The Omega Code (1999)

Directed by Robert Marcarelli
Written by Hollis Barton & Stephan Blinn
Starring Casper Van Dien, Michael York, Michael Ironside, Catherine Oxenberg, Devon Odessa

My Advice: Wait for MST3K.

Dr. Gillen Lane (Van Dien) is not only a motivational speaker, he's THE motivational speaker.  He's the bastard child of Dale Carnegie, Deepak Chopra, and Anthony Robbins on speed.  He gets people on their feet chanting faster than Arsenio.  He's also caught the attention of Stone Alexander, THE wealthy and influential man in the world.  They share something in common—interest in the Bible Code, where one uses the Torah as a three-dimensional device for reading the future.  However, someone wants to use the Code to bring about the end of everything, i.e. the Final Days, and Lane has to stop them.  But before that can happen, he must regain his faith.

All those involved with this film are to be commended for trying to make a film that is quite spiritual, and one that they could be proud of.  And about the only thing that works out of the entire ordeal is the premise.  The idea of using the Torah as a holographic data storage device and the fact this was drawn from actual theories makes for a lot of potential, but alas, potential that was never realized.

The primary problem here is that the screenplay and direction are completely befuddled, so that the cast has no opportunity to do anything but scramble to make the most of a very bad situation.  Catherine Oxenberg plays what seems to be an amalgam of characters—talk show host one minute, roving world reporter the next, then later still a woman who can use her company jet to go anywhere without even being checked for stowaways.  Van Dien's character starts off being at the most cocky and amusing, but then is quickly reduced to a cipher when the film enters Frank Peretti's The Fugitive mode.  Michael Ironside dresses up as a rabbi and…ha…hahaha…excuse me.

Where was I.  Oh yes, Michael York seems to be the only one who gets to do anything, and doing it with such grand malevolence that you wish you could see him in a real film playing such a role.  But alas, not even his over-the-top method can escape the gravity well which are the plot holes, inconsistencies, and just downright senseless dialogue.  By the time the inexplicable (you thought Greek plays had "deus ex machina" endings, you ain't seen nothing yet) and weak ending arrives, one is glad to see it come on.

Although they did manage to squeeze quite a bit out of a small production budget, it still isn't enough to escape the feeling that this was originally a TV pilot to a religious cable channel's answer to The X-Files.  Wherever it came from, someone fork the evil eye at it and make it go back there.  Please.