Doomsday [DVD]

As a British male swiftly approaching 30, I know I'm not alone in getting a bit nostalgic now and then. Particularly when it comes to the movies. In an age where more and more action and horror films are being dished up to us neutered and sanitised - PG-13 'Terminator' and 'Die Hard' films, for God's sake! - I find myself more and more taking comfort in the full-on blood and guts fuelled classics of yesteryear. Ranking high among those are the films of John Carpenter, and George Miller's 'Mad Max' trilogy (or the first two at least.) And I'm certain I'm not the only one who had long been wishing that someone would come along and create a new movie in that 80's B-movie style.

Well, wish no longer. Neil Marshall has answered those prayers with 'Doomsday!'

And by gum, he's had a lot of mud flung at him for it. And the mudflingers really need to chill. Yes, the premise basically is 'Escape From New York' in Scotland, right down to the brooding synth score and the Atari-style graphics used to illustrate the walled-in zone. Even the same John Carpenter font is used for the opening credits! But it's not as if Marshall expects us not to notice this. At heart, `Doomsday' is doing the exact same thing that `Grindhouse' intended to do: evoke the spirit of a past age in cinema. And I dare say Marshall has done so far more successfully than Rodgriguez and Tarantino managed to. For as loaded as `Doomsday' is with knowing film geek references, it never gets all `nudge-nudge wink-wink' about it. There's humour, for sure, but never does it lapse into parody, not even when the music of the Fine Young Cannibals and Frankie Goes To Hollywood make an appearance.

Marshall made a decent first impression with the lightweight but likeable `Dog Soldiers,' and cemented himself as director of real power and vision with the awesome, truly scary `The Descent.' Here, while continuing his fascination with titles beginning in `D' (?!), he shows that he's far from a one-trick pony, staging numerous massive action sequences that squeeze in an impressive amount of bang-for-buck (the budget being I believe in the region of $30 million; his biggest to date, but small change by modern Hollywood standards). The script may be a bit patchy, sporting some dodgy dialogue and poor plotting, and some of the performances are a little lacking - in particular, sad to say, those from old pros Bob Hoskins and Malcolm McDowell. It's left to leading lady Rhona Mitra to catch the ball, and to my surprise she does so admirably. Step aside Alice and Lara - Eden Sinclair is the best action heroine we've had in years, and it's all down to Ms Mitra (though Adrian Lester provides solid support, and Marshall mainstay Craig Conway makes for a great psychotic nemesis). Far from being another embarrassing case of pretty girl trying to act tough - Denise Richards, anyone? - there's no doubt from her first moment on screen that Eden is not someone to be messed with, and when she kicks ass, you believe it.

But ass doesn't just get kicked in `Doomsday.' Oh no. It gets bludgeoned. It gets perforated. After all, why just cleanly stab someone when you can instead bloodily dismember and decapitate them? There's a big part of why this movie so much fun, and so reminiscent of the glory days of 80's action and horror - there's not a dry death in sight. And thankfully, little if any of it is that lame CG blood we're all growing sick of the sight of these days. Add to that a spot of great old school car chase action, and even a soupcon of swordplay, and you've got yourself just over an hour and half of blistering entertainment. Yes, of course it's a bit silly, and very, very, very derivative. But it's so much fun. It might not change anyone's life, but I really struggle to see how anyone couldn't at least have a good time. Naysayers be damned. Neil Marshall is here to stay. Bravo.

An outbreak of the reaper virus in 2008 causes a pandemic in Britain, in an attempt to quell the disease from rapidly spiralling out of control the government quarantine the hot zone located in Scotland leaving the infected to meet their fate. many years later the virus resurfaces in London desperate to find a cure the government send a special ops team into the site of original infection where signs of life have been uncovered, upon arrival the team become tangled up with two warring tribes. pursued the team attempt to locate a cure and get out without getting cooked.

Neil Marshall's follow up film while entertaining ends up falling short of the mark the Descent was a tense serious claustrophobic horror which was eerily effective an Dog soldiers struck a perfect balance between horror and dark humour, which doomsday fails to master as quite as well.
The film at time fails to find its own identity clear connections can be seen between such films as 28 days later, Mad max, Escape from new york etc. because of this the film jumps around going different directions and at times cant seem to decide what it wants to be.

Regardless of this what makes the film so entertaining is its ludicrously over the top actions set pieces which when they kick into gear they are a visceral gory treat for action fans, directed an edited well these scenes are adrenaline fuelled and plentiful in supply the movie boils down to disposable action flick this will satisfy the needs of any action junkie and is well worth a look but don't expect any more than throwaway entertainment.

A nice modern day B-movie, a strange, funny mix of different genres that some how works, at times scary, then funny, then surreal, and to top it all off has Bob Hoskins in it.