Film: 20 Movies in 20 Days: Doomsday

By Mister Chapel

It's unfair to say that I am broken up that Neil Marshall's "Doomsday" isn't nearly as good as I would have liked, because I was the one who deemed it unimportant to see when it opened last March.

However, as the first of a twenty-movie-in-just-as-many-days binge, it does have enough redeeming characteristics to hold one's attention. It's just a pity they're all from other films.

I couldn't help but notice how every little bit seemed to recall a movie prior.

Its opening - a quarantine shutting down Scotland with giant gates ("28 Days Later").

Its setup - needing to go back in to retrieve something important ("Escape From New York")

Its first action sequence - introducing a gagggle of military characters whom we like and killing them off rapidly as the enemy they fight closes in ("Aliens")

Its splatterpunk three-ring circus with a carnivorous crowd eating up the words and actions of its ringleader ("Moulin Rouge")

Its journey to find the one they need, who lives in a Rohanian castle with townfolk who're dressed the part ("The Lord of the Rings")

Its one-on-one gladiatorial fight scene (Guess)

The list goes on, but the bottom line is that Marshall, whose m.o. is usually tight-knit groups working together against a common enemy ("Dog Soldiers," "The Descent") goes balls to the wall here with the budget and scope, but doesn't hit the right notes with his characters, namely our heroine Eden Sinclair. We feel for her, we do -- but not nearly enough. It's entertaining, it's big, it's loud -- but it's similarly disposable as well.

Film: 20 Movies in 20 Days

On a Long Island Railroad train bound for Manhattan fellow Fanboyer Mister Chapel and I discovered something disheartening. 

We had seen a shockingly small amount of movies this year. 

Now, in the in the interest of full disclosure I must say that Mister Chapel was the more prolific movie watcher. With my most prosperous year topping out at about 100 and his, well, I'll let him expand on his own record because I don't think I can do it justice.

But this year our lists were hovering at about half my best total. And with the Oscars fast approaching we felt as if our usual top ten lists would be meaningless with such a small pool to pick from. 

To remedy that problem we created the  20 Movies in 20 Days challenge.  Which is, not surprisingly, exactly what it sounds like.  Our lists consist of movies that were released January 1, 2008  to December 31, 2008. 

We decided on 15 movies that we would both see and I chose 5 unique movies for Mister Chapel and he decided on 5 for me.  Both lists will be posted shortly.

These are movies we meant to see and missed, movies the other insisted we see and some are movies we think might be awful but we just need an opinion on.

Our mission ends February 3rd

The plan is to post small reviews for each film and to give our overall impressions of the experience of this kamikaze movie watching experience. Stay tuned.

Bobby Shortle

AKA.  Mister Pink