Doomsday (2008)

To the left: UK Universal Pictures Blu-ray edition; To the right: Swedish Paramount DVD edition


OK, where's Doomsday 2 ?

Argh! It seems to be my fate. When i really, REALLY, love a film, preferrably a wild Sci-Fi action- or crime movie as Dredd and Doomsday,
then they are huge flops when released initially - and there will be NO sequels. Aaargh!
If Dredd for sure is not trashy but cinematographic genre perfection Doomsday is a trashy and extremely entertaining delight and i think
i must've watched these 2 favourites at least 10-15 times, on DVD, Blu-ray and on TV.

A whole world of cult film lovers wonder why there hasn't been any sequel made to Dredd, based on the amazing british sci-fi comic 2000 AD
it's well suited to, like Marvel, to have several sequels (if not endless one's as Marvel) at least a couple, and maybe even more well suited to
have it's own TV series (Hey Netflix! Just handle over the money to some talented British guys and call Karl Urban).

Regarding Neil Marshall's great Doomsday a sequel unfortunately looks less likely as the film super flopped and was met with bewilderment
or even Hate (just read the cretins hate-mongering on IMDB and shudder). BUT, we're a few who loves this crazy film, who get's it, the FUN,
Marshall's loving homage to some of his favourite films, Mad Max, Escape from NY, Zombie films etc.
Doomsday just Rock & Roll and almost careens off the road and into a wreck, but just almost. It's prime trash and with a tremendous pulse.
The film was made to get a sequel, the super great last scene builds up to that. Just think about a Doomsday 2 with Rhona Mitra as major
Eden Sinclair leading the violent proned and cannibalistic youths of Glasgow in a war against the revengeful Canaris troops. Orgasmic !

Rhona - The Ultimate Lara Croft

Aaaaaaaah...... Rhona Mitra, i'm speechless. First the insanely gorgeous model for the early (and greatest) Tomb Raider PC games and now an
epic performance as the harder than rock Major Eden Sinclair in Doomsday. She's fantastic and dominates the movie, a female action hero in
the same league as any Sigourney Weaver (Alien) or Linda Hamilton (Terminator). Yes, ha, ha, Doomsday can't be put in the same A League
as these 2 sci-fi classics but as a Trash B movie Masterpiece Doomsday Rock's maybe even more, and Mitra's performance is Gold, if unsung.

Yes, i have a confession to make also. I was in love with this gorgeous British-Indian actress and model even before watching this film. Why?
No, no, you can laugh as much as you want, but i won't be ashamed. I'm a fanatic fan of the computer game Tomb Raider and i've played these
games many, many times. The hero of the games is the adventurer and countess Lara Croft, the grave robber No.1, and the model who was used
in the 1990's for the animated Lara of the early and epic games and for the promotion was .... Rhona Mitra (pic above).

OK, Angelina Jolie was perfectly OK too in the movies even though the director was bad and they're quite boring. I 'm sure Rhona would've
been just as good as Angelina if not better, and i belong to those players that prefer the games when Core made them. Much better and more
atmospherical than the games made by Crystal Dynamics.
Like 2 of my other favourite actresses, Olga Kurylenko and Mila Kunis, i've only seen Mitra in 3 films: In the very trashy but somewhat fun
B movie Beowulf in 1998, in The Hollow Man in 2000 getting raped by evil invisible Kevin Bacon, and then in Doomsday in 2008.
I have not seen her in the Underworld franchise series due to the explosion of abominably bad CGI. Rhona Mitra was born in 1976.


Major Eden Sinclair in her Bentley

The Film:

Scotland 2008 - the deadly Reaper virus has struck and people die in millions. The north of Britain is sealed off with a huge wall along the lines
of the old Roman wall of Hadrian, equipped with automatic weapons killing everything alive advancing towards the wall.
25 years later satellites has shown pictures of people moving around on the streets of Glasgow and Edinburgh, survivors of the epidemic.
London is overcrowded and life is cheap, a hellhole and when the Reaper virus returns and hits London the DDS - The Department for
Domestic Security, run by the delightfully slimy and nasty Canaris (a GREAT David O'Hara) has a solution. If there are survivors up there,
then there must be a cure and a special unit under the command of Major Eden Sinclair is sent into the forbidden zone looking for it.

They're searching for the scientist Dr. Marcus Kane (Malcolm McDowell) at his latest known lab at a hospital in Glasgow, but what they find
is the fact that Glasgow in the year 2033 is populated by a horde of immune youngsters lead by Sol (Craig Conway) and his ultra-mean girlfriend
Viper (Lee-Anne Liebenberg). Very aggressive youths who has become Cannibals.

Lee-Anne Liebenberg as Viper

Rhona Mitra and David O'Hara are GREAT, Adrian Lester as the Sergeant and Bob Hoskins as Eden's superior are good and the for me unknown
Lee-Anne Liebenberg is very memorable in her smaller part - a South African model, actress and celebrity.
And, let's just think about it, about the Sequel that never was .... with Rhona Mitra again as Eden Sinclair and as the leader of the tribal horde vs.
the fascist army of the evil Canaris. Drool. As someone said somewhere - Doomsday, The Smartest Dumb Movie Ever Made.

Marshall started well with a fine trio of films, Dog Soldiers in 2002, The Descent in 2005 and Doomsday in 2008. He followed the great Doomsday with
the probably not so good Centurion in 2010, where Romans fights scottish Picts (and has Olga Kurylenko in it) and after these 4 feature films he has
not made another film, only television work in series. Was it the poor reception of Doomsday that ended his feature film making career?

The Wall? It's depressing and unpleasant to think about it but some scientists with a hypothesis about the future of Man regards is as plausible
when the much over-populated and polluted Earth is striking back on us humans with enormous cataclysms, and with huge masses of refugees
in a desperate search for food and a place to live. These more prosperous areas/countries may then close the borders, with a wall like in the film.

The Blu-ray is presented in widescreen 2.35:1 and with a english DTS-HD master audio 5.1 with english subtitles. Extras: an audio commentary
with director Neil Marshall and cast members, a booklet and a lot of interactive features

The old Swedish DVD was in ditto widescreen 2.35:1 with an english audio 5.1 with swedish subs. Extra: Anatomy of Catastrophe: Civilization on the
Brink (17 min), The Visual effects and Wizardry of Doomsday (8 min), Devices of Death: Guns, gadgets and Vehicles of Destruction (20 minutes)

 

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