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But dozens of filmmakers have been hit by
the bug at one time or another : Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese
(I know many see Casino
as a second-rate version of The Godfather),
Kevin
Smith (whose Clerks 2
was barely a shade on his penniless original), Richard Donner (whose
still paying for Timeline),
John McTiernan (dude, Rollerball?
What The..!?), Paul Verhoeven (no wonder he returned to Holland) - the
list goes on...
The latest member of the "Money first, Merit later" club is Brit
filmmaker Neil Marshall, whose previous two films Dog Soldiers
and The Descent
went down well with both audiences and critics. When U.S studio, Rogue,
snapped up Marshall's latest script, Doomsday, they
weren't buying anything as inspired as the filmmaker's earlier efforts
- but more so a retread of a movie that worked some thirty years before
– Escape from
New York.
But maybe thats what they wanted?
It definitely isn't what we wanted...
Set in a post-apocalyptic United Kingdom, where most of Scotland has
been quarantined and presumed dead, the film sees a one-eyed (hmmm)
heroine named Eden (Rhona Mitra) - whose own mother was left in the
quarantined area, when she was a tyke - leads a team to seek a cure in
inhospitable Scotland, where they have received photographs of humans
walking the streets, when the virus begins to belatedly emerge in their
preserved homeland of England.
The initial reason for getting into the quarantined area of Scotland is
to locate a doctor (Malcolm McDowell) – the only man genius enough to
have found a cure, if thats what has happened.
A B-film in blockbuster clothing, Doomsday borrows
near every element from the classic John Carpenter movie, and then
raids his other film The
Thing for added inspiration. Whether the film was any more
original before the studio got its hands on it, I dunno, but at the end
of the day, the storyline would have remained the same, if nothing else
did, and that is the part that stinks of snatch.
There is a film here to enjoy, though.
We've got a kick-ass heroine (Rhona Mitra, of TVs Boston Legal,
finally graduates to leading lady status); some impressive production
design (would have cost a boat load), and - if only it weren't so
unoriginal - a fun storyline.
Judging by the performance of the film in the states, it is pretty safe
to say that Neil Marshall might put a little more effort into his next
film – that is, if he wants to stay in with the big boys in Hollywood
(I'm betting a few lost their jobs over Doomsday).
Fun but forgettable.
DVD EXTRAS with Sean Lynch
Considering this flick barely made a whimper at the Box Office (and
I'm talking anyway... they can't even use the old "Well, we did really
well in Germany" excuse) there is quite a bit of extra material that's
been slapped together for the DVD release.
There are a bunch of
behind the scenes featurrettes including "Anatomy of Catastrophe:
Civilization on the Brink", a fairly interesting one on the craft
behind the films varied explosions in "The Visual Effects and Wizardry
of Doomsday", etc.
There is also a Feature Commentary with
director Neil Marshall and selected Cast Members (surprisingly, no one
owns up to why they actually agreed to appear in the movie... go
figure) which is probably one for the fans only.
Not to bad, I guess the studio are hoping for this to become a bit of a cult hit. The operative word being... "hope".
Conclusion:
Movie 60% Extras: 60%
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