Rating: NNNN
Doomsday (Alliance, 2008) D: Neil Marshall, w/ Rhona Mitra, Bob Hoskins. Rating: NNNN DVD package: NNN
This is a high-energy, high-body-count science fiction actioner that almost qualifies as a classic. Or so I wrote when it hit theatres back in March. I was wrong. There’s no “almost” about it. This is a classic. Partly that’s for the ending, which blows The Road Warrior out of the water and suggests a sequel I’d pay good money to see. More, it’s because any actioner that can thrill on second viewing a mere four months later is doing something seriously right.
Plague is breaking out in London. Survivors of the original epidemic have been seen in Scotland, quarantined and left to rot for 30 years. An embittered major (a suitably flinty Rhona Mitra) and her squad are sent in to bring back the cure. Graphic violence and a couple of nifty plot surprises ensue. Meanwhile, back home, government slime gear up for the vicious and plausible betrayal that gives the movie its hardest punch.
Doomsday looks epic and moves fast. Writer/director Neil Marshall rips off countless Road Warrior gags, but he does it well and he’s come up with a significantly different and engaging story and hero.
The three making-of docs are brief but fun. Best is the weapons and vehicles one for its close-up look at the props department’s improvise-and-customize work.
EXTRAS Three making-of docs. Widescreen. English, French audio. English, French, Spanish subtitles.
