Hot Picks

- Ready for My Close Up 2019

- Talk of the Dead 2016

- Tower Rats 2020

- Script of the Dead 2024

- The Bell Affair 2023

- Easter Bloody Easter 2024

- Velma 2022

- Everwinter Night 2023

- Main Character Energy 2023

- Stupid Games 2024

- Bittertooth 2023

- 4 Minutes of Terror: Night Slasher 2024

- Apart 2024

- The Abandoned 2006

- Becky 2024

- The Evil Fairy Queen 2024

- The Black Guelph 2022

- Followers 2024

- Silence of the Prey 2024

- Battle for the Western Front 2024

- Beware the Boogeyman 2024

- Subject 101 2022

- Driftwood 2023

- The Legend of Lake Hollow 2024

- Black Mass 2023

- Skinwalkers: American Werewolves 2 2023

- The Manifestation 2024

- Spirit Riser 2024

- Garden of Souls 2019

- It's a Wonderful Slice 2024

- Caleb & Sarah 2024

- The Thousand Steps 2020

- The Desiring 2021

- When a Stranger Knocks 2024

- Quint-essentially Irish 2024

- Son of Gacy 2024

- Saltville 2024

- The True Story of the Christ's Return 2024

- Whenever I'm Alone with You 2023

- Jurassic Triangle 2024

- Midnight Peepshow 2022

- Offworld: Alien Planet 2024

- The Swiss Conspiracy 1976

- Sex-Positive 2024

- Here for Blood 2022

- All Over Again 2024

- The Color Yellow 2023

- Des Töchterleins Leid 2024

- I Am a Channel 2024

- The Hermits 2023

- Murdaritaville 2024

- Inheritance 2024

- The Devil's Partner 1960

- First Impressions Can Kill 2017

- A Killer Conversation 2014

- Star Crash 1979

- Strangler of the Swamp 1946

The Final Countdown
U.S.S. Nimitz: Lost in the Pacific

USA 1980
produced by
Peter Douglas, Richard R. St. Johns (executive), Kirk Douglas (executive), Lloyd Kaufman (associate) for Bryna Productions
directed by Don Taylor
starring Kirk Douglas, Martin Sheen, Katharine Ross, James Farentino, Ron O'Neal, Charles Durning, Victor Mohica, James Coleman, Soon-Tek Oh, Joe Lowry, Alvin Ing, Mark Thomas, Harold Bergman, Dan Fitzgerald, Lloyd Kaufman, Peter Douglas, Ted Richert, George Warren, Gary Morgan, Phil Philbin, Robert Goodman, Richard Liberty, Neil Ronco, Bill Couch, Jack McDermott, Masayuki Yamazuki, George H. Strohsahl jr, Ronald R. Stoops, Kenneth J. Jaskolski, Sergei M. Kowalchik, Jake Dennis, Jim Toone, Edward J. Deats, Robert L. Huffman, James R. Augustus, Sam P. Baldwin, Ronnie J. Ellis
story by Thomas Hunter, Peter Powell, David Ambrose, screenplay by David Ambrose, Gerry Davis, Thomas Hunter, Peter Powell, music by John Scott, special effects by Joe Day, Garry Elmendorf, Pat Elmendorf, visual effects by Maurice Binder

review by
Mike Haberfelner

Available on DVD!

To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned)

Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!


The U.S.S. Nimitz is one of the largest and most modern US aircraft carriers, but at the moment just doing a routine patrol through the pacific, which is to be observed by system analyst Lasky (Martin Sheen) for the company that designed and built the ship. However the patrol soon turns out to be anything but routine when the Nimitz gets into a freak storm and is spat out what ultimately turns out to be the same general area but in 1941, only days before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. As the captain of the Nimitz, Yelland (Kirk Douglas) observes two Japanese fighter planes viciously attack and sink a yacht, he orders the planes destroyed, but the survivors of the yacht, Senator Chapman (Charles Durning) and his secretary Laurel (Kathatine Ross) and the one surviving Japanese pilot (Soon-Tek Oh) rescued. The Japanese pilot soon gets hold of a gun and tries to shoot his way out of captivity but is shot for it, while the senator makes all sorts of demands while denying himself the obvious, that he's on a aircraft carrier from the future, while Laurel falls in love with Commander Owens (James Farentino), the ship's history expert. Being in the 1940s with their futuristic weaponry, it would be an easy thing for the Nimitz to prevent the attack on Pearl Harbour, something Yelland discusses with his second in command Thurman (Ron O'Neal) as well as Lasky and Owens, and apart from Owens all are for it, more or less, but first, Yelland needs the senator and Laurel out of the way and orders them abandoned on a desert island with enough food and water to ensure their survival - but when the senator finds out about this, he grabs hold of a flare gun and blows up the helicopter that has been carrying them, also killing himself in the process, with only Laurel and Owens, who has been accompanying them, surviving. Yelland readies his war machinery and has his bomber jets take to the air when another time storm shows up on the horizon ...

 

Now the concept of The Final Countdown, even if it was somewhat recycled from the previous year's G.I. Samurai, is of course an interesting one, as it asks many questions both from an ethical and philosophical point of view. Unfortunately, the film doesn't try to live up to this and seems to be more a commercial for the US Navy's strike power - and the shoot has been unsurprisingly heavily been supported by the Navy, by not only letting the film crew film on the actual U.S.S. Nimitz and give them access to Navy gear, also many supporting players and extras were rectuited from the Nimitz's actual crew. As a consequence, many of the more important questions about the nature of war as such are simply ignored in favour for some good old patriotism, and in that light then, the Japanese are collectively portrayed as nothing but bloodthirsty monsters, something pretty much out of date even in 1980. So taken by its original merits, The Final Countdown is just not a very good movie - but if you factor in the nostalgia effect, it just makes a perfect time capsule as it shows a world view that feels terribly outdated today but also oddly endearing, making this a very interesting watch - interesting for all the wrong reasons, but interesting still.

 

Quick Links

Abbott & Costello

The Addams Family

Alice in Wonderland

Arsène Lupin

Batman

Bigfoot

Black Emanuelle

Bomba the Jungle Boy

Bowery Boys

Bulldog Drummond

Captain America

Charlie Chan

Cinderella

Deerslayer

Dick Tracy

Dr. Mabuse

Dr. Orloff

Doctor Who

Dracula

Edgar Wallace made in Germany

Elizabeth Bathory

Emmanuelle

Fantomas

Flash Gordon

Frankenstein

Frankie & Annette Beach Party movies

Freddy Krueger

Fu Manchu

Fuzzy

Gamera

Godzilla

Hercules

El Hombre Lobo

Incredible Hulk

Jack the Ripper

James Bond

Jekyll and Hyde

Jerry Cotton

Jungle Jim

Justine

Kekko Kamen

King Kong

Laurel and Hardy

Lemmy Caution

Lobo

Lone Wolf and Cub

Lupin III

Maciste

Marx Brothers

Miss Marple

Mr. Moto

Mister Wong

Mothra

The Munsters

Nick Carter

OSS 117

Phantom of the Opera

Philip Marlowe

Philo Vance

Quatermass

Robin Hood

The Saint

Santa Claus

El Santo

Schoolgirl Report

The Shadow

Sherlock Holmes

Spider-Man

Star Trek

Sukeban Deka

Superman

Tarzan

Three Mesquiteers

Three Musketeers

Three Stooges

Three Supermen

Winnetou

Wizard of Oz

Wolf Man

Wonder Woman

Yojimbo

Zatoichi

Zorro

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

Feeling lucky?
Want to
search
any of my partnershops yourself
for more, better results?
(commissions earned)

The links below
will take you
just there!!!

Find The Final Countdown
at the amazons ...

USA  amazon.com

Great Britain (a.k.a. the United Kingdom)  amazon.co.uk

Germany (East AND West)  amazon.de

Looking for imports?
Find The Final Countdown here ...

Thailand  eThaiCD.com
Your shop for all things Thai

Something naughty?
(Must be over 18 to go there!)

x-rated  find The Final Countdown at adultvideouniverse.com


Thanks for watching !!!

 

 

In times of uncertainty of a possible zombie outbreak, a woman has to decide between two men - only one of them's one of the undead.

 

There's No Such Thing as Zombies
starring
Luana Ribeira, Rudy Barrow and Rami Hilmi
special appearances by
Debra Lamb and Lynn Lowry

 

directed by
Eddie Bammeke

written by
Michael Haberfelner

produced by
Michael Haberfelner, Luana Ribeira and Eddie Bammeke

 

now streaming at

Amazon

Amazon UK

Vimeo

 

 

 

Robots and rats,
demons and potholes,
cuddly toys and
shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

is all of that.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to
-
a collection of short stories and mini-plays
ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic
to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle, all thought up by
the twisted mind of
screenwriter and film reviewer
Michael Haberfelner.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

the new anthology by
Michael Haberfelner

 

Out now from
Amazon!!!