The Omega Code Review
by Chuck Dowling (chuckd21 AT fdn DOT com)April 23rd, 2000
The Omega Code (1999)
Rating: 1.0 stars out of 5.0 stars
Cast: Casper Van Dien, Michael York, Michael Ironside, Catherine Oxenberg, William Hootkins
Written by: Stephen Blinn and Hollis Barton
Directed by: Robert Marcarelli
Running Time: 99 minutes
Preposterous religious action film (produced by the Trinity Broadcasting Network) about a code hidden within the text of the Bible that when deciphered will lead to the end of the world (nice of those Bible authors to put a doomsday code into the most read book ever eh?). Michael York plays a millionaire diplomat who breaks the code and sets out to become God on Earth and fulfill the doomsday prophecies, while Casper Van Dien (terribly miscast and giving an awful performance as a result) plays the atheist motivational speaker who must stop him.
Michael Ironside (great as always, despite the silly film surrounding him) plays a fallen priest and right hand man to Michael York's character. Here's some subtle character development you may have missed pertaining to Ironside's character. Now despite the fact that we see him murder a man in the opening scene, the filmmakers aren't quite sure if their audience will understand that he is evil. How do they fix that? Make specific efforts to show that his character is the only one in the film who smokes! There are lots of ominous shots of Michael Ironside smoking... oooooo scary. But even that wasn't enough for the filmmakers apparently, as they later have to infer that Ironside's character is gay! It comes out of nowhere and just makes no sense.
My main problem with this film is that, despite the silly story (which could have been pulled off... anything can be made believable if executed correctly), the events of the film aren't shown with any sense of urgency or importance. For example, at one point York's character is declared chancellor of the world or something, and we see one brief, cheesy news report about it. The movie keeps telling us that the apocalypse is coming, but it never seems that way. There's no "world reaction" to anything.
The Omega Code is available on DVD from Goodtimes Home Video. It contains the film in the original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1, and includes the original theatrical trailer, a documentary on the making of the film, production notes, and cast and crew information.
The documentary runs about 25 minutes and is actually surprisingly good (it looks as though it was made for broadcast on TBN), and it does a comprehensive job of interviewing practically everyone in the cast and crew (with the exception of Michael Ironside, unfortunately). The best thing about it is that whenever crew members are interviewed, they do an excellent job of explaining their profession and exactly what it is they do on a movie set. Most documentaries tend to overlook this. Doomsday expert Hal Lindsey is even interviewed (you'll remember his documentary from the 1970's called The Late Great Planet Earth, where Lindsey speculated that Jimmy Carter might actually be the antichrist).
However, at the very beginning of the documentary the producers of the film managed to get on my bad side. When interviewed they actually have the nerve to say "Ever see Raiders of the Lost Ark? Well, our film is like that!" No it isn't. Not by a long shot. [PG-13]
Reviewed by Chuck Dowling - [email protected]
The Jacksonville Film Journal - http://www.jaxfilmjournal.com/
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
