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2008-03-26 16:34:26 ET I’ve read several reviews of this movie, mostly negative. They say it’s loud and dumb. They say it’s hopelessly derivative, and that it’s needlessly violent, and is a mess both in content and editing. I can’t say that any of these arguments are wrong, but they are entirely missing the point. Apparently a horrible plague breaks out in Scotland next month. England responds by walling off the whole area by land and sea to let disease and victims both die out. So sometime in the 2030’s, Eden Sinclair (Rhona Mitra), a British drug enforcement agent and one of the last people to escape from Scotland before the quarantine is sent back in. Seems the disease has appeared again in London, and evidence exists that there are survivors in Scotland. She must find these survivors and figure out if there is a cure. Along the way she encounters a cannibalistic gang of motorcycle savages and a medieval kingdom ruled by a former doctor (Malcolm McDowell), First off, this movie shamelessly plagiarizes from just about everything. Seriously, just name five movies at random, and I can almost guarantee you’ll see something from each of them in here. That said, it manages to synthesize them into something new, or at least different enough to be interesting. Yes, you’ve seen it all before, but not exactly the same way. This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in reason times to just turn off your brain and enjoy. It’s fun, it’s loud and violent, and it’s full of karo syrup blood. There’s also a rather surprising appearance by Bob Hoskins, who has one of the most inconsistent filmographies I know of, but I like to think he was having fun here. I could probably say more, but there’s not much point. Either you’re into this kind of thing or you’re not. It’s not Shakespeare, but it’s fun. Also Lee-Anne Liebenberg’s Viper is the hottest thing ever, and she needs to be in all movies from here on out. |
