| Author | Message | ||
     Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.129.20.239 |
You know, every now and then you see a truly appalling film but can't hate it, even though it does every goddamned thing in the book wrong? This IS that film. If you like films with punk baddies in them this is for you. If you like films where people get their heads chopped off perfectly straightly all the time this is for you. If you like films where soldiers in tight black nylon suits with little ropey bits of armour here and there regularly say 'Suit up and boot up!' this is for you. If you want to see Sean Pertwee burned alive over what looks like a big garage disposable barbecue it's for you. (Sorry this is getting a bit boring) Oh, you might be getting the picture. What annoyed me was the exact copying of Escape from New York, with Kate Plissken (complete with one eye - the other a glass remote camera she kept rolling about like a marble) smoking fags all the time and being called in to do an impossible mission (only to be betrayed, of course - this isn't even a spoiler), then becoming Mad Max, only shit, then tootling along for five more minutes and suddenly becoming Excalibur before deciding it wants to be Mad Max again in time for bedtime. It has brand new phones and cars found in thirty year old storage that work straight away, people so hungry they eat each other only for two miles down the road five thousand cows are seen wandering about. And a firestarter-y punk who comes on a stage jiggling about without saying anything funny, even though he's acting like he's going to, all to the music of - explain it to me please - Fine Young Cannibals. Then it has the punks chasing the goodies with Frankie's Two Tribes go to War playing over it. Oh, it sucks, it really does. It's painful. It feels like some movie circa 1983 found recently having been left in some cupboard under J Arthur Rank's all these years. And yet ... you should probably all run out now and see it for all these very reasons. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.249.146 |
Sounds right up my street. :-) Seriously, though, it does sound great. Like Planet Terror, but referencing Mad Max and Escape From New York (movie heaven for me). | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.192.97 |
It sounds absolutely bloody terrible. I think I'll just watch Mad Max and Escape From New York again. | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.100 |
What's really dismaying is that the writer-director made The Descent. | ||
| Tom_alaerts (Tom_alaerts) Username: Tom_alaerts Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.242.14.132 |
Tony, I agree on all your points, and still I was very entertained. You may remember, this is what I posted here late march after viewing doomsday in the brussels film festival: I am just back from the screening of Doomsday at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival. Neil Marshall introduced it. In a word: for the most part it was huge FUN and it got a big applause at the end. Now that I am back I had a look at the trailer. Frankly the movie is a lot more FUN than the trailer would suggest. Yes of course, it's barbaric and it plays homage to all those great B-movies we loved in the past. The director however doesn't simply ape these classic movies but he really brings energy to his movie. As I wrote, the main reason to see it, and to see it on the BIG screen is that it is just big dumb FUN! It starts off as a cross between Escape from New York and 28 days later, then it briefly plays homage to Aliens, then Escape from New York again. Following this, suddenly we find ourselves in The Lord of the rings (yes, really) and then we are treated to a variant of the famous chase of The Road Warrior (the best Mad Max in my opinion). Marshall is in my opinion a director to watch, I liked his first two movies, and here you can see that he can handle a bigger budget as well. So, indeed, it is not original but as an homage to the days of the great B movies, I thought that it worked a LOT better than Deathproof or Planet Terror. There is plenty of sadistic humor in it as well. It's really in another class than recent B movies like AVP2. What's not so good: the action is sometimes cut too nervously leaving us wondering what's happening, the car chase goes on a bit too long and especially there is a rock concert that's just too dumb. You'll see what I mean. Considering previous movie comments here on the board, I think that most of you'll enjoy it. | ||
| John (John) Username: John Registered: 05-2008 Posted From: 82.24.4.67 |
This sounds like a big disappointment, especially considering Neil Marshall's first couple of films. I enjoyed Dog Soliders for the romp that it was, and thought The Descent was excellent. For a while I thought we may have found a modern, British John Carpenter - but it sounds like he's made his very own 'Ghosts of Mars' a bit ahead of schedule. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.129.20.239 |
Yes! Exactly Ghosts of Mars! I only hope it's his 1941 instead, and that he manages to recover. Honest; I've made it sound fun but it if it were an action figure it would be one of those hard ones with minimal articulation and a rubber head, with the whiff on Blackpool pier knock-off about it. You laugh but it still stinks. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.129.20.239 |
And Zed, even though Planet Terror and Death Prof are bad they still have a feel of craft about them. This really doesn't. After Descent it just feels like he pointed a camera at people playing. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.163.48.60 |
Death Prof It's that Gary Fry again! | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.129.20.239 |
Ha - could have been worse - could have been Planet Error.  | ||
| Griff (Griff) Username: Griff Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.100 |
 | ||
| John_l_probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 90.208.48.116 |
I've just read the SFX review which likens it to Enzo G Castellari's 'The New Barbarians' I was in two mind before but now I really really have to watch it. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.129.20.239 |
It's funny, but even though I found it terrible I do sort of recommend seeing it. Not something that happens every day. | ||
| John (John) Username: John Registered: 05-2008 Posted From: 82.24.4.67 |
I do rather have a fondness for bad 80s apocalypse films. A couple of months or so ago my girlfriend and I were running through a bunch of old videos we'd inherited from a friend and found the spectacularly bad, but strangely entertaining, '2019: After the Fall of New York'. Which was a bizarre combination of Star Wars, Planet of the Apes and Escape from New York. For added cult value, it also 'starred' George Eastman as a character called Big Ape. I'm still loathe to recommend it to anyone though. That same pile of videos contained the equaly amusing 'Sorceress'. Imagine if someone re-made Star Wars in a medieval setting, but replaced Luke Skywalker with a pair of buxom twins with a phobia of being dressed and you'll have a pretty clear idea of what that was like... | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.249.146 |
>>I've just read the SFX review which likens it to Enzo G Castellari's 'The New Barbarians' << That's me sold. :-) Anyone remember Atlantis Interceptors? I loved those old 80s Euro-Apocalyptic films. | ||
| John_l_probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 90.208.48.116 |
Zed - it's a shame we can't see it together. Anyone vaguely resembling George Eastman or Fred Williamson and sporting a huge fuckoff crossbow would no doubt induce whoops of delight. "Timothy Brent" or "Mark Gregory" less so - the heroes were always a bit drippy. Apparently Gregory had such an effeminate walk they had to keep his ambulatory scenes in Bronx 2 to a minimum! And yes, I now want to rewatch Bronx Warriors 1 & 2 and all the others. | ||
| John (John) Username: John Registered: 05-2008 Posted From: 82.24.4.67 |
Is there anyone out there who vaguely resembles George Eastman?!  | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 83.93.30.31 |
So I saw Doomsday yesterday. There isn't much I want add to Tony's review which I agree with. The thing that bothered me the most about this, is how rushed it felt - The filmakers were so worried about keeping the action moving all the time that it became a problem for me. There were obviosly some fun things in this, and a couple of powerful set pieces but it felt much less than all the previous films it was trying to emulate. The death proof /planet Terror films are in a class of their own compared to this I thought. This is not to say that this movie isn't any fun, it just has very little personality of its own and doesn't trust itself as it rushes from one genre and set piece to the next without taking a break. (By the way news for comic book fans- WATCHMEN just wrapped shooting- yeah!- We're actually going to see a Watchmen movie next year! From what production stuff I've seen they're going all the way with this one. Fingers crossed it will be good!) | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.145.131.242 |
Mark told me that there've been a series of murders across the US of well-to-do students, and that near the bodies have been found 'smiley face' graffitti drawings. Apparently two retired cops are trailing their way around the country trying to solve it. Sounds like a film, or book. He said there was a link to Alan Moore books. Maybe this is an extreme viral campaign? Imagine that... I came away from Doomsday really thinking about it, why I didn't like it. I had this idea that maybe it should have been much more experimental, mystic, maybe should have started from inside the wall, from the point of view of the medieval folk, then had these modern ones turn up. We could have seen medieval kids go out to play and realise they are playing on a scrapheap of motorbikes, stuff like that. John Boorman's sort of touch might have worked here, something goddamned - perish the word! - interesting. | ||
| John (John) Username: John Registered: 05-2008 Posted From: 82.24.4.67 |
I'm trying very hard not to get excited about Watchmen, but it's shaping up rather nicely so far. | ||
| John_l_probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 90.208.214.26 |
Having read the disparaging reviews of this it was with some trepidation that I went to see Doomsday this afternoon, only to find, once again, that the on the whole the reviewers have got it wrong. Unjustly compared to movies like John Carpenter’s Ghosts of Mars or various Italian Mad Max rip-offs, Doomsday isn’t really like such mediocre pictures at all. Because Doomsday is bloody brilliant. Don’t get me wrong – there’s an awful lot wrong with it. If you’re the sort of person who marks a film down for being derivative, preposterous, and sometimes just plain stupid then this will probably go to the top of your ten worst list of the year. After a pretty good opening we are subjected to the kind of ‘board room’ chit chat that reminded me of Lenzi’s Nightmare City (in fact at one point Marshall throws in an exploding rabbit to perhaps echo that movie’s exploding rat? Perhaps not). Rhona Mitra is in no way the most charismatic of leads and Bob Hoskins wanders around being the UK’s equivalent of Mel Ferrer. But once our crack team of commandos enter the plague-ridden demilitarised zone of Scotland it’s the cue for some tremendous action set pieces that sweep you along such that the dafter everything gets the more you love it. In fact I honestly don’t think I have enjoyed myself this much watching a movie at the cinema for about twenty years. Seriously - I cannot begin to tell you how much I loved this, which probably says more about me than about the picture, but if there were more films like this around the world would be a better place. Crazy, delirious, over-the-top, kinetic, knowing, and made with that sense of integrity that people like Michael Bay will never, ever understand. This is a fantastic British fantasy film, Neil Marshall is a bloody genius and I am going to go and watch it again. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.125.200 |
So you liked it then :>) | ||
| Tom_alaerts (Tom_alaerts) Username: Tom_alaerts Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.243.68.131 |
John, I think that you & I had more or less the same experience - see my mini review near the top. Yes, it was big dumb fun. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.145.131.242 |
P (the 'Lord' now being forever dropped), I hereby strip you of your epaulettes and medals and kick you up the bum on the way out for liking such a stinky-poo film.  Seriously though, folks, I thought it was like Ghosts of Mars because a) it was such a shocking leap down after his other movies b) because every single aspect of it could have been improved and c) it felt like three day old panacklety of panacklety of panacklety. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.249.146 |
Well, seeing that Lord P's tastes often echo my own (particularly when it comes to trash cinema), I still can't wait to see this. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.145.131.242 |
Take a deep breath and prepare for either reaction. And good morning! Nice day up here. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.145.131.242 |
The film also felt like watching your dad dance, if that captures what I mean. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.249.146 |
Morning! I'm off to work soon. My dad's dead (thankfully), so that would be a treat! ;-) But I know what you mean. The thing is, you either love this kind of trash or hate it. Generally, I love it. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.145.131.242 |
I don't mind trash - you know me! - but this is naff trash. Have a good day, Z! my youngest comes back from france today; he's been gone a week. Zed; never let your kids go away for a week. It's like they've died; Those firt few days were awful, really awful. The things parents have in store... | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
Yeah, whenever Charlie stays at his granny's for a few days, it's like there's been a death in our house. Too quiet. An energy missing from the house. It's awful. | ||
| John_l_probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 90.203.130.34 |
Tony - I absolutely agree with everything in your opening posting on this thread. To be honest even I couldn't quite understand why I had such a good time with this film. There's even an incongrously silly scene I swear to God he's copied from LifeForce (where it's equally as incongrous and silly) & when it popped up I laughed with delighted disbelief. Oh I don't know- it spoke to me on a school playground level, if that makes any sense. I still want to see it again as well. And I've ordered the soundtrack | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.145.131.242 |
Hope Fine Young Cannibals and Frankie aren't on it! And, um, Madness (?). You may have back your Blue Peter badge then, but can have another bum-kick just because I want to. Zed - my Dad's dead, too; what a pongy old disco that would make (actually a daft one, too - he's a little box of ash  ) | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.145.131.242 |
Wasn't Lifeforce great, 'Mr' P? One of the most glorious, super-daft movies of the eighties. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.249.146 |
I love Lifeforce. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.100.119 |
Hey - I have a dead dad too and will join in - died yonks ago. Never really knew him - he came from a very strict background = his father never showed any love to him either. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.183.144 |
Lifeforce had its good points, but I don't think it was a "great" film. I like watching "trashy" films as much as anyone here (I mean trashy in the "good" sense, in other words a basically sub-par film that redeems itself, to some degree, due to other strong points it may possess, such as strong stylistic touches), but let's not kid ourselves that a film being dodgy or trashy automatically elevates it to the status of good (let alone "great"). I enjoy lots of dodgy Euro-horror films, for example: I enjoy them for what they are; but I'm under no illusion that they actually represent great cinema.} | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.183.144 |
Sorry, I didn't mean to seem stuffy in that last post (it's the wee hours here and I've not slept properly for a couple of days). I hope you all know what I meant, and won't be asking me to hand in my Fulci Fan Club card... ;-) | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.145.131.242 |
Oh yes, Lifeforce was bad, but it had such a sense of gusto that's hard to recreate. And it did have a kind of awe never seen in other films in certain scenes, too. Maybe Count P can have an epaulette back. | ||
| John_l_probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 90.203.130.117 |
Tony, it worries me that such an obviously kindly person such as your good self would wish to divest me of garments and actually physically kick me . I hated LifeForce when it came out - I thought it was utter shit, because it had the potential to be so much more. It quite took a while for me to appreciate its lunatic appeal. Hopefully the same will happen with you and Doomsday. Which on reflection I still love. In fact the only thing that could have made it better would have been if it had been badly dubbed with the same three people doing all the voices & the credit 'dubbing editor Nick Alexander' at the end. | ||
| John (John) Username: John Registered: 05-2008 Posted From: 82.24.4.67 |
I suspect all men of a certain age have a particular fondness for Lifeforce. | ||
| John_l_probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 90.203.130.234 |
Tony - if it makes you feel any better one of my juniors said she would be going to the cinema this weekend 'But I won't be going to watch any of your kind of films Mr Probert, like that Doomsday'. Maybe I won't give her a reference | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.249.146 |
Well, I've just watched Doomsday...and I bloody loved it. Marshall is obviously channeling, at varies points, Escape from New York, all three Mad Max films, Turkey Shoot, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Warriors, and Romero's The Crazies and day of the Dead. The film is completely lacking in subtlety, utterly derivative, amazingly gratuitous, and at times plain silly, but it's also rather grand. Amid the familiar touchstones, there are some inspired moments of lunacy - maybe its my age, or because I'm English, but I found a strange resonance in the very British scenes of devastation: abandoned rows of terraced housing, stilled windmills, familiar road signs overgrown with weeds... The extended shot-for-shot Mad Max II tribute near the end was, for me, pure movie heaven - worth the price of admission alone. This is clearly Neil Marshall's unashamed love letter to the films he grew up loving - the exact same films I grew up loving. And you know what, I love his film too. | ||
| Gcw (Gcw) Username: Gcw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.43.119.208 |
My, what a long thread...! Lifeforce is worth watching for the glorious silky dark pubes and sturdy hips. Not sure about Doomsday....Any pubes? gcw | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.145.131.242 |
Nah. Hmm...pubes. You watch Trinny and Susannah tonight, GC? Pubes ahoy! | ||
| John_l_probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.253.174.81 |
Gary McMahon - once again you confirm my opinion that you are a man after my own heart. And obviously a man of superb taste | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.249.146 |
Yes, I want your heart; I'll keep it on a dusty shelf in a small belljar, labelled with love. :-) | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.24.122.40 |
Someone should dump you two on an island with a TV, a video recorder, and a load of grubby Betamax recordings of 70s and 80s horror. Hog's heaven. | ||
| John_l_probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
That would be truly wonderful. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.24.122.40 |
Except for the lack of a electricity supply. Ha! | ||
| Gcw (Gcw) Username: Gcw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.156.42.111 |
"...You watch Trinny and Susannah tonight, GC? Pubes ahoy!" I missed 'em Tony? -goddam! I agree with your comment elsewhere -give me a nice furry frontbum anyday! yum. gcw | ||
| John_l_probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 90.209.204.82 |
Enough about pubes - I've been stuck in a traffic queue for the last three hours which has given me a proper chance to listen to the Doomsday soundtrack, with a 7 minute mix of Two tribes, a 30 second mix of the can-can and a lot of very noughties action music. Not bad but not brilliant | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.149.134.59 |
Did you hear about the dyslexic teenage sex maniac who went to Blockbuster to pick up a film? | ||
| Martin Roberts (Martin_roberts) Username: Martin_roberts Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 80.2.9.127 |
I did not enjoy this movie as much as I wanted to, but this is brilliant... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b32wAU3XfqE | ||
| Simon Bestwick (Simon_b) Username: Simon_b Registered: 10-2008 Posted From: 86.24.165.182 |
Just saw this and loved it. Nothing to ad to Lord P and Zed's comments above as they pretty much nailed it. No, it doesn't have the subtlety of 'The Descent' but it's still great, demented fun. Tomorrow night's DVD will be... 'Brotherhood Of The Wolf', I think. | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 62.31.153.8 |
Delighted you loved it Mr Bestwick! I think Neil Marshall could teach Mr Tarantino a thing or two about quality exploitation film-making. Doomsday is now on my list of movies that cheer me up no matter how I'm feeling. Tim Burton's Ed Wood is another. It's a pretty strange list | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.240.106 |
Ed Wood is the greatest feel-good movie of all time...and I bet our reasons for liking it are similar, JLP. I find it utterly inspirational. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.188.184 |
I agree with Lord P and Zed about Ed Wood - Burton's best film, in my opinion. I just rented Doomsday yesterday on my way back from the hospital, so I'm hoping I'll enjoy it. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.183.75 |
I just watched Doomsday, and it was crap. Really, really awful. Tony was spot-on with his comments that started this thread. Sorry, but for me it's not enough to just randomly throw in bits stolen from other films - the film itself has to actually be good, y'know? What a waste of two hours! I should have watched Escape From New York or Mad Max again instead. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
I knew you'd hate it, mate. Ah, well - it's all about personal taste, innit? | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
It's interesting that the reasons Tony hated this film are almost the same reasons JLP and I loved it. Quite what that says about me and the good Lord P, I hesitate to imagine.  | ||
| Jonathan (Jonathan) Username: Jonathan Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.109.168.200 |
Yeah, not Mr Marshall's best in my opinion. But as someone who publishes fiction based along very similar lines I'm probably just jealous. Mind you, our latest post-apocalypse novel has a man punching a grizzly bear in the face (don't worry, it's an illustration) on the front cover, which still beats anything in Doomsday IMHO. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.183.75 |
Now that I would like to see! Zed, I usually like the same films you and Lord P like (I sneaked into the cinema to see many of these films in the late seventies and early eighties, so I'm about as big a fan of them as you'll find), but I don't see the point in copying older films that were very much 'of their time' and have become cult films because, in large part, of their originality. Doomsday just fell flat for me. It has nothing of its own to add. I'd much, much rather see another The Descent, or Dog Soldiers, both of which were infinitely more interesting and entertaining than Doomsday, in my humble opinion. Did Lord P. ever get the epaulettes that Tony stripped him of back, by the way? | ||
| Jonathan (Jonathan) Username: Jonathan Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.109.168.200 |
Then high you hence: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Afterblight-Chronicles-Death-Got-Mercy/dp/1906735158/ref =sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1251387456&sr=1-1 | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.177.87 |
That's great, Jonathan! Reminds me of Conan - didn't he punch a horse or donkey in one of those movies? Nice title, too. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.153.149.114 |
'Did Lord P. ever get the epaulettes that Tony stripped him of back, by the way?' Nay. He wrestled me to the ground fopr them once or twice but I still have them. Glad you remembered that, btw! |