Countdown: Jerusalem (2009)

A journalist searches for her daughter as a series of catastrophic disasters push a destabilized society toward the brink of global war.

Director:

A.F. Silver

Writers:

David Michael Latt, Jose Prendes (screenplay)

Stars:

Kim Little, Clint Browning, Russell Reynolds

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Kim Little	...	Allison
Clint Browning	...	Joseph
Russell Reynolds	...	Itzhak (as G. Russell Reynolds)
Mark Hengst	...	Mark Thompson
Audrey Latt	...	Mary
April Wade	...	Cindy
Spencer Scott	...	John Cosgrove
Vivian Brunstein	...	Adi (as Vivi Brunstein)
Danae Nason	...	Tina
Matt Mercer	...	Lavi
Cameron Cash	...	Abraham
Dean Kreyling	...	Detective Strand
Jose Prendes	...	Agent Malcolm Grant
Matthew Farhat	...	Gianni
Alexander Hatzidiakos	...	Romano

Storyline

A journalist searches for her daughter as a series of catastrophic disasters push a destabilized society toward the brink of global war.

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Plot Keywords:

peace treaty | hospital | desert | missing child | reporter | 

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Taglines:

The end isn't near... It's here.

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Genres:

Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

24 February 2009 (USA)

Also Known As:

Countdown: Armageddon

Filming Locations:

Dead Sea, Israel

Company Credits

Production Co:

Asylum, The, Faith Films, Global Asylum, The

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Mary is not kidnapped, she is "raptured". This is why she disappears without a trace and makes an appearance as an angel several times after.

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Goofs

The taxi drive to Jerusalem is all backwards geographically: it starts with a scene of the exit of Jerusalem, then highway 1 from Jerusalem towards Tel Aviv, then highway 1 from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem just before entering Jerusalem, the a scene near Latrun ("HaEla Valley") which is closest to Ben Gurion airport, and finally, the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

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Connections

References SpongeBob SquarePants (1999)

User Reviews

Religion and entertainment don't mix

When I read the DVD box of the movie, I saw that it was made by "Faith Films", which gave me a big clue as to what the quality of the movie would be like. (Let's face it, most movies made by religious filmmakers are pretty bad.) Had I known before watching the movie that Faith Films was an offshoot of the notorious studio The Asylum, I would have had an even better idea of what I was going to witness.

To be fair, this Christian movie doesn't keep hitting the viewers' heads with "messages", instead for the most part by taking the portion of the Bible that deals with the last days and handling it as both an unfolding mystery and an end-of-the-world movie. Though if you are not familiar with what the Bible says about the last days, you will be confused by several parts of the movie. Even if you are familiar with the Bible, there are still a number of non-religious parts of the script that are confusing! For what was obviously a very low budget, the filmmakers managed to do some things well. It's decently shot, the CGI is pretty good for a cheapie movie, and they managed to shoot a lot of the movie on authentic Israeli locations. But the low budget keeps showing throughout, with liberal use of stock footage and scenes with no extras in the background.

The main problem with the movie is that there's no spark to it. Although the acting isn't awful, there's no passion, no conviction to the words the actors speak. The unfolding story moves extremely slowly, and there's never any excitement, tension, or thrills.

While this isn't the worst effort by The Asylum, it's still pretty dreary and cheap. I bought this movie and three other Asylum movies in a 4-movie DVD pack for just $5, and though this movie's share is $1.25, I still feel ripped off.