Ahhhhhh why is it Monday? I could use another few days of weekend but here I am, pluggin' away and soldiering on. Luckily, I had a really fun weekend that was certainly one for the books. Firstly, good times on Friday celebrating the birthday of fellow former page and current Ellen staffer D. James. Second, this weekend was my FOURTH annual go-around at Wizard World LA. Yes, fourth! Wow - to think that four years ago, four fledgling NBC pages, united by a shared sense of geekiness, ventured down to Long Beach for Wizard World on one of my first true LA adventures ... crazy! Now we're four years older, not much wiser, and still pretty geeky (hopefully endearingly so), so it was fitting that the ol' crew got together for one mo' adventure.
The show this year at the LA Convention Center was a bit scaled-back from years' past. There certainly was a slight lack of big-time panels this year - no Kevin Smith, no big movie trailer premieres, no big TV show presentations with full cast and crew present. However, the upside was that the show this year had a pretty laid-back feel - not too crowded, with a relatively small show floor that could be navigated with relative ease. We went to two panels - the first was okay - it was a presentation by Lucas Films / Lucasarts that I was hoping might have some interesting new footage to show from Indiana Jones or somesuch coolness. The highlight turned out to be appearances by Seth Green and the other co-creator of Robot Chicken, who had some cool stories about their love of Star Wars and whatnot. Otherwise, what we got were rehashed footage and trailers from Indy 4, the new next-gen Star Wars videogame, and the upcoming Adult Swim CGI animated series. The second panel we attended I actually really enjoyed - it was a bunch of film and TV screenwriters who specialize in genre projects - guys behind things like Smallville, Battlestar, and upcoming film adaptations of The Incredible Hulk, Y: The Last Man, Teen Titans, and Sgt. Rock. Very, very interesting stuff, for sure, and a lot of good advice was dispensed throughout the panel.
As always, we saw a lot of cool celebs: Summer Glau, Seth Green, Milo V of Heroes, hardcore legend Mick Foley, Mr. Monday Night Rob Van Dam, Christy Hemme, the entire cast of Who Wants to Be a Superhero, and a number of others. Particularly cool was that my friend Seth, whose AIM screenname is a reference to Foley's trademark Mr. Socko, got to do a meet and greet with Mrs. Foley's Baby Boy, including a great photo op with the hardcore icon-turned-NY Times bestselling-author.
As usual, we try to cap off the night with an appropriately cool movie. Luckily, Universal just released a new genre action-adventure, Doomsday, and was holding a free employee screening that night. We went into the film not necessarily expecting much, but, well ... read for yourself:
DOOMSDAY Review:
- Sometimes, a movie comes along that isn't going to be a critical favorite, that isn't going to really win over a large portion of the movie-going public, and that isn't going to tear it up at the box-office. But sometimes, there comes a movie that despite all that, well, for a certain segment, a certain demo, it simply pushes the right buttons, and delivers exactly as it should. much to my surprise, Doomsday was just such a movie - one that delivered exactly what the doctor ordered, as a no-holds-barred sci-fi shoot-em-up that pulls no punches and is the kind of absurdly over-the-top free-for-all that they just don't make anymore. To get more specific - it's been a fun several months for those of us raised on 80's action movies. Last year around this time, Tarantino and Rodriguez unleashed Grindhouse - a flawed but fun-as-hell tribute to hardcore action flicks. Only a few months ago, we got a new Rambo movie that reminded what made those simpe-but-efective action movies of days gone by so memorable and beloved. Now, there is Doomsday - a movie that is essentially a loving homage to cinematic days gone by, but in its own right is one of the craziest, over-the-top, balls-to-the-wall action flicks to come along in years.
The quick n' dirty version? I'm going to throw out some references for you - if these things get your cinematic spider-sense tingling, then run, don't walk, to see Doomsday: John Carpenter, Escape From New York, old-school James Cameron, Aliens, Highlander, Paul Verhoeven, Robocop, Mad Max, and The Road Warrior. In short, Doomsday takes the best of these films and creates a rip-roaring post-modern mashup. If you're the kind of person who wonders why action movies have gone the route of safe, paint-by-numbers PG-13, mass-produced Hollywood "blockbusters," then look no further. Doomsday is a return to the glory-days of 1980's-style B-movie hardcore action, right down to the post-apocalyptic gangs of cannibalistic, mohawk-clad punk-rockers.
However, what makes Doomsday work so well is that while on one hand it's a clear tribute to movies like Escape From New York (there's even a character named Carpenter), it's also a very slick reinvention of the post-apocalyptic genre. You know you're in for something different when our female heroine, played with a badass screen presence by Rhona Mitra (think Snake Plissken meets Lara Croft), removes here Plissken-esque eyepatch and inserts a prosthetic, high-tech eyeball that doubles as a surveilance device. The other thing that makes this movie so intense is simply that it has some of the best damn action sequences I've seen in a long, long time. Early on in the film, when Rhona and her team of commandos breaks into quarantined Scotland, in hopes of figuring out how there are still surivors within the city from a thought-to-be 100% deadly virus, the team is attacked by a band of post-apocalyptic punks in one of the most insane action set pieces I've seen in years. Up to that point in the film, I wasn't sure quite what to make of what I had seen. But after I finally exhaled after several minutes of nonstop craziness, I looked up at my friends in the theater to see if they were all as giddy as I was. They were - and rightfully so - from that point on we knew that, thanks to director Neil Marshall and his obvious penchant for high-octane action, we were in for one hell of a ride.
And things never let up. The movie opens with a methodical intro that lovingly pays tribute to Escape From NY, complete with 80's-style vector computer graphics displaying a map of the quarantined areas of Great Britain. We are introduced to Mitra's character - a sullen emo-girl who escaped walled-off Scotland as a girl, and was scarred by the forced separation from her mother. We meet Bob Hoskins, who is great as a gruff government official who knows that when it comes to the impending search-and-rescue mission, Mitra is the only woman for the job. But man, after the aforementioned big action set piece, it's pure adrenaline rush. We get a crazy rock n' roll stage show, a girl-on-girl sword fight (!) that ends in shockingly brutal fashion, and an absolutely insane chase sequence as Mitra and co attempt to escape from the Jonny Rotten-esque leader of the survivor's faction.
And that's just for starters ...
What happens next is jarring, but fairly awesome nonetheless. We learn that while one group of surviving Scots has become a Mad Max-style clan of road warriors, a second faction, under the wizened rule of Malcolm McDowell, has embraced their medieval roots and become a clan of castle-dwelling, aromor-wearing, horse-riding knights! Yes, you heard me! Suddenly, Doomsday becomes a medieval action flick a la Excalibur, as Rhona faces off against a mace-wielding black knight in hand-to-hand combat and gets locked up in a castle dungeon. Finally, to cap things off, as the various factions go to war, we get one of THE craziest car chases I've ever seen in a film.
If all this sounds cool, then you'll really like Doomsday. Like I said, if the idea of an insanely brutal take on 80's sci-fi action flicks, mixed with a modern-day badgirl protagonist and Wachowski-worthy action choreography makes you giddy, then you are likely a soon-to-be-fan of Doomsday, a cult-classic in the making.
Yes, the plot can be all over the place, Rhona Mitra's acting is occasionally spotty, and sometimes the movie may even be TOO absurdly violent for its own good. But the best compliment I can give to Neil Marhsall and to the film is that, when the DVD is released, this is a movie that can sit on a shelf next to the likes of Escape From New York, Aliens, Robocop, and The Road Warrior. With all the talk of remaking movies like Escape From NY and Robocop, in what would surely be watered-down versions of the originals, I hope Hollywood is looking at this one and realizing that this is how it's done. The next-best compliment I can give is that, unlike most movies in this genre ... I would actually welcome a sequel, no questions asked! Appropriately, a phrase used by a man who once called himself a road warrior may be most fitting to describe Doomsday - and it's the reason I'm going, perhaps, against the grain and giving it such a positive review. The phrase? "Ohhh, what a rush."
My Grade: A -
Haha, okay, let's see what kind of response I get to that one (and let's see if I feel the same way a few months from now). But there you have it, folks.
- In any case, that's about all I've got for now. In terms of TV STUFF, I really enjoyed last night's KING OF THE HILL - a funny episode about a family-improvement guru whose advice leads Peggy to change the Hill family for the worse. I also am finally trying to finish up the run of TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES. This is a show that I'm happy to say really improved as its first season progressed. I still need to watch the S1 finale, but the episodes leading up to it have really been entertaining.
- I'd also encourage everyone to check out Miss/Guided on ABC, which I believe premieres this week. I reviewed it waaay back over the summer and it was up there amongst my favorite pilots that I saw during that period. Judy Greer is a natural comedic talent, and she takes what could have been a cheesy premise, about a high school guidance counsellor trying to overcome her years as a high school geek, and makes it into something very funny and entertaining.
Alright, now I've just got to survive this Monday. To quote Doomsday ... Goin' to be rough? Rough enough.
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