Customer Reviews

Rain of Fire

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Alberto De Martino's Anglo-Italian Holocaust 2000 aka Rain of Fire aka The Chosen is another post-Omen ripoff with an ageing Hollywood star jumping on the Satanic conspiracy bandwagon, in this case Kirk Douglas as a powerful industrialist whose plans to build a controversial nuclear power plant in the Holy Land might just trigger the End of Days. Naturally, he doesn't see it that way at first, but even before he dismisses one critic by urging him to "Stop talking like a ridiculous prophet of the Apocalypse! I'm not counting on God. I'm putting my faith in nuclear energy!", you can see where this is heading even if he can't. But a few deaths courtesy of the odd celebrity victim in the supporting cast like Anthony Quayle or Virginia McKenna, one ominous computer printout, a fertile fling with Agostina Belli's photographer and a chance meeting with Romolo Valli's priest later and he's having nightmarish visions of the Apocalypse and, this being the 70s when you had more chance of getting Sylvia Kristel to keep her clothes on in a film than Kirk, we're having nightmarish full-frontal visions of Douglas running naked through the desert as he gradually comes to believe that his proposed seven-towered nuclear plant might just be the seven-head Beast of the Book of Revelations and that his unborn child might just be AntiChrist (a common ailment with ageing movie stars in the 70s) while screaming "We're not seven-headed monsters bringing about the Apocalypse!" at his corporate minions. Luckily - or perhaps not - he's teamed up with the Vatican's only pro-abortion priest to kill the sprog, but things don't quite go to plan and thanks to his angelic son Simon Ward he finds himself in a rubber room in Adolfo Celi's steel and glass asylum: well, Kirk did always want to make One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest...

LionsGate's US DVD, released as Rain of Fire, is the European version with the original open ending: for the shorter US cut, a clumsy and rushed epilogue (not included on the DVD, though it can be found on YouTube) was added by editing shots of a board meeting, Douglas arriving at an airport, a body double sewing dynamite into his suit and a stock footage explosion together to laughable effect. Otherwise there are surprisingly few moments of unintentional comedy, though Douglas' reaction to the semi-decapitation of the Israeli Prime Minister by a helicopter and his gurning expression when passing out after being drugged are spit-your-coffee-across-the-room ones. You can see the twist coming a mile off, but while it offers no surprises and is about as frightening as processed cheese, it's easygoing schlock entertainment with some class and a decent budget, and it's probably a better Omen sequel than the actual sequels.

Originally released as Holocaust 2000 in 1977, this print is superb and of course re-named Rain Of Fire. Quite a captivating film, it is not without it's flaws. Interesting special effects, fine supporting cast, great locations. I read the book first and I advise doing this as it will fill in the blanks. In all if you are a Kirk Douglas fan buy it.

Ever get the feeling that someone just makes movies like this to break our sanity? Then again, did you ever get the feeling your child was a spawn of pure evil? A wealthy business man learns the hard way his own son is the Anti-Christ who plans to rule to world. Grim from start to finish, don't expect a happy ending in this dark tale of murder, sex and power gone completely mad.

This Italian/UK co-production is also known as THE CHOSEN. Robert Caine (Kirk Douglas, who rightly seems embarressed to be in this movie.) is an American entrpeneur and businessman who is finally seeing his lifes biggest ambition realized- the building of a nuclear power plant in an Arab state. But those involved in the project start dying violent deaths. Why? A priest manages to offer Caine the most rational explaination: Caine's son Nigel (Simon Ward) is the Antichrist who wants to use nuclear weapons to annihilate the world; and to make matters worse, Caine's sexy girlfriend (Agostina Belli) is pregnant with another potential devil's child.
You're better off watching ROSEMARY'S BABY or THE OMEN instead. On the plus side there is an amusing helicopter blade decapitation scene but it doesn't come close to matching THE OMEN's classic beheading. And another positive, THE CHOSEN will put insomniacs to sleep no problem. Belli's beauty is the movie's only redeeming quality. This is a waste of 100 minutes, but its still better than a lot of that new "charter" garbage Kiwis are being subjected to on TV. Why do you think I watch so many movies?

The end is near! Citizens protest! Worldwide panic spreads across the globe! A nuclear holocaust threatens us all! The monstrous beast will rise from the ocean to consume all life! Earth will become a scorched wasteland!

Who ought to care about why the hell this movie punctuates so much on the Apocalypse? The Italians certainly had been ashamed of making this film in the first place! Even our priests who run the churches would be in for a mass uproar about the falsity this delivers. But heck, this is the movies!

Words cannot describe this sordid, terrible drama, acting more of a drunken Shakespearean play about nuclear fear than anything else. A poor planning in developing a good story and lousy writing makes this the perfect glass of sour milk. One of our best well-known movie stars, Kirk Douglas, has a few embarrassing performances, one of which is when he stands out naked in front of visions of rising monsters from the ocean. Also, it makes a failed attempt at showing off any suspenseful magic about the supernatural. Either it is Douglas who thinks the Great Flood has come, or just a coincidence of Mother Nature rising the ocean tide.

The movie actually gets a further beating on trying to be a meaningless horror / splatter film, which wants to show off uselessly. HOLOCAUST 2000 is good if you want to see Kirk Douglas star in a movie so horrifying in its pitiful execution and directing skills. What does this movie want to be when it fouls up? A DOOMSDAY BOMB!