‘Armageddon America’ DVD Review
Stars: Dina Meyer, Diane Ladd, AnnaLynne McCord, Gary Heavin, Mike Norris, Marshall R. Teague, India Eisley, Aliya Astaphan, Rich Bentz, Jonny Cruz, Chuck Huber, Giovannie Cruz, Spencer Neville, Carey Scott, Alex Jones | Written by Gary Heavin | Directed by Mike Norris
Originally entitled AmeriGeddon, Armageddon America is the second collaboration between director, and son of action superstar Chuck Norris, Mike Norris and writer/producer and self-made millionaire, Gary Heavin – who seems to be on a mission to create films that promote “all-American” Christian values, with an underlying “all-American” gung-ho action movie aethestic.
I’ll be honest I was expecting a Christian-themed movie when I popped the Armageddon America DVD in, instead we’ve got a whole new breed of movie here – replacing Christian propaganda with jingoistic, right-wing, anti-government propaganda! The film offers a, thankfully, fictional depiction of a future where a globalist terrorist organization, aligned with the United Nations, works to disable the United States’ power grid through the launch of an EMP – said attack institues martial law across the states and it will [apparently] take a dedicated family of patriots armed with strong survival skills and the remains of the Second Amendment (aka lots and LOTS of guns!) to save America. Yeah…
Let’s get this out of the way first: featuring Info Wars and its front man Alex Jones (who supported the film as a display of cinematic patriotism) so heavily in the opening is probably going to turn away a number of liberal movie fans, who will no doubt instantly dismiss the film as right-wing propaganda and claim this is the kind of movie that conspiracy theory-loving doomsday preppers probably believe to be fact rather than fiction. And that’s undoubtedly true. Though there is something to be said about the insane subject matter within Norris’ film – the UN cast as the big bad guy, working WITH terrorists to undermine the United States and the countries, wholesome, Christian, way of life… All controlled by greedy, power-hungry elitists who want to make America “first” and again and recreate a new world order in their twisted vision…
Hold on? How close to the truth is this damn film?
Forget the idea that the United Nations wants to undermine the US – looking at global politics you can see there are glimmers of truth within Heavin’s script: especially the idea that elitists are trying to remake the world in their money-hungry vision. We all know that ALL governments are working, to one extent or another, for corporations rather than the people; but there’s no way anyone would consider Executive Orders, penned by the President to circumvent politcal gameplay, by parties working for themselves and/or outside interests, to be an attack on the American people. It’s lunacy of the highest order. It really is.
Ultimately though, Armageddon America is actually not about any of that. It is a film created by so-called patriots terrified that their second amendement right, the “right to bear arms” will be taken away from them by people who realise that gun crime is a VERY real problem in the United States. Norris and Heavin have crafted a terrifying tale of an America cut off at the knees by the very same “liberals” they claim are ruining America; and who passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which that the U.S. Army has the right to arrest and indefinitely detain anyone suspected of domestic terrorism… Which of course includes wackos who start cults and carry guns to the supermarket!
There’s a very good reason this film was made in Texas, and debuted at a cinema in Waco… They’re the perfect audience for this gun-loving, conspiracy theory-spouting, lunacy. The rest of us can just think of Armageddon America as a biazrro-universe version of Red Dawn, with the UN and “domestic terrorists” in the place of evil commies! Though can I make a suggestion: if you REALLY want to see a member of the Norris family deal with a bunch of terrorists, stick with Invasion USA.
At the end of Armageddon America my only real question was: what the hell are Dina Meyer and AnnaLynne McCord doing slumming in a film like this? Hopefully the film was a HUGE payday for them and they’re not part of the jingoistic, conspiracy-loving crowd that this film is aimed at…
Armageddon America is released on DVD on January 1st, courtesy of High Fliers.
