4:44 last day on earth

i do loves me an apocalyptic movie.  esp. when the principals have a limited time to live before the destruction of the earth.  so when this flick showed up on my netflix feed, starring the fantastic actor willem dafoe, i thought give it a shot.

big mistake.  all life on earth will end at 4:44 a.m. because the ozone layer will collapse.  dafoe is an actor living in a NYC loft with his painter girlfriend played by shanyn leigh.  most of the movie is within the confines of this loft.  not much happens except the characters fuck, paint and order take out chinese food.  the world is ending in a few hours and bleh!

filmmaker abel ferrara is no stranger to gritty cinema.  he directed grindhouse classics like the driller killer [1979] and ms. 45 [1981].  i also think ferrar is the king of one-takes.  at least in this film.  because dafoe feels out his role via improv.  was there even a shooting script for this flick?  this film lacks structure and also that element so necessary to storytelling: the viewer gives a shit about the characters. 

in the end this movie will bore the hell out of you.  dafoe is a beautiful man and a hyper-talented actor, but even he can't save this arty mess of the end of days.  this is not a movie that is so bad it's good.  nope.  this is a movie so bad it is bad.  there are better ways to spend a couple hours of your life.  try gardening.  clipping your toe nails.  drinking lemonade.  smoking turds in hell.  do anything but watch this movie.