The Final Countdown
Genre: Cult Classic/Sci-Fi/War
Director: Don Taylor
Run time: 103 minutes
Rating: PG
Format: Blu-Ray

The Lowdown: I miss the good old days.

I miss movies like “Black Moon Rising” or “I Come In Peace” having the chance to rule the multiplex.

When did genre films become so unmarketable? Probably about the time that studio heads decided that if a film wasn’t going to make $100 million, it wasn’t worth releasing into theaters.

Back in 1980, however, genre films still garnered a big-screen run. A lot of them probably didn’t deserve it, but at least they had a chance to find an audience.

A movie like “The Final Countdown” would never be released in theaters today – at least not in its original form. It would have to be retro-fitted with top-notch CGI effects, young television stars, likely from “Gossip Girl,” an outrageously high budget and some hack director like Roland Emmerich.

It would likely be a huge hit.

But it wouldn’t have soul.

“The Final Countdown” presents an interesting dilemma. If a nuclear warship from the 1980s was somehow transported back in time to the December 1941 day before the Pearl Harbor attack, would it…should it…intervene?

The film has an all-star cast featuring Kirk Douglas, Martin Sheen, Charles Durning and James Farentino. The action takes place largely on the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz where there are plenty of back-and-forth, where-the-hell are we, you-must-be-crazy, time travel isn’t real arguments. There’s a hackneyed love story that feels contrived between Farrantino and Katherine Ross. And the decision by Douglas’ Capt. Yelland to take action and protect the American forces, thereby rewriting history and possibly altering the future, never feels as tense as it should. There’s zero gravity to the fact that this merry band of time travelers might F up the world in a big, big way.

And that’s my biggest complaint about “The Final Countdown,” and why it’s probably a better candidate for remake than the classics currently being regurgitated by the Hollywood machine.

If done on a small scale, if presented as an intelligent, thought-provoking thriller, a new take on this old cult classic might be worthwhile.

And while I would never lobby for spending millions to uber-gloss the time travel sequences that bookend the film with a CGI sheen, I can’t argue that the special effects definitely deserve an upgrade.

Don Taylor likely did the best he could back in 1980, but his best – the silhouette of an aircraft carrier against a giant blue swirl of rings – is pretty laughable.

The Stuff You Care About:
Hot chicks – Katherine Ross – hot or not? Discuss.
Nudity – Not aboard this battleship.
Gore – A bloody shoot-out, hooray.
Drug use – Not on this ship.
Bad Guys/Killers – Those damn kamikaze Japanese.
Buy/Rent – This long lost cult classic makes an impressive Blu-Ray debut from cult classic distributor Blue Underground. It’s definitely worth a rental, but you likely won’t find it anywhere but online at Netflix or other Internet-based DVD delivery services.
Release Date – Nov. 4, 2008