Hot Picks
|
|
|
Tribulation
Apocalypse III: Tribulation
Canada 2000
produced by Paul Lalonde, Peter Lalonde, Nicholas Tabarrok for Cloud Ten, Apocalypse Film Projects
directed by André van Heerden
starring Gary Busey, Howie Mandel, Nick Mancuso, Margot Kidder, Sherry Miller, Joseph Ziegler, Lawrence Bayne, Wayne Best, Costa Kamateros, Patrick Gallagher, Leigh Lewis, Nichole Nordeman, Jack Van Impe, Rexella Van Impe, T.D.Jakes, John Hagee, James Downing, Sugith Varughese, Gerry Quigley, Randy Butcher, Heather Hodgson, Darren Joseph, Kevin Rushton, Roy Lewis, Nigel Shawn Williams
written by Paul Lalonde, Peter Lalonde, music by Gary Koftinoff
Apocalypse/Tribulation-series
review by Dale Pierce
|
|
|
Gary Busey plays a cop named Tom and is in a situation himself, where art
imitates real life in this movie. The actor was involved in a major crash some
years ago, just as his character, who awakens after a lengthy time spent in a
coma following a car wreck to find the world changed around him. His annoying
Christian sister (played by Margot Kidder, a masterful perfromance, right down to the
silly grin and glowing face) has been taken to be with Jesus as have all
the other believers, leaving just the unforgiven sinners behind. It doesn't
take the cop long to realize he doesn't think much of this new world either !
Tom finds himself at odds with the law he once enforced at every turn and
starts to wonder if his goofy sister just may have been right after all.
People are required to have an identification mark on their hands or heads in
order to avoid execution. A helmet which enables the wearer to sell his soul to the antichrist becomes required headgear. A resistance is forming,
headed by angry newscaster Helen Hannah (played by Leigh Lewis, a relatively
obscure actress prior to this series). All signs point to an eventual knock
down brawl pitting hell versus heaven, but alas that will be in another
sequel, later down the road.
The key villain is played by Nick Mancuso as Franco Macalousso, a leering,
giggling, snickering spawn of Satan who with the disappearance of the
Christians, now has free reign to take over the world ... except for those
annoying bornagainers who have found a new cause in opposing him and embracing
Christianity. Try as he may, they just won't take his mark and just won't
worship him. Killing them is like trying to kill a colony of ants. You get a
couple and more just keep coming. In spite of this, he tries valiantly and
violently to either convert or kill them, yet they just keep multiplying.
Naturally Tom finds Jesus at the end, as usually happens in these films, but
the Antichrist is still out there and all has not been won yet. The
Howie Mandel character , in a surprisingly serious role, finds Him too. Like
I said, the resistance just keeps growing no matter how hard Macalousso tries
to crush the movement.
Christians love this movie, for obvious reasons. As with other Cloud Ten
pictures, if you get past some of the preachiness, agnostics and nonbelievers
can enjoy the film too, simply as a good horror story. Mancuso's hamming it up
as the Antichrist alone is worth watching. He is like part Stalin, part Idi
Amin and part Bozo The Clown all rolled into one package.
One major flaw in this film is the fact that the Tom character is able to get
up and walk after being in a coma, where in real life his leg msucles would
have deteriorated badly and he never would have been able to move like in the
film. The director, Van Heerden, makes note of this when called on it, saying
there was no way around such an incident, the way the script existed. Weight
lifting equipment and such was placed by his bed, indicating that since this
is indeed taking place in the not so distant future, the doctors may have
found a way to keep the leg muscles strong, even in a man dead to the world ...
either that or one can cop out and say God let it happen that way !
In all, there's a lot of action in this flick and enough good plot to keep
everyone happy. You find yourself wanting more and wondering what will happen
to the characters in the future. Sequels tell some of this for you and more
seem to be planned to draw things to a close.
Odds are they will have Jesus and the good guys win in the last part of the
series, conclusively and triumphantly.
Poor Macalousso.
|
review © by Dale Pierce
|
Feeling lucky? Want to search any of my partnershops yourself for more, better results? (commissions earned) |
The links below will take you just there!!!
|
|
|
Thanks for watching !!!
|
|
|
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!!! |
|