Doomsday / Ranylt Richildis
Escape from New York. The Road Warrior. Conan the Barbarian. Terminator 2. Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. Total Recall. Aliens. Robocop. 28 Days Later. Highlander. These are some of the cult standbys director Neil Marshall lovingly references — through image, character, or soundtrack — in Doomsday. Marshall’s latest is nothing like his minimalist werewolf tale, Dog Soldiers, and it lacks the cohesion and slow-build tension of The Descent. Doomsday is what happens when an interesting genre director, whose love of classic SF and fantasy flicks scrambled his head, gets access to budget and decides to indulge. It’s a mash-up that deliberately tangles several kinds of movies together, thwarts your expectations, and thumbs its nose at unity of place. It’ll either work for you or it won’t—it’ll polarize audiences the way Reign of Fire and Equilibrium have polarized Pajibans, and after it’s had a few years to age and gel on our plasma screens, it’ll be argued over in comment threads with the same degree of disdain or passionate defense. The movie, in fact, shifts between two kinds of apocalyptic futures — the dystopic tech of an Equilibrium and the filthy feudal of a Reign of Fire — and all of this back-and- forthing will disconcert people who need their films surrounded by a stable genre frame. Doomsday is a slippery wet pig of a movie that refuses to be pinned down, and if you’re not a postmodernist type of viewer, it’s probably best to stay the hell away.
I’m a fan of Marshall’s earlier work, and I have a weakness for “prison planet/prison city” flicks, so seeing Doomsday on the big screen was a given. The film opens in a Glasgow besieged by the Reaper virus, which spreads so fast and kills so effectively that Scotland must be walled off as a quarantine zone. Those trapped inside the zone are left to die, but the draconian measures succeed and the virus is contained. Scotland burns and wastes away after a fitful, chaotic death. The rest of Britain, meanwhile, is snubbed like a pimply freshman by the larger world and left to struggle economically for the next quarter century. The opening sequences of outbreak, civil disorder and containment are outrageous fun, and so are the massive steel walls of the quarantine perimeter. There are Planet Terror levels of violence to enjoy and a cold, authoritarian government to jeer. The walling off of Scotland involves plenty of soldiers shooting into frenzied crowds, and the camera focuses on a woman caught on the wrong side of the border with a little girl in her arms; she convinces a soldier to take her wounded child out of the country moments before it’s transformed into a prison of mayhem and hemorrhagic fever. The little girl grows up to be Major Eden Sinclair, of the Ellen Ripley-Sarah Connor School of Ass-Stompery, and how well Sinclair learned her lessons at the academy will probably depend on how much you think Rhona Mitra rocks her gun and tank-top. Personally — and I know better than to say this lightly — I think Mitra comes closer to her foremothers than most of these genre cut-outs ever get, but the levels of silliness that surround her onscreen dampen a good share of her overall awesomeness.
When the Reaper virus makes a reappearance in London 25 years later, and when signs of life in the streets of Glasgow are caught on satellite image, Major Sinclair is recruited by a sinister suit (David O’Hara, Britain’s answer to Michael Wincott) to lead a recovery team into the hot-zone and find whatever cure saved the Scots from total annihilation. What they discover, instead, is a tribe of surviving virus hooligans led by Sol (Craig Conway, Britain’s answer to Hank Azaria — if Azaria were buffed and painted to a high gloss). Sol spends his first few minutes of screen time channeling Highlander’s Kurgan as he entertains his raving masses with kilted can-can dancers and a buffet of roasted cop; he’s a roaring lunatic who takes sustenance from the cruelest types of violence and, like the Kurgan, he’s five kinds of scary. His first scenes are easily the best of the film. After a while, though, Conway throws himself into the skin of another cult-classic villain, The Road Warrior’s redhead Mohawker; Sol’s Mohawk is blond, but the allusion is unmistakable. Marshall even recreates one of The Road Warrior’s highway battles with near-identical vehicles — it’s too damned bad he’s jumped on the Berserker Editing bandwagon and blends Doomsday’s action sequences to an impressionistic pulp (who do I have to kill to put an end to this trend?). It’s also too bad the conclusion of the film turns into an expensive Bentley ad; I can forgive genre mash-ups, but I hate to see a chase sequence made to look like a run-of-the-mill car commercial — lit, shot and over-exuberated the way Mazda and Toyota package their products nowadays with copycat intensity.
Sinclair fights her way through what looks like three different films, winding up eventually in a Medieval enclave ruled by Kane (Malcolm McDowell), who was once an esteemed scientist gifted enough to find a cure for the virus. Kane’s part of Scotland, which was shot (according to IMDb) at Blackness Castle, comes complete with dungeons, gibbets, and gladiators pimped out in plate-mail. He’s more interested in lording over his mini-kingdom (which is at war with Sol’s) than digging up a vaccine, and Sinclair has to improvise her way out of her mission with nothing but her tank-top and some fancy moves. This film, in fact, is little more than a palette of fancy moves and production design; Sinclair as a character is lightly sketched and static, and Marshall (who wrote the script) puts more energy into subtext and allusion than he does story or character. The plot is generic and asinine (though the tension holds), and the story barely knits together as a whole, but Marshall lathers up a bit of glue by exploiting the traditional English idea of Scotland as a barbarian region of unteachable primitives, complete with cannibals; the quarantine wall, we’re told, originally follows ancient Roman conquest lines, and there’s no denying that Marshall is playing on Britain’s history of internal imperialism — hilariously, I’d say, in the figure of Sol and his hooligans. This little nod at subtext gives Doomsday some traction and makes the movie, despite its BloodRayne tincture, a lot stronger than anything Uwe Boll can approximate, no matter how many maces and morning-stars he throws onscreen.
Marshall’s mash-up is addled, no question, and shaky, and outright ridiculous in moments, and paper-thin, but it’s got some charm to recommend it, and (like I said), it’s hardly boring. I can’t hate a movie as over-the-top provocative as Doomsday, which features hooligans on motorcycles decorated with skeletons; it conjures up a vintage John Carpenter kind of soundtrack in parts; it generates the iconic fanboy image of a buffed future chick dropping her gun at the feet of a Medieval horseman; it clashes out Frankie Goes to Hollywood when two tribes sort of go to war; it has the balls to give us a decapitated head implausibly shouting in fury as it flies through the air; and it throws in a little Bob Hoskins for good measure. After a while I stopped asking the obvious questions: Where do the virus hooligans get the petrol for their Mad Max contraptions? Who taught them to make and use Medieval weapons? Why do they eat humans when the country is teeming with livestock? How could such a drastic cultural shift happen in the span of only one generation? Why would O’Hara’s sinister suit blithely fly into the hot-zone at film’s end, when he felt only tanks and highly trained operatives in bio-armor could stand a chance at the outset of the story? Doomsday as a film is a little bit like the hooligans it portrays — it’s wild, colorful, stupid, blustering, and it pounds you senseless with its size and works best in a crowd, but it also roars in the face of Bill Hicks’ old joke about spineless British roughnecks and beats Hollywood at its own game. It’s kind of spectacular in its lameness, all told, if you’re in a forgiving, yielding mood and walk into the theater with your sense of humor cranked to 10.
Ranylt Richildis lives in Ottawa, Canada. She can usually be found sneezing in college libraries or dropping chalk in lecture halls, but she’s somehow managed to squeeze in a film or two a day for the last decade.
Pajiba Love 03/14/08 | | Eat a Cadbury Chocolate Covered Dick, Charlotte
Comments
Damn.
Like Blackie on "Six-Gun Justice", I'm all conflicted like. I loved Dog Soldiers and The Descent, and I loves me some dystopian future movies, so I was absolutely going to see this, but I'm not sure it's worth the $20 for a theatre viewing.
Bentley commercial huh?
Damn.
Posted by: Groundloop at March 15, 2008 1:24 PM
Nope, I think this one's going to wait for the public library for viewing, even though I actually really do want to see it.
Posted by: Captain Steve at March 15, 2008 1:29 PM
I didn't realize Equilibrium had a polarizing effect on Pajibans! I also didn't realize Neil Marshall directed Dog Soldiers (I lurved The Descent)! !!
*Adding Dog Soldiers to my Netflix queue*
For some reason, I've always liked Rhona Mitra, so I might check this one out.
Posted by: Daphne at March 15, 2008 1:29 PM
I'm still trying to close my dropped-open mouth after reading this astoundingly perfect bit- "a slippery wet pig of a movie"- and the startlingly clear image it brought me. You're going to get me in trouble at work.
Posted by: divinityblue at March 15, 2008 1:30 PM
Huh, I'll save my theater going money, this sounds like a fantastic "fuck the world, I'm staying in and ordering chinese" movie. Just like Reign of Fire.
Posted by: Genny (also Rusty) at March 15, 2008 1:36 PM
It is a bit telling that about the only place in the western hemisphere this doesn't have a release date for is the UK itself
Posted by: cockroach at March 15, 2008 1:41 PM
You didn't compare it to Zardoz. Have you never seen Zardoz, or is Zardoz simply so bad that the comparison is useless?
Posted by: hater from siloam springs at March 15, 2008 1:47 PM
...surviving virus hooligans led by Sol (Craig Conway, Britain's answer to Hank Azaria -- if Azaria were buffed and painted to a high gloss)...
Hank Azaria is buff now! I couldn't believe it, between seeing Along Came Polly and a Run, Fatboy, Run featurette.
he's gone from Professor John Frink to Duff Man.
Posted by: Colin at March 15, 2008 1:54 PM
"it has the balls to give us a decapitated head implausibly shouting in fury as it flies through the air..."
Win.
Posted by: Dingles at March 15, 2008 1:55 PM
You didn't compare it to Zardoz. Have you never seen Zardoz, or is Zardoz simply so bad that the comparison is useless?
Text book rhetorical.
Posted by: Adere at March 15, 2008 2:01 PM
A great review by a great fellow Ottawionian.(?)
Posted by: David-James at March 15, 2008 2:04 PM
Dog Soldiers is a stupid boring piece of shit cinema that falls so terribly short of expectation and ability.
Posted by: Spork at March 15, 2008 2:31 PM
Is it just me living in Nevada for too long? Or do all these post-apocalyptic type movies really look like Burning Man?
Posted by: Anne (in Reno) at March 15, 2008 2:34 PM
I actually thought the "Bentley commercial" car chase had some great moments, and I'm usually bored to tears by car chases.
In fact, they mainly involved two great characters Ranylt didn't mention in this review (perhaps to avoid spoilers of some sort?). They're not huge parts, but both of them significantly upped the film's entertainment value for me (to be as vague as possible- one's an apparent Pulp Fiction sendup, the other an homage to the Pictish Warrior Queen legend/archtype).
I hugely enjoyed this film, but Ranylt, I whole-heartedly agree with you- It would be a tremendous mistake to try and take it seriously.
Oh, and David O'Hara- Hurrah! I've admired his work for years, so I always squee just a little bit when he shows up on a movie screen.
Posted by: ShinyKate at March 15, 2008 2:52 PM
From the description you gave Ranylt(totalitarian government and deadly virus and quarantine), sounds like you left a couple of movies off your list of sources from which Marshall pilfers: "V For Vendetta" and "Children of Men".
Sounds like I am better suited to plunking this one in the Netflix queue and firing up one of the many, much better post-apocalyptic flicks I already own. Save me the babysitting money.
Mr. Pink seriously thought that Rhona Mitra was actually Kate Beckinsale in the ads for "Doomsday". I think I've said this before but it seems like she is angling her career choices to become the bargain bin Beckinsale.
Posted by: Alabamapink at March 15, 2008 2:54 PM
Pass.
Posted by: Kevin Longrie at March 15, 2008 3:04 PM
Ms. Pink, you just reminded me! When my friends and I were watching this, we figured you could build a great drinking game around this film. If you drank anytime someone could name the obvious film reference being made in a scene, the group would take a drink...and be three sheets to the wind within an hour.
(If you're feeling really hearty, you could also drink whenever a bare ass figures prominently in a shot, but I wouldn't recommend it. That is, unless you have some kind of hateful grudge against your liver.)
Posted by: ShinyKate at March 15, 2008 3:07 PM
What is it lately with directors that I really like making movies that I could not be less interested in seeing? First Doug Liman with 'Jumper', now Neil Marshall and this?
Posted by: Mimi at March 15, 2008 3:19 PM
Man, I really want to see this now. Unfortunately all my friends want to see the likes of 10,000BC and Semi-Pro, and I hate going to movies by myself. Balls!
Posted by: the_Wakeful at March 15, 2008 3:33 PM
Dog Soldiers was plenty fun, and so was The Descent. But I think directors such as Marshall are more in their element when they work with limited budgets. Forces them to find creative solutions and pushes the work in unexpected directions.
Posted by: magsman at March 15, 2008 3:39 PM
Wait ... there are people that enjoyed Reign of Fire? Like, as something other than Christian Bale porn?
Wow, you learn something new everyday.
Posted by: Sidewinder at March 15, 2008 3:45 PM
I went to this premiere in costume - except since I'm bald, I had to make a little mohawk somewhere else... Unfortunately, I didn't get to see it - kick me outta the theater why dontcha, ya friggin' commies!!
In all seriousness though, I was hoping to hear a good review of this - I'm a sucker for the "prison planet/prison city" flicks as well...
Posted by: Skittimus Maximus at March 15, 2008 4:01 PM
Or do all these post-apocalyptic type movies really look like Burning Man?
Zombies = Ravers. S'true. Give them glow sticks and you couldn't tell the difference.
This movie made me think of Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, and I can't imagine it could be better than that. Two Men Enter, One Man Leaves.
Wait ... there are people that enjoyed Reign of Fire? Like, as something other than Christian Bale porn?
When I yelled at Matthew McConaghy to rip his shirt off in the fight scene, and he obliged, I knew it was the movie for me. Equilibrium, on the other hand, is NOT GOOD. It's a pile of interesting world-building ideas in desperate search of a story with decent dialogue.
Posted by: twig at March 15, 2008 4:42 PM
For those who are sick of the typical fake Hollywood action scenes, I recommend the French film "District B13" (or "Banlieue 13" as it's known in France). The main actors are actually the movie's stuntmen, and they're impressive in both trades. There is no wire-work, no berserker cuts; just straight on, old fashioned ass kicking.
Now that I've plugged that film I'd like to say that this is exactly the kind of movie I'm proud to say is a not-so-guilty pleasure.
Pointless, grand, and exploitative. I can't wait to see it.
Posted by: Sarah at March 15, 2008 4:44 PM
it seems like she is angling her career choices to become the bargain bin Beckinsale
It often seems to me like Kate is trying to become that herself. Oh how infatuated I was with "Cold Comfort Farm" and "Shooting Fish" back when she was English. These days I'm having a hard time separating her from Victoria Beckham. It was really the Diet Coke commercial that killed it for me. Tragic.
Posted by: Jay at March 15, 2008 4:49 PM
This movie has probably the worst theatrical trailer I've ever seen. If they can't make two minutes of the movie work, how the hell can I believe that they can make ninety minutes work.
The only, only, only thing that could save this movie is Rhona Mitra, because she is sex incarnate.
Posted by: FourKings at March 15, 2008 4:59 PM
Caught it last night at midnight (the ONLY time to see a movie of this quality).
Watching Doomsday was like hearing an old song you know really well, but can't help but love. For anyone who grew up with The Road Warrior/Mad Max and John Carpenter. Hell, if you remember such gloriously awful fare like Yor, the Hunter from the Future or Solarbabies with any shamed delight, go see Doomsday and relive those bad days of the 80s.
If you go in expecting ANYTHING serious or even anything like The Descent, forget it. Go catch 10,000 BC and be insulted by someone who just wants your money.
Posted by: BFFredo at March 15, 2008 5:09 PM
One more thing of note: there's a lot of international directors who seem to have grown with the 70s/80s genre stuff and are now determined to one up it. Marshall, Christophe Gans (Silent Hill, Le Pacts de Loups), Ryuhei Kitamura (Azumi, Versus, the upcoming Midnight Meat Train) Timur Bekmametov (DayWatch/NightWatch, the upcoming Wanted).
Hey, the more fun, scary, gory, exciting genre stuff, the happier I'll be.
Posted by: BFFredo at March 15, 2008 5:22 PM
Props to the Mad Max reference - the entire time the preview was playing, I kept shouting in a loud voice - 'BREAK A DEAL, FACE THE WHEEL!'
This movie isn't worth the stock it's printed on. Hello - 28 Weeks Later? I won't be suckered in again.
And go watch the 3rd season of Nip/Tuck. Rhona is smokin'...and homicidal.
Posted by: Neko at March 15, 2008 5:39 PM
Hey, FourKings, the people who make the movie have exactly nothing to do with the people who cut the trailer.
But I'm with you on Rhona Mitra.
Posted by: alone in the dark at March 15, 2008 6:45 PM
... and not in this particular case, as it is rated R, but 'berserker editing' in many movies seems to be to pull the violence down to a PG-13 rating.
Posted by: twig at March 15, 2008 7:06 PM
I loves me some dystopian future, so this film is definitely on the schedule. If Reign of Fire had shown the Dragon/Human war instead of 10 years later, it would have been a much better movie.
Posted by: Adam C at March 15, 2008 7:47 PM
ShinyKate: Now that sounds like a drinking game I can get behind. I foresee myself, in a few months when this is out on DVD, sitting around my den with a few friends, barking out "MAD MAX!", and then slamming down a shot like Marion Ravenwood.
*This movie isn't worth the stock it's printed on. Hello - 28 Weeks Later? I won't be suckered in again.
Posted by: Neko at March 15, 2008 5:39 PM*
YES! A thousand times Yes! To call 28 Weeks Later a let down is not doing the magnitude of my disappointment proper service.
Posted by: Alabamapink at March 15, 2008 8:51 PM
the part about rhonda escaping with ONLY HER TANK-TOP, I`m hooked....
Posted by: PASADENAMIKE at March 15, 2008 9:20 PM
Pass. I'm disappointed it turned out to be this crappy. Especially since Marshall brought us The Descent.
Posted by: Arthur Dent at March 15, 2008 9:45 PM
Sorry to disappoint you PASADENAMIKE, but I'm pretty sure that means without a weapon, not without pants.
Oh, 28 Weeks Later...yes, I remember the disappointment. I'm hoping the talk of another 28 movie was merely talk. Or they somehow channeled the spirit of the first movie, either one works for me.
I'm seeing this movie anyway. Humor level boost in tow of course.
Posted by: Kay at March 15, 2008 10:04 PM
Oh, can't we just call it 'Mad Maxine Beyond Stripperdome' and be done with it?
Posted by: eats the sandwich at March 15, 2008 10:56 PM
it has the balls to give us a decapitated head implausibly shouting in fury as it flies through the air;
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Color me sold
Posted by: Brian at March 15, 2008 11:34 PM
Alabamapink: Great reference! I remember being a kid, seeing Marion outdrink the giant Sherpa (THEN punch Indiana Jones for breaking her heart), and thinking how much I wanted to be her when I grew up.
I have to say, while the heroine in this is very attractive, they really didn't sexualize her that much. She was much more Ellen Ripley than Leeloo from Fifth Element. Which I dug because- while sexy is great and all- it's refreshing to see warrior women in movies who aren't BLATANT fanboy-masturbation-fodder. At least, for me, it is.
The bare asses you see (my God, soooo many bare asses) are all anonymous. Apparently, future Punk/Cannibals are fond of wearing leather thongs without pants over them. Oops! Crap--- that doesn't count as a spoiler, does it?
Posted by: ShinyKate at March 15, 2008 11:37 PM
I LOVED Doomsday (aka I Am Legend 28 Days Later Facing the Resident Evil of the Lord of the Rings
from the Underworld of Gladiators and The Transporters: Beyond the Thunderdome)! I laughed so hard I peed my pants.
Posted by: Ciji at March 15, 2008 11:39 PM
The bare asses you see (my God, soooo many bare asses) are all anonymous.
Apparently it will be an asslesschapsapocalypse
Posted by: Brian at March 15, 2008 11:58 PM
"It often seems to me like Kate is trying to become that herself. Oh how infatuated I was with "Cold Comfort Farm" and "Shooting Fish" back when she was English."
Jay, I think I've written almost exactly that in multiple comment threads on here before (as in, anywhere Underworld is mentioned). Now where in Hungary is your family from? I wonder if they breed in a secret Beckinsale-adoration gene in the old country or something.
Also, Brian - asslesschapsapocalypse? Like I said, Burning Man ripoff. Straight up.
Posted by: Anne (in Reno) at March 16, 2008 12:48 AM
Anne, actually I have no idea about exact locations, just that some came to Montreal and from them some kept going down to Detroit, but I certainly do lean toward the fairskinned brunette and redheads for some reason. Getting all tan and blonde is like when someone tells me they need glasses but never wear them: an outrage.
Regarding Doomsday, I've walked by the poster inside the theaters for a few months, always thinking "is that for real?....Really, is this gonna ask to be taken seriously?". That was just off the poster, I've known nothing else about it. Apparently it *is* that silly. If only Wyatt and Gary were around to sort things out.
Marion Ravenwood is the shit.
Posted by: Jay at March 16, 2008 1:10 AM
asslesschapsapocalypse...
Classic.
Posted by: Riles at March 16, 2008 2:24 AM
Good review. I feel obligated to see this because I think Dog Soldiers is fun, and The Descent was excellent on many levels. But it sounds like I should take this movie with a grain of salt.
One minor thing: it's "Kurgan." Yes, I am a nerd.
Neko>> It's "bust" a deal. Oh, yes, I am truly a nerd.
Posted by: Darth Corleone at March 16, 2008 3:01 AM
Since I'm an apologist for both Reign Of Fire and Equilibrium, I think there's a damned good chance I'm going to be drunkenly hollering like a Milwall supporter when I inevitably go see this movie. A screaming, decapitated head, you say? Two tickets, please.
Posted by: Dill The Devil at March 16, 2008 8:28 AM
This is one of the most interesting reviews of the Doomsday movie. Great job! Thanks. May I quote you on my Doomsday Reviews website?
Posted by: Andrei at March 16, 2008 12:04 PM
Apparently it will be an asslesschapsapocalypse
And there goes tea, through my nose, all over my keyboard.
Posted by: ShinyKate at March 16, 2008 12:09 PM
it has the balls to give us a decapitated head implausibly shouting in fury as it flies through the air
Now I've definitely got to see this movie. I'll pick it up on DVD when it comes out. Gods know I love me some corny-ass apocalyptic-type movies. Reign of Fire, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, even Doom...
Posted by: Cuno at March 16, 2008 12:15 PM
...it clashes out Frankie Goes to Hollywood when two tribes sort of go to war
I am imagining that moment, and it is transcendent.
Posted by: Lannie at March 16, 2008 1:05 PM
For those who are sick of the typical fake Hollywood action scenes, I recommend the French film "District B13" (or "Banlieue 13" as it's known in France). The main actors are actually the movie's stuntmen, and they're impressive in both trades. There is no wire-work, no berserker cuts; just straight on, old fashioned ass kicking.
Thanks for the recommendation, Sarah. I checked this one out via Netflix's Instant Movies, and it was indeed awesome. It helped that the two leads were hawt.
One Parkour sandwich, please, with Daphne in the middle!
Posted by: Daphne at March 16, 2008 2:09 PM
Since I'm an apologist for both Reign Of Fire and Equilibrium...
I liked three things about Equilibrium:
-Christian Bale
-Really adorable puppy
-Christian Bale
I honestly don't remember the plot that much as I had to watch the movie in two sittings about 4 and a half weeks apart. My DVD player broke and in a long moment of dumbassedness I forgot my laptop can play DVD's. I think it's time for another watching. Luckily I have it waiting at home for me on my Christian Bale shelf...much like my JD shelf spoken of in the comment diversion.
[Adds District B13 to an ever growing Netflix list]
Posted by: Kay at March 16, 2008 7:09 PM
Saw District B13 at a small independent theater. The owner gives a brief introduction before each movie. I will always treasure his summary of DB13:
"It is a movie that speaks the international language of kicking ass and blowing stuff up."
I actually knew someone who wouldn't rent it because, and I quote: "It's got subtitles."
Jeez.
Posted by: alone in the dark at March 16, 2008 7:20 PM
i know i have basically seen this movie a million times under the aforementioned titles, but i will still see it. because i'm a sucker.
http://slackerchic.blogspot.com/
Posted by: slacker chic at March 16, 2008 8:09 PM
Couldn't resist the powerful combiantion of the highfalutenesss of a foriegn language movie (French no less) and the pure trash of a post-appocalypse movie. District B13 has been added to my queue. I love what I can learn here
Posted by: Brian at March 16, 2008 10:28 PM
I liked three things about Equilibrium:
-Christian Bale
-Really adorable puppy
-Christian Bale
Ha, Kay! I specifically recall a scene after he stops taking the meds, and he wakes up, half-naked(!!), in a cold sweat. One of my favorite scenes, for obvious reasons. I wanted to reach through my screen and give him some personal comfort, if you get my meaning.
Alone in the Dark - regarding your friend's aversion to subtitles? Oy. The theater owner's summary is quite appropo, though.
Posted by: Daphne at March 16, 2008 11:00 PM
District B-13 = awwwwesome.
what is it about action movies in French that makes them hawt, I ask you?
And the soundtrack is sublime, my friends. Sublime. Da Octopusss (for real) did some kick-ass music I'd love to see passed around stateside.
Posted by: Sarah (another one) at March 17, 2008 1:28 AM
Gods know I love me some corny-ass apocalyptic-type movies. Reign of Fire, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, even Doom...
Posted by: Cuno at March 16, 2008 12:15 PM
It being Holy Monday and all, I am compelled to admit, confession-style, that I have not seen any of the Mad Max movies, but I own both Reign of Fire AND Doom. I've been one of the more vocal apologists for Reign of Fire, but even I cannot defend Doom. It is completely worthless. I still watch it with my friends when I'm wasted, though. We have some high-ass standards for our liquored up movie viewing. We'll watch stuff like Strangeland and Killer Klowns from Outer Space. On purpose, even.
Now I will wait patiently for TK to come kick my ass.
Posted by: Sarina at March 17, 2008 9:55 AM
You referenced Bill Hicks; I am grinning ear to ear. And when I go see this movie, as I know I'll have to, I'll hear him in my head, singing, "We're the hooligans! [popping noise]"
Posted by: Noelegy at March 17, 2008 5:30 PM
Doomsday was hilarious! I got a six pack of the mini-Mickey's and laughed my ass off. The best part was when all the other people in the theater were laughing at the ridiculousity of the plot/dialogue.
And yes, it's totally honed in on the Burning Man spirit when Sol has his whack cannibal talent show.
If we're voting, I love me Reign of Fire (own it) but was infuriated by the stupidity of Equilibrium (Taye Diggs as Agent Smith, come the hell on!).
Posted by: Teresa at March 17, 2008 5:38 PM
at the risk of great scorn... can someone PLEASE explain the end of Dog Soldiers to me? Hubby and I watched it twice and still had a WTF moment with the chick and the house when the Wolves finally break in... did she let them in? Was she always one of them? OH for the love of GOD won't someone explain it?!?!?
I own Reign of Fire. It isn't even hidden in the back of my collection. It's right there, in the "Yummy Guys" section of the Post-apocalyptic section, under "B" for Bale, Christen. And my husband says our movies are out of order. Harumph.
Posted by: lilianna28 at March 17, 2008 5:57 PM
Those of you who are passing on this movie are missing out. Doomsday is so over the top that you'll be grinning like a fool remembering all the movies you saw as a kid during summer vacation that were exactly like this one. Mr ohgrl and I had a blast giggling at the cliches and pointing out all the movie references (whoever said "bust a deal, spin the wheel" upthread is so right on).
If that doesn't do it for you, Rhonda Mitra looks a lot like Victoria Beckham, so go see it and pretend you're watching "Posh Spice Saves the World."
Posted by: ohgrl at March 18, 2008 2:01 AM
This movie is the greatest parody of the apocalypse genre that could ever be made. There is no way in hell Marshall could have made this movie except to show the Wayan's Brothers how a spoof movie should be made.
And the best part is that the actors never break character and play their parts completely straight like it's a serious film...sheer genius. I actually enjoyed the hell out of it, but dear God is it over the top.
Posted by: Adam C at March 18, 2008 3:10 AM
Adam C, I have been on the fence about this movie right up to this point. Your analysis has sold me. I will be Netflixing the shit out of this movie.
Posted by: Jerce at March 18, 2008 11:56 AM
This movie sucked on every level. It was not nearly tongue-in-cheek enough to be viewed as funny-bad, and the action scenes are so tepid, dull, and cookie-cutter as to render them not funny either. Basically it treads this line between funny and serious that verges into both at all the wrong times, with a few exceptions. Plus, there's no characterization whatsoever. And, yes, I am a big fan of most of the films which inspired it.
Posted by: Darth Corleone at March 18, 2008 5:04 PM