Never seen a John Carpenter film? Haven’t found the time for Mad Max? 28 Days Later looks too scary? Well, has Neil Marshall got a deal for you! All these films, plus many, many more, all mashed into one easily digestible package! How can you lose? Order now and you’ll also receive a set of steak knives at no cost to you!
Doomsday certainly wears its influences with pride. An intentionally ridiculous amalgam of almost every high-octane B movie of the past hundred years or so, it’s not so much a coherent vision of a dystopian future as it is a “best of (fill in genre of your choice here)” YouTube video. However, considering the oeuvre of writer/director Neil Marshall (Dog Soldiers), it is well-directed ridiculous mayhem, which is pretty much a summation of any classic B movie anyway.
Beginning as a 28 Days-type thriller, Doomsday rapidly shifts into Escape from New York gear, as major asskicker Maj. Sinclair (Underworld: Rise of the Lycans’ Rhona Mitra, frequently eyepatched à la Snake Plissken) is sent into the virus-scorched wasteland of Scotland to search for a possible cure before London tears itself apart. There, she encounters both Road Warrior-type cannibals and an Arthurian feudal system of government ruled by insane scientist Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange), because who else?
Also, Bob Hoskins (Who Framed Roger Rabbit) is hanging around for some reason, and soldier Adrian Lester (Primary Colors) plays heroic second fiddle in what will now and forever be referred to as “the Michael Biehn role.” So, yeah, he dies.
And then there’s a car chase that leaves me exhausted and hungry for more. When is Mad Max: Fury Road coming out again?
Again, it’s all nonsense (and frankly not up to the rest of Marshall’s output, including The Descent, although his talent for gore remains intact), but goddamned if it isn’t fun nonsense, even if half the time you’re playing the “what’s being referenced now?” game. And Mitra’s qualities as kicker of ass should be much more in demand. In a genre saturated with bone-thin heroines who appear too frail to lift a sandwich (let alone a gun), her musculature is a rare thing indeed. She might not be a physical match for Haywire’s Gina Carano, but I’d put her up against the likes of Kate Beckinsale, Angelina Jolie, and Zoe Saldana any day. I leave it to you to daydream about that. —Corey Redekop
LOL’d on the “lift a sandwich” line. I need to revisit this one. When it first hit DVD, I got the Carpenter vibe immediately, but found myself bored and never finished it. The failure of this one at the box office seems to have put Marshall in Movie Jail. I never hear cult crowds talking about it the way they do Dog Soldiers, which they revere (I think it’s overpraised), or The Descent, which I’d like to see again ASAP, if only as an excuse to finally see the sequel directly afterward.