Doomsday

This is going down as my favorite movie of 2008, and one of the most fun films I’ve seen in a while. I know it’s still early in the year, but I think Doomsday could hold it’s spot in my heart for a long time.

Doomsday is a post apocalyptic action film set in England. A virus has broken out and all of Scotland is under quarantine, walled off, and assumed to be dead. In the year 2035, the virus breaks out again in Britain and survivors are discovered beyond the wall. A special ops team is sent over the wall to find a cure. 

The movie is violent, with lots of corpse shots and plenty of blood splattering.  This gets a little overdone in parts, but not quite as much as a typical horror/slasher film. There are also a few gaps in believability that don’t quite make sense if you stop to think about it.

The key to enjoying this movie is to not think too deeply, just enjoy the action and cinematography. I mean it, if you’re going to get caught up in the logistics of one or two scenes, it will spoil the film for you. If you can sit back and relax and enjoy the excitement, you’ll love it.

Rhona Mitra looks amazing and has solidified her spot alongside other rough and tumble beauties like Resident Evil’s Mila Jovovich or Underworld’s Kate Beckinsale.

The film pays homage and borrows quite a few themes from The Road Warrior, especially during the exciting car chase scene at the end. I loved Road Warrior and if you liked that, you’ll probably enjoy this one as well.

I’ve read a few negative reviews of the movie and quite frankly don’t get it. One or two small points stretch believability a little. That’s about the only criticism I can agree with, although it didn’t bother me. I think the rest were mainly due to false expectations, not knowing what genre it was. This isn’t a horror movie, nor is it a suspense drama. It’s an action flick plain and simple, borrowing themes from Escape From New York, The Road Warrior, Resident Evil, and 28 Days Later.

I give it two thumbs way up.

We Own the Night

I finally had a chance to watch We Own the Night on DVD and I enjoyed it. There were plenty of big names who all delivered solid performances including Robert Duvall, Eva Mendes, Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg.

One of the first scenes was a little and could have been toned down a bit to make the movie slightly more family friendly. The violence and harsh language wasn’t out of control. I don’t particularly object to sexuality or violence in movies, but in this instance it struck me that there was one scene that didn’t jibe with the tone of the rest of the movie.

Joaquin Phoenix’s character was the only one I became attached too, as the others all had certain characteristics that made them hard to empathize with.

The plot moved along at a good pace and worked for me. I didn’t care for the scene at the end in the smoking field. Without giving away any spoilers, the entire sequence had some sizeable logical holes that turned me off a bit.

All in all, a very good film. If you haven’t seen it yet, go out and rent it.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

I had a chance to watch this film on DVD over the weekend. I give it a thumbs up. It was not without it’s faults, but a worthwhile film nonetheless.

This film is a drama through and through, and not an action movie or spaghetti western. The focus of the movie is the character development of Robert Ford and to a lesser extent Jesse James. Both Casey Affleck and Brad Pitt gave fine performances.

The movie seemed to drag on in parts and felt too long as a whole. There was one camera trick used repeatedly throughout the film where the outer edges of the picture were blurred. This was completely unnecessary. Cheap gimmicks like this to try and create an effect are amateurish attempts to make something look edgy or artsy and point to a director’s lack of ability to make the most of traditional filming.

Director Andrew Dominik definitely captured some shining moments in the film, but his attempts at being overly creative with the camera and his inability to trim time off of a few overly lengthy scenes keeps this good movie from becoming a great film.

Definitely worth a rent if you haven’t seen it, but make sure you’ve got a comfortable seat, you’re going to be there for a while.