callous murder of seven innocent people to achieve his aims, and he can only (straight-facedly, mind you) reason thus: "We had no choice – there was a malfunction in the negative velocity!" … come again?! However, what really sinks this is the climax: the protagonists not only never bother to alert the proper authorities about the imminent threat to our planet – but they even turn traitors and, by escaping through a convenient time-warp, join their opponents' ranks (truly a case of "if you cannot beat them…")!

MartinHafer Wow, this film had 'crap' written all over it! The sound effects appeared to have been done by some guy using computer, a crappy synthesizer and pinball sound effects for EVERYTHING! In fact, it was the director who also handled the sound...and it showed. Also, I know this will sound terrible, but veteran actor Dean Jagger looked like death warmed over--like he was dying of cancer. Now I know he went on to live another 14 years, but here in "End of the World" he looks like he's on borrowed time. Plus, because the director was also the guy in charge of sound, Jagger's severely weakened voice came off as only a little more than a raspy whisper. Additionally, while a film in the public domain is no guarantee of horrible quality, it IS pretty highly correlated! You can clearly see why no one would want to bother renewing the copyright on this...film.As the film progresses, a series of natural disasters strike. While the number and intensity are unusual, no one suspects anything...except for one egghead with a computer. He's been trying to decipher some signals from space and he is able to interpret three words that make it seem like aliens MIGHT have something to do with one of the disasters! In addition to this strange occurrence, he also uses his equipment to try to determine where some huge radio signals are coming from---and it appears to be from a convent! It seems the nice father in charge (Lee) is communicating with aliens! Don't you just hate that?! Sadly, once the egghead figures all this you, the film really, really loses steam. When he is confronted by these aliens disguised as people, you'd think there'd be a lot of action and tension. Instead, the entire scene is amazingly muted and dull--with a monologue by Lee that sounds as animated as his reading a phone book! After all, you'd THINK seven aliens disguised as a priest and six nuns would be pretty cool--and even more so because of their cool machinery. But you'd be wrong--there is no excitement whatsoever to this--how could that be?! It's because it's all so talky and lifeless, that's how.Overall, the film is a major chore to finish, as there's just nothing interesting about it. Plus, while it's bad and cheap, it's just not bad and cheap enough to be fun for a laugh--it's just bad!