RottenTomatoes.com
Log In | Register | What is RT?
Found a Bug? Squash It! Report Bugs Here
  • Home
  • Movies
  • DVD
  • Celebrities
  • News
  • Critics
  • Trailers & Pictures
  • CommunityBeta
  • Box Office
  • | In Theaters
  • | Opening
  • | Upcoming
  • | Best Of
  • | Certified Fresh
RT Search Powered by Google
help icon Enhanced RT
searches on Google
Click here to turn on enhanced search results from RT on your Google searches.
 
Movies / On DVD / Doomsday
Doomsday

Rate this Movie Help Icon

  • Write a Review
  • Read Reviews
  • Add to List
  • Buy Poster External Icon
  • Visit Official Site External Icon
Bookmark and Share

Doomsday (2008)

  • T-Meter Critics
  • Top Critics
  • RT Community
  • My Critics
  • My Friends
  • DVD
48 %
Tomatometer
Template ImageTemplate Image

How does the Tomatometer work Help Icon

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

[See More Credits]

  • Trailers
  • Pictures
  • Neil Marshall (SDCC 07)
    >
    Trailer
    >
1 - 2 of 2

See More Movie Trailers & Pictures

Reviews for Doomsday

  • T-Meter Critics
  • Top Critics
  • RT Community
  • My Critics
  • My Friends
  • DVD
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by source; Australian critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 >> >|
Arrange By:Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 

If Doomsday was designed to be trash cinema, the filmmakers achieved their goal and then some.

Full Review Source: Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA) | comment Comment
03/21/08
John Wirt
John Wirt
Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA)

You know all those referential spoofs we've been getting lately (Epic Movie, Scary Movie, Meet the Spartans, etc.)? Well, Doomsday is like one of those, except played completely straight.

Full Review Source: Aisle Seat | comment Comment
03/14/08
Mike McGranaghan
Mike McGranaghan
Aisle Seat

Nothing about Marshall's grab bag has much to do with anything else...it may be aimless and arbitrary, but at least it's mostly fun.

Full Review Source: Antagony & Ecstasy | comment Comment
03/20/08
Tim Brayton
Tim Brayton
Antagony & Ecstasy

Doomsday plays more like a series of mini-remakes than a single, cohesive film.

Full Review Source: AV Club | comment Comment
03/14/08
Steven Hyden
Steven Hyden
AV Club

Marshall reveals himself to be a terrific showman of chaos and comic savagery. This is Baz Luhrmann's Mad Max.

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
03/16/08
Wesley Morris
Wesley Morris
Boston Globe

Writer/Director Neil Marshall’s entertaining, sorta-cheesy, if at times derivative homage to post-apocalyptic cinema delivers exactly what action fans of the genre crave.

Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
03/20/08
Pete Hammond
Pete Hammond
Boxoffice Magazine

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.

Full Review Source: BrianOrndorf.com | comment 3 Comments
03/14/08
Brian Orndorf
Brian Orndorf
BrianOrndorf.com

Let's just say that I've built more climactic medieval battles with a set of Legos during my childhood.

Full Review Source: Bronsonfive | comment Comment
03/17/08
Michael Ferraro
Michael Ferraro
Bronsonfive

A bit like a medley of greatest hits performed by a hot, young talent who brings a new vocal inflection to the tired, old standards.

Full Review Source: Cinefantastique | comment Comment
07/10/08
Steve Biodrowski
Steve Biodrowski
Cinefantastique

A tongue in cheek action bonanza that I cheered on with fists in the air...

Full Review Source: Cinema Crazed | comment Comment
03/23/08
Felix Vasquez Jr.
Felix Vasquez Jr.
Cinema Crazed

After they blow a bunny to smithereens (aiming straight through a plot hole), I knew all bets were off.

Full Review Source: Cinerina | comment Comment
03/29/08
Karina Montgomery
Karina Montgomery
Cinerina

Delivers the exploitation goods and then some, but it's so utterly derivative it represents a depressing step backward for Marshall...

Full Review Source: Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) | comment Comment
03/21/08
John Beifuss
John Beifuss
Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)

One's enjoyment of Doomsday might stem from how much one admires a blatant homage to the 1980s.

Full Review Source: Creative Loafing | comment Comment
08/06/08
Matt Brunson
Matt Brunson
Creative Loafing

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.

Full Review Source: DustinPutman.com | comment 1 Comment
03/15/08
Dustin Putman
Dustin Putman
DustinPutman.com

Attention, apocalypse-hungry filmgoers: Doomsday may be the blue-light special you're looking for.

Full Review Source: E! Online | comment Comment
03/17/08
Alex Markerson
Alex Markerson
E! Online

It feels at times that the only thing that hasn't been appropriated is the Filthiest Toilet in Scotland from "Trainspotting," though it is filled with the decidedly unpleasant substance found on, near and in said receptacle

Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | comment Comment
03/15/08
Peter Sobczynski
Peter Sobczynski
eFilmCritic.com

About twenty minutes into it I decided to pretend it was a long-lost mid-'80s film Marshall had dusted off and put his name on.

Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | comment Comment
03/23/08
Rob Gonsalves
Rob Gonsalves
eFilmCritic.com

When the film's unspooling and we're watching Rhona Mitra drive a sports car through an exploding bus, we find ourselves in movie geek heaven.

Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | comment Comment
04/01/08
David Cornelius
David Cornelius
eFilmCritic.com

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.

Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | comment Comment
03/16/08
Emanuel Levy
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

[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.

Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly | comment Comment
03/19/08
Gregory Kirschling
Gregory Kirschling
Entertainment Weekly
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by source; Australian critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 >> >|
all

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. Opens in new window
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...

See All

More DVDs

New On DVD This Week
Tomatometer Percentage Movie
18% 18% New in Town
23% 23% Push
43% 43% Fragments

More New Releases…

What’s Hot On RT

Ban Them All!

Ban Them All!

10 Most Controversial Movies

Zombieland

Zombieland

Director Ruben Fleischer's favourites

New Avatar action

New Avatar action

Watch an exclusive chase clip from the film

Wild Things!

Wild Things!

Win tickets to the wild rumpus of 2009

Other News

  • Top Stories
  • Popular
  • Interviews
 
 

Comments

 
 
Top Stories
Headlines Comments
  
  • Tobey Maguire Talks Brothers, Spider-Man 4 Source: Boston Globe
18
  • Nimród Antal Talks Predators Source: ComingSoon.net
9
  • Weekly Ketchup: Zombieland 2 in 3D?
78
  • First Look (Sort Of) at New Nightmare's Freddy Source: ShockTillYouDrop.com
24
  • First Look at Shrek Forever After Source: USA Today
48
  • Woody Harrelson Will Battle Zombies in 3-D Source: Moviehole
26
  • Natalie Portman Says Kat Denning Is in Thor Source: MTV
34
  • Disney Restructuring Has Broad Implications Source: Los Angeles Times
10
  • Joel Silver Talks Ninja Assassin, Sgt. Rock, Lobo, and More Source: Collider.com
1
  • Weekly Ketchup: Idris Elba cast in Thor, more Spider-Man 4 rumors
128
Popular
Headlines Comments
  
  • Friday Harvest: The Road, Avatar, and more!
95
  • Total Recall: John Travolta's Best Movies
93
  • Ban Them All! 10 Infamously Controversial Movies
88
  • 5 Facts About The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
79
  • Critics Consensus: Flee From Ninja Assassin
47
  • Weekly Ketchup: Zombieland 2 in 3D?
26
  • Five Favorite Films With Zombieland Director Ruben Fleischer
24
  • Box Office Guru Wrapup: Vampires and Football Break Thanksgiving Records
18
  • "I Don't Hate Women": Lars von Trier on Antichrist
17
  • Duncan Jones Reteams With Kevin Spacey
5
Interviews
Headlines Comments
  
  • "I Don't Hate Women": Lars von Trier on Antichrist
17
  • Eric Bana talks Love the Beast - RT Interview
11
  • Fight Club Sound Designer Reflects on Film's 10th Anniversary
21
  • James Schamus talks Taking Woodstock - RT Interview
8
  • RT on DVD: Wassup, Bruno
3
  • Scott Hicks Talks The Boys Are Back
0
  • John Hurt Talks Harry Potter, Quentin Crisp and Alien - The RT Interview
15
  • Richard Kelly chats about The Box
2
  • Terry Gilliam Talks Doctor Parnassus
21
  • Wes Anderson Talks Fantastic Mr. Fox - RT Interview
8
 
 

Sponsored Links

Around The Network

  • Doomsday at Rotten Tomatoes
  • Doomsday at IGN

Fresh Links

Featured
Dressing Wonderland
Dressing Wonderland External Link

Tim Burton's costume designer talks to Movieline about her long collaboration with the filmmaker and Johnny Depp.

Wes Anderson on Fox
Wes Anderson on Fox External Link

The director talks about puppetry perfection and his film, Fantastic Mr. Fox

Win Glee DVDs
Win Glee DVDs External Link

We've got 20 copies of the hit TV series' Pilot Episode to giveaway.

Follow Rotten Tomatoes on Twitter
Follow Rotten Tomatoes on Twitter External Link

Get all the latest movie updates, reviews, interviews and features here.

Competitions
Win Star Wars prizes
Win Star Wars prizes External Link

Enough Prequel, Original Trilogy and Family Guy DVDs to fill a space cruiser

Win the entire 007 collection
Win the entire 007 collection External Link

Everything from Dr. No to Quantum of Solace could be yours.

Win Fight Club Special Editions and more
Win Fight Club Special Editions and more External Link

We're giving away the 10th Anniversary Blu-ray, plus Braveheart and the Rocky collection

 
 
About| Site Map| Help| RT To Go| Contact Us| Critics Submission| Linking to RT| Licensing| Movie List| Celebs List| Newsletter
IGN Logo

IGN.com | GameSpy | Comrade | Arena | FilePlanet | GameSpy Technology
TeamXbox | Planets | Vaults | VE3D | CheatsCodesGuides | GameStats | GamerMetrics
AskMen.com | Rotten Tomatoes | Direct2Drive | Green Pixels


By continuing past this page, and by the continued use of this site, you agree to be bound by and abide by the User Agreement.
Copyright 1998-2009, IGN Entertainment, Inc. About IGN | Support | Advertise | Privacy Policy | User Agreement | Subscribe to RT's XML feed! IGN RSS Feeds
IGN's enterprise databases running Oracle, SQL and MySQL are professionally monitored and managed by Pythian Remote DBA
Certain product data ©1995-present Muze, Inc. For personal use only. All rights reserved.