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| Originally when I saw the trailer for Doomsday, I have to say I was less than impressed. It looked like a hybrid of Escape From New York and The Road Warrior and, after the horror that was Waterworld, I can't say I was in any rush to see something in that vein. Then I found out that it was written and directed by Neil Marshall, the man who brought us The Descent (which may have been the best movie of 2005), I had to check it out. Doomsday is a pretty straight forward post-apocalypse movie, with just enough differences to make it worthwhile. The story is of a plague that breaks out in Scotland, the government reacts by quarantining half the island, building a wall and leaving the people on the infected side to fend for themselves. Now, fast forward 27 years later, and there's a new outbreak on the rest of the island and we've discovered that some of the people, who were all assumed dead, have somehow found a cure! So, an elite team is sent into the quarantined zone to find the cure and bring it back before London is turned into a city of the dead! |
The beauty of
Doomsday is that Marshall continues in the feminist vein that he started
with The Descent. The star, Rhona Mitra, who plays Eden Sinclair,
is the Snake Plissken of the piece, but it's not done in a way that's
satiric or comedic. It's all done is a very believable way, so
Doomsday sucks you in from the very start. Add to the mix Bob
Hoskins as the head of the London police and Alexander Siddig as the
British Prime Minister and you've got a great cast that only adds to
this great movie. There's an undertone of political intrigue and
it all just adds to the action. This is Escape From New York, only
done just as well...or maybe better than...the original. And
believe me, I don't say that lightly, Escape From New York is one of my
favorite movies! I'm giving Doomsday four out of four cigars,
because this is a movie that got widely overlooked and, while it's not
going to win any Oscars, it's still a pretty good action movie!
It's definitely one that's more than worth your rental dollar! So,
until next time, when I'll be building a wall around my house to
quarantine myself from my idiot neighbors, remember that the best movies
are bad movies. |
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