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"Doomsday"

Rated: R

Starring: Rhona Mitra, Bob Hoskins, Malcolm McDowell

Directed by Neil Marshall

Run time: 105 minutes

4 out of 5 stars

Remember how completely awesome "Grindhouse" was? Of course you don't, because 90 percent of the people reading this missed that wonderfully over the top classic when it was in theaters.

Most people are probably going to make the same mistake with Neil Marshall's "Doomsday." Marketed as a horror-action movie, it definitely skews more toward the latter. This is a wonderfully trashy movie, filled with bullets, car chases, explosions, hot babes and people being eaten. The odds of it making money are slim.

The movie is a bizarre mash up of "Mad Max" and "28 Days Later" with elements of both "Gladiator" and "Aliens" thrown in for good measure. It takes place in the future, three decades after the Reaper virus has wiped out Scotland. The country has been quarantined, and yet suddenly, the virus breaks out in London. A team of scientists and authority figures (read: stock characters) are sent into Scotland to find Dr. Kane, who may have the cure.

What they encounter are a band of cannibalistic mercenaries who populate the streets of Scotland, and the team has 48 hours to find the cure and get out.

On paper, the plot sounds kind of dumb, and it is. However, the plot is not important here. The action is. And boy does it deliver. This is the only movie where a person is likely to see a gladiator battle coupled with a futuristic gunfight and a car chase involving Bentleys.

The blood flows freely and the women who populate the landscape don't wear much. This is a movie made for guys and film geeks who love cheesy horror flicks and action movies where you don't have to think much.

Director Neil Marshall, who previously helmed "Dog Soldiers" and "The Descent" hits another home run with this movie. This is a man who clearly grew up with 1980s cheese, and the movie feels like it might have fallen out of that era, or perhaps been on the bill at a grindhouse theater. Despite some overly edited fight sequences, the film feels fresh and completely different from Marshall's previous work.

The acting is competent, but hey, who goes to a movie like this for the acting? Rhona Mitra provides the female heroine and the breasts, Bob Hoskins is the authority figure and Malcolm McDowell plays the maniacal leader of the crazy people (certainly a stretch for him after a long career playing crazy people). There are even a lot of token characters who get splattered nicely.

Obviously, this is not a meaningful or deep film, and it is largely forgettable. But look at what Marshall has done here: He has created a film that never wears out its welcome and has precisely the right amount of character development to make the audience feel along with a great amount of energy that sustains the entire film. He also takes a group of complete genre clichés and makes them feel fresh. Not many other films or filmmakers can do this. Marshall is clearly one of the most talented people working in the action-horror genre today.

"Doomsday" will likely die a quick death at theaters and live on as a cult classic. For those who see it on the big screen, feel free to laugh, squirm and cheer along with it. So few movies succeed as great trashy entertainment, but "Doomsday" does a hundred times over.

Wes Lawson can be reached at 536-3311 ext. 275 or w4027@siu.edu.

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