Doomsday (2008)

Perfect cast and a good story

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

I really wanted to love this film, but it sadly disappoints. "Doomsday" is a love letter to "Escape from New York" and "The Road Warrior" with it's story of a deadly viral outbreak in Scotland that causes the entire northern part of the UK to be walled off and it's inhabitants left to their own devices for survival. The story then picks up 30 years later when the British government finds themselves needing to go back into the quarantined zone to search for the virus' origin after it resurfaces outside the walls in London. Rhona Mitra, complete with a Snake Pliskeen-style eyepatch, leads an elite group of soldiers inside the walls to search for their goal, fighting off various wasteland inhabitants. This part of the film worked well as fun homage to John Carpenters "Escape from New York," but when the story takes an unexpected turn following Mitra's escape from the city into the picturesque countryside, where survivors have formed a medieval society led by Malcolm McDowell, it's too much of a genre shift to be believed or enjoyed. A homage to John Carpenter and George Miller is one thing, but when writer/director Neil Marshall decides to thrown in a "Excalibur" and "Highlander" homage, that's a bit much. The film does come to life again in the final third act, which involves an extended Road Warrior-like car chase through the wastelands, but Marshall is sadly no George Miller when it comes to action, though in all fairness, who is? Although I may seem mostly negative in my review, there really is a lot to like. Rhona Mitra is very good in the lead, the urban wasteland production design and costume design are both spot on, as are the car designs in the final Max Max inspired sequences. Marshall is a talented director ("The Descent" is a genuine horror classic), but "Doomsday" is not up to Carpenter and Miller standards. If a filmmaker wants to make a homage such as this, it either needs to be able to live up to it's source material or it needs to be able to offer something new. "Doomsday" offers neither. Quentin Tarantino manages to do both brilliantly in nearly all of his films (heist films, blaxploitation films, revenge films, kung-fu films,, grindhouse, war films, westerns, etc.). On it's own, I'm not sure how "Doomsday" would be received by audiences unfamiliar with 80s post apocalyptic films, but for audience members with an affection for these film, which Marshall certainly has, this film does offer enough treats to be worth watching, even if the overall experience seems disappointing. Overall, if watching "1990: The Bronx Warriors" or "Cherry 2000" is your idea of a good time, you should definitely check this film out.

Doomsday is a ridiculously trashy post punk action picture set in a futuristic Britain.A deadly virus has caused chaos in Scotland. The government has erected a 12 foot steel wall along the border to separate it from the rest of the country.Now, 20 years later the virus is broken out in London and the government needs to find a cure. They know that there are survivors up in Scotland and send a unit to find someone with immunity.Major Eden Sinclair (Rhona Mitra) is leading the troops, she is feisty and brave. She needs to be as Scotland is a post apocalyptic nightmare and she thinks the government who have sent her have an agenda.It is clear that writer/director Neil Marshall wears his film and musical influences on a sleeve here. There is a soundtrack harking back to the 198os. There are nods to films such as Mad Max, 28 Days Later, Escape from New York.I just think it was all a bit banal and bad. The gratuitous violence against women is off putting though.

It's "Escape From New York" meets "The Road Warrior" by way of "28 Days Later" in "Doomsday". Director Neil Marshall's ("The Descent") post-apocalyptic homage to the above mentioned (and more) plays it pretty fast and loose with plot and logic, never once slowing down for character-building as it jumps from one wild set piece to another. It's a film that seemingly has no attention span, never feels terribly cohesive, and yet never fails to entertain.It's the year 2035 and a virus has all but decimated Scotland. In an attempt to contain and control the virus, the government builds a wall separating the ravaged country from the rest of Britain. Presumably, they made Scotland's ravaged population pay for the wall themselves. Enter hardened officer Eden Sinclair, as played by Rhona Mitra. Part Sarah Connor, part Snake Plissken, Sinclair (and her faceless team) is tasked with re-entering the ravaged region to hunt down a possible cure for the virus. Along the way, she matches wits with the locals who include but are not limited to a group of "Mad Max" rejects and a game Malcolm McDowell (who also provides the film's lengthy expository narration). Butts are kicked and blood is shed, to say the least.Marshall knows what kind of film he is making and he also knows you've seen this film a hundred times before. Appropriately, he takes glee in his film's excess, going full Paul Verhoeven at times in embracing over-the-top gore and laugh-out-loud ultra-violence. This is a film made for the genre fan whose bread is buttered by '80s action, sci- fi and horror. It's pure homage of the highest order; a grindhouse- esque onslaught of tackiness and titillating tension. "Doomsday" never quite rises above its source material, and that's OK. As far as mindless, late-night entertainment goes, few modern films get the formula down as well as this glorious cheesefest does.

(Originally seen many years ago) Extremely dumb and rather nasty as well, film's like this bring nothing new to cinema, except maybe extra mean spirited violence and themes of cannibalism, but if there are people who find this sort of thing fun, I suppose they will keep making this uninspired, nasty trash. Doomsday is pointless and awful. 0/10