Knocking at Doomsday's Door

If timing is everything, this mawkish mélange has one big problem right off the bat. This tabloid-of-the-tube gaspfest fails the test of timeliness in that the whole production builds to a crescendo with the final topic: the ultimate doomsday bugaboo, the year 2000. With the peaceful passing of the Y2K rollover date with destiny, general interest in the phenomenon of doomsday has abated, especially the 2000-specific sort. Perhaps tension and interest will mount as we approach the contrarian's more accurate millennial date of 1/31/00, but otherwise it's hard to imagine much demand for this video (or it's sister title Prophecy & Prediction: Threat or Warning, available at the same price), which is far from the worst millennium material available, but also far from the best. In fact it might even help a collection in need of British-accented narrators ranting over snippets of foreboding footage, some of it not even staged. Here, as in many recent features, the views of Edgar Cayce and Gordon Michael Scallion are featured and the usual gang of prophetic suspects are briskly considered. Useful as harmless entertainment should the party mood drift in a Robin Leach meets Nostradamus direction, this is otherwise not recommended. Aud: P. (M. Tribby)