Doomsday
When a deadly viral epidemic breaks out in present-day Britain, killing hundreds of thousands of people, the government quarantines the infected behind a walled city -- only to be confronted with a resurgence of the disease 30 years in the future. In the vein of Mad Max and 28 Days Later, this morality tale veiled as a sci-fi hypothetical features enough action, combat and suspense to keep audiences wondering, "What if?"
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CS 74925 bxe 1440162 keh 1331061 cwg 307492 JA 1181987 MS 493657 JB 1882215 MK 1163931 yxc 249314 pzk 932555 SS 1210841 lmq 1768445 Groovymarlin TC 39641 txc 46674 KB 487563 AG 1991848 idp 1016008 RS1990 MS 481404 bwidell Saboja zmged dzo 1652979 SmartyPants ER 1889206 BP 159907 JF 1506963 MG 1025148 fer 549226 hkd 1505481 GM 48431 KW 1590655 RG 1095158 PecanCtMichael CS 575190 MH 769822 MP 443214 WL 880515 occ 767144 pov iix 1940847 EG 793057 saveourbluths rpt 1556964 RH 1428472 JP 1271112 AB 868103 grindhouse JR 51353 valis MP 1739514 Up to 50 people shown» Reviewed by 13 people
What starts out as a leisurely drive down Bad Movie Avenue takes a hard left turn about an hour in, up the ramp and onto the Insanely Incoherent Highway. Beginning as a poor man's 28 Weeks Later-esque, apocolyptic killer virus flick, we're soon transported several years into the future and plopped down on the wrong side of a government constructed super wall which was meant to separate carriers of the disease from the gen pop. A group of APC driving commandos are tasked with finding a cure to squash the illness which has resurfaced in now present day London. We eventually wind up in an abandoned Glasgow where seemingly the only survivors of the so called Reaper virus are punk rock bands, tattoo artists, hair stylists and enthusiasts of the bondage apparel and cosmetics industry. It is all downhill from there. We escape from the city via locomotive(WTF?) to a castle complete with armor wearing knights and an obviously behind on his house payment, Malcolm McDowell. The movie climaxes with an explosion laden mega chase involving a fleet of vehicles from the Mad Max car lot versus our heroes in a Bentley (yes, a Bentley). I was moments away from turning this off but it got so crazy, so fast that I absolutely had to see where it was going to end up. Don't take that last statement as an endorsement, it's not. One saving grace, well actually two: First, Rhona Mitra is hot...real hot. Second, I watch ALOT of movies and when one cracks my ten worst of all time list, it is a notable occasion. Why, you may ask, did I give it TWO stars if it is one of my ten worst? Because it takes off on such an astoundingly bizarre tangent around the halfway point that I feel I must. It's still really, really bad. If you like your plots drug induced and your beheadings numerous, check it out. If you're only curious and find that you MUST watch it, make sure and check out the theatrical version. It's mercifully shorter.- jlayman920
If you liked Mad Max, Excalibur and 28 Days Later, then you'll love when each of these movies makes a cameo appearance in Doomsday! As for the rest of the movie? You'll probably think it's a lame mashup of every action movie cliche imaginable. This is a movie that tries so hard to please, but fails on every level. It's almost embarrassing.
- 0rko
I set my expectations low for this movie. While I love Dog Soldiers and The Descent, this movie was not screened for critics and most of the reaction thus far had not been good. And while I set my expectations low, I thought I might be pleasantly surprised. While I knew it borrowed from several movies, it seemed to only borrow the cliches and not the good parts of the movies. He didn't take the genre and improve or alter it, he merely mimicked it and perhaps added a bit more gore. I really wonder if Marshall had watched the entire finished product of his film. I mean, once Knights were introduced, I just lost it. Not only did I have to suspend my belief about amazingly well prepared and armed apocalyptic cannibals in the city (who also managed to have time for rock concert/dance shows), but I was asked to accept that some people would spend time and energy on knight armor suits and various medieval weapons. Okay, pre-Mad Max or Escape from New York, this movie would have been cutting edge or even daring. In this context, it seemed like a bad episode of Stargate SG-1 or Xena Warrior Princess. I think he stole music from some of his other movies. And in other parts the music sounded like a direct-to-dvd soundtrack. Horrible. Mr. Marshall did a much better job when he focused on a limited number of characters with their own emotional issues and then threw them into a hostile environment. This movie was all over the map. I honestly expected elves or trolls to show up at some point, and that would have been an improvement, but in the end this movie was a better off being thrown into the pit of Mordor.
- JLo
This was bad bad bad. Not "so bad it's good" but "so bad god give me the strength to turn it off. Rather than "Children of men" this looks more like Mad Max meets... Westworld. Even the action scenes were choppy and incompetently edited, trying to be stylish but ending up looking incomprehensible. Bad writing. C-movie acting. The worst is, it looked like they had, if not the budget, the possibility to do something visually interesting, and they produced seventies crap. Stay away at all costs.
- PAolo
Holy smokes This film is a heck of a ride. The plot, forget it, there is only the tiniest of plots, but the sheer spectacle of action is something else. This film is made up of many films that came before it (Warriors, Aliens, 28 Days/Weeks later, Road Warrior, Escape From New York....)you'll no doubt feel deja vu while watching but that doesn't make the thing feel any less adrenaline fueled. I have never seen a film so heavily and directly borrowed from other films, but I didn't mind. I'd like to see what the director Neil Marshall could do with a good action script.
- Rogertick
I REALLY enjoyed this movie. It was gory, it was graphic, it was adventurous and it has a LOT of action too. The unrated is really graphic (I will warn you it shows quite a bit pertaining to cannibalism, so be warned). I was actually surprised how MUCH it showed. The main character Eden is really very good I enjoyed her as well as the rest of the cast. It is strange how it is a lot like Mad Max & 28 Days Later, however its unique to itself as well. I would recommend this film to anyone looking for a good action movie. A Great film over all.
- *~*Sullivans*~*
Oh man... yes this movies rips of so many action films your almost amazed. However what it takes from them is the best part... ACTION!!! The women where hot, mean, and very dangerous. If you like Horror, Sci-Fi, or Action you will love this one.
- Hellnight138
I can only imagine the pitch for DOOMSDAY. "It's OUTBREAK meets RESIDENT EVIL II meets ROAD WARRIOR meets GLADIATOR meets ." You get the picture. This is a movie without an identity. It was great seeing Rhona Mitra of BOSTON LEGAL fame as the Milla Jovavich of the piece, and Bob Hoskins and Malcolm McDowell (who's not even listed in the cast by NF) are always fun. There is a lot of action that is well done, and I would have given this three stars if not for the poor sound mixing. When I turned up the volume enough to hear the dialogue, the sound effects were too loud. Not the worst waste of two hours. [08-02-08]
- Firewater
This movie reminds me in so many ways of 300 (I probably already lost your attention by saying that, but here it goes anyway). I liked 300, so naturally, I liked Doomsday too. What's so similar about Doomsday? The pumping and eccentric ("Two Tribes" is in this?!) soundtrack that at times will almost make you laugh because it's so left field, but is somehow always perfect for the moment. The blood, gore, and stuntwork is hyper-insane, just like 300 (Except much less green screen here). Obviously, in both movies you've got a serious war going on, and the odds are stacked in the anarchists favor by 1,000 fold. If it seems like I'm going off on a tangent, believe me, the striking similarities surprised me too. The problem with Doomsday? The story is too confusing. Halfway through, they borrow The Village's storyline and throw it into the mix. So the timeline gets really confusing. Also, the ending is pretty open-ended, and I'm not sure how much of the audience will take it. It's a fun movie to watch, but without a ton of value. Needless to say, everyone's going to love Rhona Mitra in Doomsday. She definitely earns some respect with this role.
- MCWHAMMER
It will forever be a mystery to me how these types of movies get made while strong, intelligent, original, creative, and entertaining screenplays sit on the desks of countless Starbucks baristas and Chili's dishwashers. With this script, the writers took elements of every single post-apocalyptic and dystopian future they could find and mixed them all up together into a mish-mash of cliched nonsense. I could go on and on and on about all the things wrong with this movie and I could go on and on about all the previous movies this stole from, but I'm trying incredibly hard to not let this movie bring out the inner snob in me. So I'll look at what's good about it. It's paced very well. The action is strong in most cases and well choreographed. Rhona Mitra is very hot, although the DP didn't utilize enough low angle shots of her. That might be wrong to say, but if she's not there just to look good, then why is she there? In the end I have to give this movie credit for being mindlessly entertaining to a certain degree, but at the same time there are countless issues that I hold against it. I can't recommend unless you simply have absolutely nothing else to do with your time.
- Photo Heathen
It's rare to see a film as devoid of original ideas as this one. This is basically an amalgam of Road Warrior, Escape from New York, and every other post apocalyptic film of the last 20 years. That's not to say that it is not entertaining. There is so much going on that it is nearly impossible to be bored, especially since the movie switches in tone every 10 minutes. My biggest complaint with the film is actually the horrible editing of all the fight scenes. The quick cut, rapid fire method of filming fight scenes is ruining action movies. It is nearly impossible to tell what is happening at times. Despite the films flaws, I did actually enjoy this. I just enjoyed it more when I saw all of the original films from which these scenes are "borrowed".
- Brody
"In the Land of the Infected, the Immune Man is King." After seeing the trailer for this film I went to the theatre expecting little more than a 21st century variation of "Mad Max" with a female lead. Well, that female is not just any butt-kickin' girl. She's Rhona Mitra; an actress I've followed since her appearance in the 1999 version of "Beowulf." I went with positive wishes for this film. I liked Neil Marshall's "Dog Soldiers" enough to give "Descent" a chance. It didn't disappoint. "Doomsday" didn't disappoint either. There are already a couple low rating reviews for this film but it turns out they clearly hadn't yet seen more that the trailer. I hate it when people do that but that's a subject off the point. You can guess this is a rip from "Mad Max" or "Escape From New York" or any other post-apocalyptic blockbuster but, although "Doomsday" closely shares the genre, it is it own creature. The effects were well done and, once again, Marshall has proven his chops as a director. Once again he's also proven a woman can take point in an arena where normally one finds only testosterone. This will probably bother some guys but I say, "Get Over It!" It's not unusual for me to have a minority take on a film. I suspect this will be no exception. I liked the premise, the setup, the follow-though action and the ending. If it does well I wouldn't be surprised see a sequel. The ground work is already laid. There are enough reviewers who will tell the story so I'm not going to bother. I'll just say, if you like to escape into action cinema, if you enjoy fights, the chase and stuff that explodes -- if you enjoy sci-fi action wrapped in a coherent story, then "Doomsday is made for you." See it before you dis it. ~~~Wingz
- Wingz
How can people possibly be giving this 4 & 5 stars? I'm clearly this films target audience but it failed to impress me, I thought it was terrible. It's derivative of other much better films, with nothing new or interesting to show for it. Basically it's a weak Mad Max / Escape from N.Y or L.A. / 28 Days wannabe film with other minor plot lines thrown in, lifted directly from other related genre movies. Did the Omega Man really need yet another cover version? They seriously took the entire motorcycle chase scene right out of Mad Max, made it way more lame, and plopped it in here for no reason. What was that supposed to be, an homage? Give me a break! And don't even get me started on why on earth in the middle of the movie things get all fantasy-wizard-Excaliber style once Malcolm McDowell shows up. I'm not kidding. It goes from being all future-doom, end-of-the-world to suddenly darkages, medieval-dungeon territory. WTF? Is this movie trying to be Beyond the Thunderdome or is it trying to be Ladyhawke? Also, if they wanted Kate Beckinsale, they should have hired her instead of trying to make Rhona Mitra look just like her. It seems they couldn't decide between making a Mad Max rip off, or Underworld. This movie had so much potential but it tried too hard to be something that it did not live up to, and in the process lost all semblance of originality. While there were a few ok scenes, mostly revolving around in-yer-face graphic violence (and the clever use of a Fine Young Cannibals song), most of this was a big fat post-Mad Max bummer. It's hard for me to enjoy a movie when the whole time all I can think about is trying to identify all the other movies that each scene I was watching was originally based on. Sure you can try to tempt me with a fun 80's soundtrack and throwing in a Siouxsie song now & again, but that's not going to fool me into thinking your movie is anything other than an apocalyptic dud.
- Anathema23