Doomsday (2008)

A deadly virus of unknown origin has spread rapidly through Glasgow, Scotland, killing its victims rapidly. The British government has built a 12 foot steel wall the whole length of the Scottish/English Border in super quick time, so that nobody can get in or out and so the Scots can rot away to their hearts content. 20 years later in London and there is another outbreak and so the government is forced to act, they know that there are still survivors beyond the wall and so they send a crack team of experts in, to find out if they possibly have immunity and to find the mysterious Dr Kane a scientist they believe might have been working on a cure. The leader of this expedition is Maj. Eden Sinclair, a one eyed woman who as a child had been saved by soldiers at the last moment before the wall closed for the last time. her motives are to see her family home and perhaps find her mother.

Like all films by Neil Marshall this latest effort came with a great air of expectancy, so does it deliver?Â…well it does and it doesn't. Its an apocalyptic tale along the lines of 28 days Later, but it soon spreads its wings and delves into many genres and plucks with its plagiaristic fingers ideas at will from many films. The overall feel of the film is a hotch potch of ideas, one gets the notion that Marshall doesn't have an original idea of his own at all. What is it about the future, that when all law and order has gone and people are struggling to live, find food and drink, some shelter not to mention avoiding a deadly virus etcÂ…rational thoughts desert them and the first thing they want to do is build a car or a hotrod motorcycle with skulls on it?Â….well I'll tell you why, because they need transport to the local Cyber Punk Hair Salon, where they all queue for hours with photographs of their favourite member of Sigue Sigue Sputnik and discuss the merits of Adam Ant's Kings of the Wild Frontier, where they also tell the stylist "I want a Mohican like that...oh and could I have it in bright pink please? damn all out of bright pink, How about luminous aquamarine or cerise? Not only that, but they also live in Glasgow, I don't know if any of you have been to Glasgow, I have many times and its Effing freezing, so why do they all the men go around bear chested and all the ladies wear leather bikinis or less? Maybe its because they are at war with the devilish Dr Kane, who lives in a big Castle, where all the men wear suits of armour and all the ladies have wee lace bonnets and dress like old hags? One thing about a deadly virus it always gives people bad dress sense.

Marshall has made his own bed here and must take responsibility for a lack of imagination, I believe he has stated he wanted this one to be "for the fans", so they could "guess the films he was homaging", but it can't take away from the fact that he has single handedly stolen ideas from Mad Max, Escape from New York, 28 days later, Ivanhoe, Gladiator, Indiana Jones and a host of other genre films. So enough of the good things and on to the bad, oh I mean good, Well the film wastes no time in getting going and it goes along at a fair old pace, so fast you don't always have time to turn your eyes to heaven and tut. The special effects are really good, as are the fight scenes and the driving/chase scenes, the acting is a little stilted though, (ooops I'm back on the negatives again...oh well) the dialogue doesn't fare much better. From my comments you might think I hated this film....I didn't, I don't know wh

Fmovies: Like Greg Mclean, director of "Wolf Creek" and another great white hope for the horror genre, Neil Marshall followed a very promising horror flick with a deliberately trashy project. Where Mclean directed his attention to a murderous crocodile, Marshall took a bow to two of his favorite movies, "Escape From New York" and "Mad Max". "Doomsday" is not just influenced by those two movies, it's practically a mash-up with the female heroine from "Underworld" thrown-in. So, the first thing you should forget about when you pop in this movie is originality. Marshall makes no excuses for paying homage to his heroes George Miller and John Carpenter (hell, he even named two characters in this movie after them).

Like "Escape From New York" and "Mad Max", "Doomsday" demands a lot of suspension of disbelief to be enjoyable. However, maybe sci-fi flicks could get away with more stupidity in the 80's or maybe Marshall's movie is just extra dumb. Sometimes it seems like the director wasn't even trying to fill plot holes or avoid laughable action scenes. If you're looking out for mistakes in "Doomsday", you'll find plenty to complain about.

So, no, this isn't the high profile follow up one would have wished for after the dense, claustrophobic "The Descent". On the other hand, "Doomsday" doesn't fail to entertain. It's fast paced and charmingly old fashioned. Who else dares to come up with a post-apocalyptic world in which punks and knights rule the country in this day and age? Marshall's love for the project is somehow transmitted to the viewer and actually gives you a very pleasant feeling.

If you're able and willing to turn off your brain, "Doomsday" can be a very entertaining, old-fashioned action movie. It may not be a masterpiece or even a good movie, but it can definitely be seen as a fun little interlude by a director that must not be written off just yet.

Like Dave White says on his review, this movie is all about action and gore and it has anything you can imagine. Pick up your favorite thing of any action movie... Yeah, it has.

Neil Marshall is the director of this sci-fi-thriller-epic. He's also the director of The Descent (2005), an incredible thriller with great tastes of horror with an outstanding grand finale.

Of course that Doomsday is not so refined like his previous movie, but while the The Descent is all about technical perfection, Neil Marshall seems like just having fun here, and that's what makes this movie so enjoyable, because it's thrilling without being intelligent, it's funny without being crappy, it's frightening without being predictable and also predictable without being unpleasant. It's a very uncommon action movie that brings us back to great references in action movies thru the years since the 80's. It could have been a huge mess, but it actually works. It starts as an horror movie like 28 Days Later, then it becomes a sci-fi movie with tastes of Alien, bring us great remembers of Mad Max, passes thru dungeons tales and ends up like The Transporter. Right to the point: Neil Marshall is not afraid to dare and play with clichés in action movies over the decades.

Doomsday has some resemblances to his previous movie: it's all surrounded by a female character; the main character has to deal with "things" that somehow survived in a stark place and the characters has to deal with extreme conditions.

The main character is performed by Rhona Mitra, an actress who is gradually gaining prominence and more interesting major roles mainly in action movies. And she deserves it. Specifically in this movie she is a bad-ass woman with heroic intentions but politically incorrect, which makes her character well edged with an interesting appeal, giving to the audience fair reasons to keep their attention always on her and thrill with every moment she gives. The movie is all about her, and Rhona Mitra was a good choice for the role because she has all the qualities and flaws that fits perfectly to the character.

If you like action movies but it's not worried to dare something a little different from what is being produced in the last few years, this is an excellent choice. It's not something that you will keep remembering for a good time like the movies that became references to this one, but it's something that you will enjoy (a lot) for a few hours.

Doomsday fmovies. What an insane movie! I saw it in a criminally tiny Saturday afternoon audience (four people) and we all had a terrific time. Don't expect sense, great acting or original dialogue, just go for the kicks and enjoy. A totally deranged, over-the-top splatfest with hideous viral deaths galore, some of the best post-holocaust punk makeup and chase scenes since Road Warrior, brilliant use of 1980's dance music (Adam and the Ants, Frankie Goes to Hollywood--the placement of Siouxie and the Banshees' "Spellbound" and a Fine Young Cannibals track at the punk barbecue is simply inspired), a coliseum battle-to-the-death, a bizarre interlude in a Scottish fiefdom that feels as if the movie took a fast detour into the Shire, and the coolest star turn by a UK car since Harry Potter's posse made one fly. All of it snapping and crackling with so much kinetic energy and wild creative freedom that it's hugely exhilarating. We were still giggling like maniacs an hour after the movie.=) It's just such fun to see a director decide to go full-speed over the edge like this. It's not great art, but trust me, if you enjoyed Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, Planet Terror, Escape from New York/L.A., and/or any recent zombie movie, you can't miss this one.

I saw this with my dad in a theatre in 2008. As a fan of Neil Marshal, I enjoyed it. His Dog soldiers n The Descent r very good horror films. I found this flick to be a very entertaining n action packed. It was like Mad max on steroids. This movie is a pure adrenaline rush with lots of action and suspense, violence and gore. Its an over-the-top grindhouse epic. A homage to Mad max, Escape from New York, Death race, 28 days later. Awesome visual effects. The pacing is very good. Action n horror fans will not b disappointed. The gore was excellent n top notch. The action is superb, the car chase is excellent with lots of body count n superb camera work n loud music. Mitra is gorgeous, the cinematography is excellent. Pure action n entertainment at its best. Bought a DVD of it recently. Need to revisit. Need to check the hot babe Lee-Anne Liebenberg.

It's April 2008, and a sudden viral outbreak has hit Scotland hard. To contain the deadly bug (dubbed the Reaper Virus), the British government works quickly to build a containment wall around the afflicted country. The possibility of the disease spreading to the rest of the world appears to have been effectively stopped in it's tracks. Fast forward 30 years and the virus has reappeared, this time in London. Satellite monitoring has picked up images of apparent survivors in the hot zone, which leads the government to suspect the potential for a cure. Desperate to put an end to the reborn plague, the Brits send a team of soldiers into the walled off country in the hopes that they can find the cure that may not even exist.

The third feature film from British filmmaker Neil Marshall. I thought this was a fun time at the movies, but don't expect anything new here. Doomsday is a pure love letter to Escape From New York and the Italian post-nuke films of the 80's. There are homages all over this thing, and I would like to think that I caught most of them. Hell, even Nightmare City seemingly gets a nod with the look and behavior of the infected. Watch the scene where one of the infected axes his way into Hatcher's compound and see if Lenzi's trash classic doesn't come to mind. Marshall knew what he wanted to do with this film, and he does just that. I have to admit, it was somewhat surreal watching such a film on the big screen, particularly the extended Sol/feast scene, which gets pretty nutty.

Rhona Mitra plays the team leader of the squad sent into the hot zone. She's a gorgeous woman with a killer accent, but she also comes through as a believable action star. I've long been a fan of her's, so it's nice seeing her get a role like this. Craig Conway is warped as the over-the-top Sol, but he lacks menace. He did get me to hate him, but that had more to do with the fact that I found him annoying. The considerable talents of Malcolm McDowell, Bob Hoskins and Alexander Siddig provide solid support despite what little they have to work with.

My biggest gripe with the film is the wall to wall use of music. It seems like there's never a scene that doesn't have some form of music blaring, and that becomes tiresome. A little more subtlety in that area would have been most appreciated. Also, some of the scene transitions feel awkward, and the film itself feels quite rushed. We don't get much down time or quiet moments, it's all very busy.

Still, I must admit that it's decent fun. Original? No. Flawed? You bet. That aside, if you have a certain affinity for this brand of entertainment, you should eat it up. And for the record, I'll take this one over The Descent any day. Mitra puts the wannabe badasses in that clunker to shame.