'Doomsday' has Apocalypse Wow
(An expanded version of my story from the NY Daily News, March 11.
by Justine Elias

(Doomsday opens March 14. Universal's official movie site is here.)

Forget all quaint notions of plaid kilts, malt whiskey, and Highland terriers: In the futuristic action movie Doomsday, Scotland, circa 2035, is a walled-off quarantine zone. A virus has wiped out 99.9 percent of the population. When a new outbreak ravages London, the government forms team of commandos to seize survivors north of the border and find cure. But the remaining Scots are hostile. Breaking out is impossible. Breaking in would be insane. Who'll be tough enough to lead the mission?

For DOOMSDAY director/writer Neil Marshall, 37, the heroine is Maj. Eden Sinclair, played by Rhona Mitra. (Picture a female Snake Plissken, the badass hero of ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK) Sinclair's got guns, a posh accent, and a mechanical camera-eye. "Eden's a child of the apocalypse," says Marshall. "Her mother sacrifices herself to save her, and she remembers that moment. Rhona was great at showing those feelings." And like Kurt Russell's Snake, Eden's got a mean streak. Says Marshall, "Rhona's got a very cruel smile."

Continue reading "DOOMSDAY: Neil Marshall Interview" »

Posted by Justine_FilmFatale at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I'm not the only one who's bewildered by the criss crossing time lines (loops?) of THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES and the first two TERMINATOR movies. (I guess we're supposed to put T3 out of our minds, as though it didn't happen. But it did: I saw it.)

Todd Seavey leaps into the the whole time travel issue in this timely essay. By Seavey's count,

"(ignoring comic books and other spin-off material), there have been at least three Terminator timelines (though I’m using the term “timeline” loosely, since the general implication in the Terminator universe is that there is, strictly speaking, only one timeline and that it undergoes changes.... —this all quickly gets absurd if the time travelers of 2032 have potentially unlimited power to keep going back and changing things — Terminator quickly becomes Groundhog Day, or at least becomes that bit from Family Guy where Peter keeps going back in time and screwing up his first date with Lois."

Go ahead.

Geek out with him. He's a smart guy. He's done this before with the STAR WARS films and the fictional universes of the films, tv specials and books.

I'm happily trapped in the 1970s with the time-travelling (or comatose and dreaming) hero of LIFE ON MARS.

Posted by Justine_FilmFatale at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If Fox runs out of episodes of 24, the network can run this top secret, never before seen pilot: what the deadly game of spies vs. terrorists would have looked like in 1994.

Produced by College Humor

(Thanks to Andrew Hearst of Panopticist for the link)

Posted by Justine_FilmFatale at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Boston Globe reports today on one of its former film critics, Michael Blowen, whose post-reviewing life has taken a surprising turn. A horse lover, he learned that many retired racehorses were sold for slaughter. (He saw the practice firsthand as a volunteer stableman at Suffolk Downs, where older, losing thoroughbreds went to their doom for mere $500.)

So after Blowen left the Globe, he founded a nonprofit organization called Old Friends to fund retirement home for old racehorses.

Read about Old Friends, Dream Chase Farms, a true paradise for horses -- and a truly standup guy, Michael Blowen.

"There's even a movie star on the farm. Popcorn Deelites was one of eight horses who played Seabiscuit in the Academy Award-nominated movie. Pops - as Blowen calls him - is in every scene where Seabiscuit breaks from the gate."

Continue reading "Horse-Happy Film Critic Rescues Racehorses" »

Posted by Justine_FilmFatale at 12:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What to wear to your end of the world party?
Out: Mad Max leather and homemade haircuts.
In: Guns, garters and deep red Apoca-lipstick.

This Sunday in the New York Daily News: Hot heroines(and a few heroes) of the Apocalyptic cinema

Milla Jovovich, RESIDENT EVIL: EXTINCTION
Rhona Mitra, DOOMSDAY
Will Smith, I AM LEGEND
Gerard Butler, ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (the forthcoming remake)
Michelle Yeoh, SUNSHINE

and a few of favorites from the 1970s and 1980s

Adrienne Barbeau & Season Hubley, ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (1981)
Rosalind Cash, THE OMEGA MAN (1971)
Linda Harrison, PLANET OF THE APES (1968)

Posted by Justine_FilmFatale at 10:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)