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Plot:
In the action-packed new thriller from writer/director Neil Marshall ("The Descent"), authorities brutally quarantine a country as it succumbs to fear and chaos when a virus strikes. The literal walli...( read more 
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Recent Reviews
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MCT:May 16, 2008An Apocalyptic Glasgow ... need I say anymore??? I am not sure why I thought this was going to be any cop. I really enjoyed 'Descent' and 'Dog Soldiers', the lower budget thrills and spills of Neil Marshall's earlier films worked well ... however, the style didn't translate in a bigger budget ... It was a poor Mad Max and never reached the same believeable apocalyptic angst of 28 Weeks or Days later. Instead we end up with a laughable back in the dark ages Feudal Scottish world, with shamefully wooden acting from most of the leads ... only our Heroine 'Rhona Mitra' seemed to carry off her deadpan delivered lines. I am sorry Neil ... stick with what U do best, gritty lower budget horror movies.
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MCT:May 16, 2008
Eden Sinclair: "If you're hungry, have a piece of your friend."
I've always found post-apocalyptic scenarios a little boring. Sure, the point is to see how humanity survives in a world fraught with chaos, but all too often filmmakers' predictions of the future end up looking exactly the same. Doomsday doesn't bring anything particularly new to the table, but at least writer/director Neil Marshall has enough good sense to inject just the right amount of creativity and style into the formula, helping the film come across as entertaining if not good.
The foremost reason I enjoyed Doomsday as much as I did - besides being written and directed by a filmmaker I admire immensely and a hell of a fun to watch - is because, despite blatantly cribbing off about eight other films, it puts a creative spin on the whole "civilization-ending virus" plot. While most films (think 28 Days Later or Dawn of the Dead) simply chronicle the outbreak of the virus, Doomsday takes place twenty-five years after it's been contained.
It's called the "Reaper" virus this time around, but it's your typical human-turned-zombie deal. In April 2008, it breaks out in the U.K., but the British government is able to contain it in Scotland and completely quarantine the area, leaving the infected to die. Cut to 2032: a new outbreak occurs. The government sends a team headed by tough-as-nails security officer Eden Sinclair (Rhona Mitra) into the Scotland dead zone to find the laboratory of a doctor called Kane (Malcolm McDowell), who had been working on a cure before all contact was cut off.
Once inside Scotland, though, Eden and her team quickly realize that it's not just full of corpses - an entire society of people who are immune to the virus has popped up, and apparently everybody's completely freaking nuts, from hordes of vicious cannibals led by the psychotic Sol (Craig Conway) to a medieval community of survivors, led by McDowell's character, not too comfortable with outsiders invading their turf. If there's a moral of the film, it's this: if you leave the people of Scotland without a government, within twenty-five years they will all turn into insane tattooed sadistic cannibals who gather in abandon concert venues to burn people alive. That's either preposterously prejudicial... or just hilarious.
Once Eden and her team is inside the quarantine, the film can be neatly broken up into three parts:
Part 1: Escape From New York. The good guys meet the crazy sadistic cannibals and try to avoid them in the ruins of a major city.
Part 2: Army of Darkness meets Gladiator. Somehow we're suddenly in a medieval castle on the Scotland countryside, and Eden is fighting an actual knight, with body armour and all, in an actual arena.
Part 3: The Road Warrior meets Mad Max. The film's best scene. A big car chase with the crazy tattooed cannibals jumping from car to car. No, it's not nearly as good as the car chase in The Road Warrior, but that's clearly what it's going for.
If this everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach sounds like fun to you, chances are you'll like the film. The editing gets way too confusing way too often, with a series of quick close-ups that frequently cause you to lose your bearings. Still, there's an enormous amount of fun to be had here, as long as you don't walk into it expecting a masterpiece.
While Marshall was responsible for 2005's The Descent, considered by many - including yours truly - the best horror film of the last decade, Doomsday harkens back more so to his début, Dog Soldiers. Despite the dour storyline, there are no traces of satire to be found here as was evident in 28 Weeks Later and Land of the Dead. Doomsday is as carefree as apocalyptic thrillers go, indulging in pure, unadulterated, blood-shedding joy.
It's not so much in the same heavy vein as George Romero's zombie flicks but rather along the same lines as John Carpenter's work from the '80s, namely Escape from New York. Marshall stretches the term "borrowing liberally" to its breaking point here, copying the latter film down to having the hero (or, in this case, heroine) sport an eyepatch. Action buffs will definitely be struck with a sense of deja vu, not to mention why Marshall didn't just remake New York instead of offering up a pale imitation of Carpenter's cult classic. The answer is simple: honouring the work of the greats, the films we grew up watching, drawing inspiration from it while sending something new to the world, is quite different from remaking them.
As I mentioned before, Doomsday leaves the genre's basic elements relatively intact. The survivors still look like they wandered off the set of Mad Max, the good guys are mostly made up of cannibal fodder, and the protagonist is a human Rolex that could probably swallow a live grenade and still keep on ticking. But worry not, for Marshall doesn't let himself get too bogged down in going through the motions. There are a few little touches here and there that bring a much needed brush of insanity to the production. Right off the bat, he's not afraid to let the blood and gore flow like the mighty Mississippi, as he announces near the beginning by blasting a cute bunny rabbit into ribbons. Then there's Conway's completely off-kilter performance as Sol, a psychopath who's so over-the-top, he strikes fear into your heart as much as he makes you giggle like an eight-year-old. He's definitely a much more vivid character than Mitra's Eden, who doesn't do anything more than Kate Beckinsale already did in the Underworld films. I'd say it's a tie in terms of looking hot and cool at the same time.
Hats off to masterful cinematographer Sam McCurdy, who worked on Marshall's last two films. The Doomsday "look" is perfect and swings between dark nights of rain and days of blown-out dreamscape. Talking of looks, keep your eye on Eden, because hers is bionic and she takes it out to use a nifty camera. You could argue that the virus that makes you explode with blood is not original, but hey, I'm not going to.
In my opinion, it's the lack of character development and some of the performances that hold the film back. Rhona Mitra's character needed a bit more dimension. I wanted to see a stronger emotional bond with her team. To me, the performance of the usually brilliant Bob Hoskins felt a bit forced. Story-wise, I'm not at all sure they killed the right people off, and I would have liked to see more conflict between the punks and the medieval gang from the castle. Maybe I'm just whining. This is a fine action film and, while I'm sure the '80s were cool and all, this is the '00s and Marshall managed to make a fine homage to those cult action films - much in the same line of what Tarantino and Rodriguez did last year - while also adding something new - namely a female lead.
As far as Armageddons go, Doomsday is a cut above snoozefests like Resident Evil: Extinction, as it bothers to bring at least a little energy to the party instead of sluggishly repeating the steps of other, better films of its kind. Seen by yourself in the middle of a multiplex, Doomsday won't seem like much, but when gathered with some fellow gorehounds, it proves to be a fairly entertaining, testosterone-filled ride. Everyone needs some of that once and a while.
Kane: "In the land of the infected, the immune man is king." -
MCT:May 16, 200828 Days Later meets Mad Max meets Rammstien meets Robin Hood meets Gladiator meets WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT PLEASE TURN THE DAMN THING OFF AND GIVE ME MY MONEY BACK
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MCT:May 16, 2008Fantastic, made all the better by the fact that it involves re-building Hadrian's wall to keep the Scots out! Resident Evil meets Mad Max and Robin Hood. The soundtrack is something else, a bunch of fat blokes in vests and kilts doing the cancan, what can I say. Go and see it on the big screen!
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MCT:May 15, 2008Best British film I've seen in a long time. An inspired love letter to John Carpenter and the action films of the eighties, you'll either go along with it and love every minute, or miss the point completely and hate it. Either way, we don't make enough films like this in the UK and it deserves some recognition for that alone.
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Comments
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james0191posted 2 days ago -
This movie doesn't try to be more than what it is... A good old 80's style action movie ! You could say it's an hommage to movies like the Mad Max series and Escape from NY. It entertains and is fun !
posted 55 days ago -
I don't understand why people have a problem with doomsday. I thought it was good. Yeah, it was lacking in a few things story wise but the rest of it was good. The guy who said that we had already seen car chases and arena death battles is right, we have. But that is kind of the point. The people we see in doomsday have been left there to die. They know absolutely nothing of the outside world and were determined to get out once people came back in. The car chase was inevitable and the arena battle was their form of entertainment. So I really don't understand the problem here.
posted 56 days ago -
I caught a matinée, so I only had to pay $5.50 to see it. I wasn't expecting originality, I was expecting a good time...which I...kinda got?
posted 62 days ago -
This is basically a rip-off of Mad Max/Road Warrior with a hint of 28 Days Later and maybe Escape from New York. If you had any decency you would rent one of these films instead of paying to see a horrible Hollywood rip-off.
posted 63 days ago -
slt sava et les affaires sa bouge bien dit moi ta un msn le mien ce korefale@hotmail.com et toi ta un msn
posted 64 days ago -
this was interesting when it first came out in the 80's..although then it was called escape from new york...hollywood and their "original" ideas...give me a break
posted 67 days ago -
