As scattered as it is senseless.
Doomsday (2008)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:63
Fresh:30
Rotten:33
Average Rating:5/10
Consensus: Doomsday is a pale imitation of previous futuristic thrillers, minus the cohesive narrative and charismatic leads.
Runtime: 1 hr 45 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
US Box Office: $10,955,425
Synopsis: Writer/director Neil Marshall earned the respect of horror devotees with his first two features, DOG SOLDIERS and THE DESCENT, refreshing and scary twists on the werewolf and expedition-gone-wrong... Writer/director Neil Marshall earned the respect of horror devotees with his first two features, DOG SOLDIERS and THE DESCENT, refreshing and scary twists on the werewolf and expedition-gone-wrong genres. Where those works exemplified a respect for pure horror, devoid of the tension-spoiling comedy that infects most fright films, DOOMSDAY is Marshall's love letter to the post-apocalyptic action-exploitation films of the 1980s. Bubbling over with action, gore, and dark humor, his third film has all the bases covered for a fun, knowingly corny viewing experience. After a deadly plague results in the quarantine of the entire country of Scotland (in a scene reminiscent of I AM LEGEND), a wall is built around the country preventing anyone from going in or out. Thirty years later, the British government believes everyone within the wall to be dead, but when they find signs of life and learn of the possibility of a cure, a team of specially trained agents led by Eden Sinclair (Rhona Mitra) become the first outsiders to venture inside the country since the epidemic. They discover that there are plenty of survivors who have splintered into fierce, warlike tribes, living in a lawless society where cannibalism and murder are the order of the day. Astute viewers will have a blast playing "spot the influence," with loving, obvious nods to ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, ALIENS, 28 DAYS LATER, and the MAD MAX films. At the film's halfway point, Marshall switches gears, transforming the film from a punk-informed futuristic action film into a medieval-style chase film, utilizing Scotland's castles and sumptuous green landscapes to the fullest. Mitra is an exciting physical presence as Eden, a female version of NEW YORK's Snake Plissken, and the great supporting cast includes Bob Hoskins and Malcolm McDowell. [More]
Starring: Rhona Mitra, Bob Hoskins, Adrian Lester, Alexander Siddig
Starring: Rhona Mitra, Bob Hoskins, Adrian Lester, Alexander Siddig, David O'Hara, Malcolm McDowell, Sean Pertwee, MyAnna Buring, Nora-Jane Noone
Director: Neil Marshall
Director: Neil Marshall
Screenwriter: Neil Marshall
Producer: Steven Paul, Benedict Carver
Composer: Tyler Bates
Studio: Rogue Pictures
Reviews for Doomsday
Doomsday is a mess of lousy filmmaking and unrelenting artistic bankruptcy, smashed together to form an ear-splitting, overcooked, awfully irritating shell of an experience.
A series of loosely linked action scenes, Doomsday plays out more like a video game than a movie.
Doomsday might seem novel - if you've never seen "The Road Warrior," "Aliens," "Escape from New York" or any other post-apocalyptic flick before.
As the crowd screams and pounds their chests, the camera shows Eden's back. It's a grim resolution, even in the post-apocalypse.
Soulless, impersonal and shamelessly derivative, this dime-a-dozen sci-fi garbage is such a depressing step down for Neil Marshall that one can hardly believe it was made by the same guy responsible for the rightfully acclaimed The Descent.
The protag of this popcorn pastiche is modeled on Jovovich in Resident Evil, and one way to pass the time is to count the numerous actioners from which Marshall borrowed (lifted) for his saga: The Road Warrior, Escape from New York, 28 Days/Weeks Later.
Even the two fanboys behind me - who almost reached orgasm during the Speed Racer preview - laughed and yelled "What?!" when shown both a gimp and a medieval pit fight.
[Director] Marshall cribs whole sections from other movies (Aliens and The Road Warrior, most blatantly) so baldly that you have to wonder how he'd like it if someone ripped off The Descent this egregiously.
Doomsday typifies the kind of movie that gets dumped into theaters during the late winter -- a regurgitated storyline, no big stars, and no real prospects at the box office.
Much as one might admire the British health care system as presented in the documentary Sicko, even Michael Moore would have to admit they have a hard time over there coping with apocalyptic viruses.
a debacle that achieves the rarified air of being so terrible it's great.
I still believe with all my heart that no movie with real car stunts, a tough-chick hero, and a severed head that thunks directly into the camera can be all bad. But this is pushing it.
Delivers the exploitation goods and then some, but it's so utterly derivative it represents a depressing step backward for Marshall...
If Doomsday was designed to be trash cinema, the filmmakers achieved their goal and then some.
The survivors have made it a priority -- as they have in so many post-apocalyptic action flicks -- to store up provisions of mascara and hair dye.
Neil Marshall should be ashamed for foisting such a disappointing follow-up to The Descent on his fans.
Latest News for Doomsday
July 28, 2008:
RT on DVD: Harold & Kumar, Doomsday and Dark City Director's Cut
Since we're all still recovering from Comic-Con 2008, and tons of new home video details dropped at the Largest Nerd Gathering in the World, it's time for RT on DVD: Geek... More...
July 25, 2008:
Team of specialists sent to quarantined Scotland in post-apocalyptic sci-fi adventure. ![]()
More...
May 14, 2008:
UK Box Office Breakdown: Speed Racer Tanks
Cripes! The bloodthirsty summer movie season has its first big-budget flop of the summer, and we're only two weeks in. The disappointment, no scrap that, disaster in question... More...
May 06, 2008:
Neil Marshall's 10 Post-Apocalyptic Picks
The Doomsday director runs RT through the movies that inspired his cyber-punk vision of a dodgy future. More...
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