In the last two days, I have seen two of the worst movies I have ever seen. One of those was Detroit Rock City. The other is The Omega Code, an attempt to bring religion into modern action movies. And to that I say go see End of Days, because The Omega Code is one of the stupidest movies ever.

The acting in Starship Troopers was pretty bad, and, guess what? Two of the three main characters also starred in that piece of trash. Casper Van Dien is Dr. Gillen Lane, an expert in who-knows-what that ends up being the hero of the story, only because at last moment he declares, "Help me, God." People who know me know that I am not a religious person, but that doesn't mean that a religious movie can't be decent. Michael Ironside is the other guy from Starship Troopers, and while he seems nowhere as forced as his younger costar, it still seems that he needs to choose his characters more wisely.

So the acting sucks. Big deal. Acting is nothing if there is a good story, right? Well, off the box, The Omega Code sounds pretty cool - it's about the end of the world. Of course, getting there is a whole another matter. There's an assassination here and there, some cheesy prophets that sound like something you'd find at the airport (Actually, I met this monk at the airport that stiffed me for some cash, and he was nowhere as cheesy as these two guys), crappy special effects, and unbelievable events. A computer keeps on printing out translations of the Bible Code throughout the movie, and while the words are just rambles, they are supposed to parallel the events happening in the story. Furthermore, millionaire Stone Alexander (Michael York, the only one who does a semi-respectable job in the film), is using these translations to bring himself into power, all the while the prophets are talking about how this is actually the work of the Devil and that this Stone Alexander guy is going to declare himself God and cause terror throughout the world. His rise to power is extremely unbelievable. Sure, he is killed and then brought back to life, but no country on Earth, not even the ones that still believe in Divine Right, would ever hand over their sovereignty to a single person. Not now, after communism is all but dead.

Back to Casper Van Dien - he is the stupidest action hero ever in the history of movies, if he can be called that. He picks up phones when he's supposed to be hiding, he stands in front of a video camera store with a police car rolling by while his face is being broadcasted on all the screens, he runs from hiding places while the bad guys are standing right there... The list is endless.

As for the religious theme, it has no bearing on the outcome of the film. Sure, it may be laid on a little more thickly than some, but not that thick. I wasn't overly offended by it, except for when Van Dien regained his faith and that instantly neutralized the threat to the world. The truth is that this movie has bad acting, a bad script, bad special effects, no action, and nothing even remotely representing a good movie anywhere in its 100 minute length.

If The Omega Code can really read the future, it should have known to be 100 minutes shorter.

Review by Erik Samdahl unless otherwise indicated.