If Doomsday was designed to be trash cinema, the filmmakers achieved their goal and then some.
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
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.
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.
Doomsday plays more like a series of mini-remakes than a single, cohesive film.
Marshall reveals himself to be a terrific showman of chaos and comic savagery. This is Baz Luhrmann's Mad Max.
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.
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.
Let's just say that I've built more climactic medieval battles with a set of Legos during my childhood.
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.
A tongue in cheek action bonanza that I cheered on with fists in the air...
After they blow a bunny to smithereens (aiming straight through a plot hole), I knew all bets were off.
Delivers the exploitation goods and then some, but it's so utterly derivative it represents a depressing step backward for Marshall...
One's enjoyment of Doomsday might stem from how much one admires a blatant homage to the 1980s.
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.
Attention, apocalypse-hungry filmgoers: Doomsday may be the blue-light special you're looking for.
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
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.
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.
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.
[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.
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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