Doomsday

Title: Doomsday
Director: Neil Marshall
Released: 2008
Staring: Rhona Mitra, Bob Hoskins, Malcolm McDowell, Alexander Siddig, David O’Hara, Craig Conway, Adrian Lester, Chris Robson, Leslie Simpson, Sean Pertwee, Darren Morfitt

Plot: In 2008 the reaper virus was discovered in Scotland, infecting hundreds and killing millions, leading the authorities to quarantine Scotland from the rest of England to prevent the prevent the virus spreading further. Three decades later the virus appears again in London and Eden Sinclair (Mitra) and a team of specialists have been sent back to Scotland to search for the elusive Dr. Kane (McDowell), while in the time since the quarantine has caused those who survived to become brutal savages



Review: For one reason or another I’ve never got around to watching this film until recently when it happened to be on “Sci-fi”, so recalling that it was somewhere in depths of the “Lovefilm” rental list I thought I’d actually give it a watch, especially seeing how the list currently stands around 475 queued titles, I doubted that it would be getting watched anytime soon otherwise, especially with the reviews on it’s initial release being pretty much meh! With this in mind I can’t say that I was exactly expecting much from this film.

Right from the start there is a creeping sensation of Déjà vu, as the military forces gun down a frenzied mob of the potentially infected, in scenes all to reminiscent of “28 Weeks later” (2002), with this feeling only growing throughout when it suddenly becomes clear that Marshall is attempting to use the Tarantino style of film making by scrapbooking and adapting scenes and ideas from his favourite films and while Tarantino takes his inspirations and gives them his own unique spin to create a multi layered homage to the cinema he adores, were as here Marshall seems to be simply cutting and pasting scenes were needed into his Scottish setting, which at times seems to the sole original element on hand and while it largely works, it certainly took me more and more out of the film, every time one of these lifted sequences appeared as I tried to remember were I’d seen them before, with the inspirations coming from the predictable such as “Escape from New York” (1981) and “Mad Max” (1979) with Eden’s character being an amalgamation of the leads of those two films, with the loner attitude and eye patch of New York’s Snake Pliskin and the cold personality of Mad Max’s Max Rockatansky with both drawing this nature from their surroundings aswell as the trauma of losing a loved one, with Eden losing her mother during the opening riots, causing her to become isolated from the rest of society. Still despite being a combination of two of cinema’s greatest antiheroes, Eden stands up well which is no doubt largely on part to a believable performance by Mitra, seen here in one of her first leading roles, with the original intention of giving her a handful of witty one liners being thankfully removed, while more questionable aspects such as her bionic eye work surprisingly well, while only adding more much needed originality to her character. Still both of those films director atleast get some recognition in the form of Soldiers Miller and Carpenter, though this felt like brick to the face in the terms to subtly much like Marshall’s blatant plagiarism of ideas.

Marshall’s vision for his quarantined Scotland is certainly an interesting one as the action is split between the apocalyptic and savage city, which I’m sure we are supposed to assume, is Glasgow which is now under the anarchic rule of Kane’s son Sol (Conway) who is one half psycho while the other half is pure side show barker as he rules the punk like Marauders with a mixture of violence and alternative cabaret which also includes an interesting use of the Fine Young Cannibals track “Good Thing” which has a whole bunch of interesting imagery now attached to it, thanks to this film like much of the 80’s influenced soundtrack, with Marshal originally aiming for an equally 80’s synth track, but later opting for a heavy orchestra score instead.
The flip side to Marshall’s vision comes in the form of Dr. Kane’s Medieval influenced empire, were he has established himself as a Col. Kurtz esq figure and despite the country being in quarantine it certainly hasn’t stopped his group from using authentic looking medieval outfits and weapons, yet no mention of how he managed to convince his numerous followers to go along with the idea of taking things literally medieval. This sudden change of surrounding does however mean that you end up feeling that the group have somehow stumbled into another movie altogether.

The action sequences are all handed well from the city foot chase sequences and Mitra handles herself well in a fist fight with Marshall providing a good action quota throughout and even finding space for a couple of car chases, which again draw heavily from their inspiration with the first taking it from “Aliens” and the second seeming like a mash up of the best bits of the Mad Max trilogy, with the location being exchanged for the Scottish Highlands, which although it’s exciting to watch in places with some clumsy camera placement causing the illusion of high speed to seriously be lost to the point were pedestrians would no doubt be moving quicker than some of the vehicles..

As a director Marshall hasn’t really won me over with his films to date with both “Dog Soldiers” (2002) and “The Descent” (2005) being largely forgettable, while his last film “Centurion” (2010) was enjoyable enough but not enough to make him a director worth watching for future projects and I can’t say that this film really changed that opinion, even though it surprisingly proved to be a largely fun film despite it’s flaws, while it’s blatant plagiarism prevents it from becoming little more than disposable fun, even though Marshall seems all set to take us back to the Apocalyptic highlands judging by the open ending, I personally think that one trip is more than enough for most but the least cinematically educated of viewers.

Surveillance

Title: Surveillance
Director: Jennifer Lynch
Released: 2008
Staring: Julia Ormond, Bill Pullman, Pell James, Ryan Simpkins, French Stewart, Kent Harper, Michael Ironside

Rating: 3 / 5

Plot: Two FBI Agents Anderson (Ormond) and Hallaway (Pullman) are brought in to help deal with the aftermath of a violent roadside rampage, were the only survivors are a cop (Harper), a Junkie (James) and a young girl (Simpkins) and each of them has a different tale to tell, as the agents attempt to discover what happened.

Review: When you’re the child of someone famous there, is always going to be that shadow which your parent casts over any project you choose to undertake, which bares any similarity to thier own, which often makes it all the more harder for your work to be recognised, for your own individual merit rather than being seen as simply cashing in on your namesake. This more recently has lead to several of these second generation Writers / Directors choosing to take on alias’s for their work, as is especially the case with Joe Hill, whose breakthrough novel “Heart Shaped Box” might have been viewed with a more jaded critical view, had he announced that he was in-fact the son of Stephen King and to his credit only really revealed this, when comparisons were drawn between his work and that of his fathers. Still for one reason or another Jennifer Lynch choose to instead stick with her real name, making for an interesting career move, especially when you consider the fact that her dad David Lynch, is a director with an extremely rabid fan base, as well as being largely renown for his surreal style of film making (aswell as selling his own coffee and performing his own LA Weather reports on his website), making it even less of a surprise that upon the release of her debut film “Boxing Helena” (1993) that numerous comparisons were drawn between the two, with many of those same jaded critics, writing her film off as an attempt to imitate her fathers style. Still fifteen years later she has returned to the director’s chair to take another shot, at making a name for herself as a director.



Hitting the ground running with a series of quick cuts, breaking up her title cards we bare witness to the graphic attack of a couple by a figure, whose features seem horribly mutilated, which certainly grabs the audience while it also feels almost as if Lynch is laying out a forewarning of exactly what kind of movie this will be, while certainly not being afraid of holding back, which could also been seen as Lynch going for double or quits with this film, by bombarding the viewer with this violent and disturbing imagery, which continues throughout the film.
From here we are introduced to the two FBI agents, whose relationship seems to be friendly but certinaly not on the same flirty level as The X Files's Mulder and Scully, who are bizarrely always the first people I think of whenever I hear the words “FBI Agent”, but those well known agents are a whole world away from Agents Anderson and Hallaway, who only speak the minimum amount of words to each other, while generally being devoid of any small talk of any form, preferring a straight to the point attitude. The casting of Ormand and Pullman as the agents feels like a good choice, even if Pullman is especially creepy here, while also appearing to have suffered some kind of stroke, seeing how facial expressions seem for some reason a challenge to him here, as he pretty much keeps the same spaced out expression throughout the film.
Upon arriving at the police station, were the remaining three survivors are being held, it is clear that, this area is certainly not used to seeing crimes of this nature, seeing how shocked everyone comes across, no doubt the result of having to patrol the same desert highways their jurisdiction covers. It is also here that the main meat of the story begins, as each of the three survivors regale their versions of what has happened while being watched constantly by Agent Hallaway, who uses a series of surveillance cameras, to watch each of the rooms, listening in to what each person has to say.
These three stories are all intercut with each other, slowly piecing together what has happened, as we see each of the characters paths as they cross, in the lead up to the massacre. What is interesting with these stories is how Lynch has chosen to shoot them, with Bobbi claiming to have been on her way to a job interview when she was actually scoring drugs, with Lynch skilfully editing flashback footage with her statement, so that her words end up take on a metaphorical meaning, while meanwhile it soon become clear through these same techniques, that Officer Bennet is not as clean cut as he makes out, as we watch him and his former partner Officer Conrad (Stewart) flaunt the law for their own person amusement, to the point were they make the cops from “Superbad” seem like upstanding officers of the law, as they abuse their powers of authority at any given opportunity, with their favourite game being to shoot out the tyres on passing cars, so that they can then play mind games with the drivers, with their own extreme version of good cop, bad cop. It’s these scenes in particular which make for especially uncomfortable viewing, as they torment and tease their victims, never once caring about their actions, seeing themselves in many ways as a kind of untouchable presence. Stewart is particularly convincing as Officer Conrad, having finally shrugged off his goofy comedy sidekick typecasting, which he has carried with him the last few years, since playing Harry on “Third Rock From The Sun” and here he seems to excel when having given the freedom to do something different, though it could just be another example of comedians making really good psycho’s, a prime example of which being Robin Williams in “One Hour Photo” (2002) which creeps me out just thinking about it.



The side of the story comes from Stephanie, who having just witness her whole family being killed in front of her doesn’t appear to be overly shocked, by what she has witness, as she calmly tells her story to Agent Anderson, which could in many ways be down to Simpkins performance as Stephanie, who Lynch apparently based on her own daughter. True I can understand the need to include a character who represents innocence in this dark and corrupted world that Lynch has created for her characters, but Simpkins for the most part just comes of more irritating than anything else, which seems to a frequent problem recently I found with directors, wanting to include these innocent child characters, only for them to annoy the hell out of the viewer, as was especially the case with “Sunshine Cleaning” (2009).
While I'm finding fault with this film, I should also mention that this film is also especially slow moving, despite having a brisk 99 minute running time, which it certainly felt longer than, as Lynch take her time to slowly revel the truth behind what has happened, before pulling a slick twist ending which did seem slightly more timid when compared to the really twisted original ending, she intended to use and which appears as an extra on the DVD, for the more curious amongst you.
On a fanboy kind of note, Michael Ironside is great for his brief amount of screen time he receives; as he plays the role of Capt. Billings almost effortlessly as he continues to prove that he really is the less costly version of Jack Nicolson and despite his presence being brief he still manages to make his character feel necessary to the main storyline.



Although “Surveillance” might have been more warmly received than her debut, it still bares many finger marks of her father’s work (who incidentally is also the executive producer), giving the film at times a surreal feeling though, certainly not placing the film in the same dreamlike world, that his films tend to inhabit, which might still keep her in his shadow, but it is certainly an impressive return and one which hopefully marks the start of more and equally interesting work to come.