Doomsday (2008)

Doomsday is a ridiculously trashy post punk action picture set in a futuristic Britain.A deadly virus has caused chaos in Scotland. The government has erected a 12 foot steel wall along the border to separate it from the rest of the country.Now, 20 years later the virus is broken out in London and the government needs to find a cure. They know that there are survivors up in Scotland and send a unit to find someone with immunity.Major Eden Sinclair (Rhona Mitra) is leading the troops, she is feisty and brave. She needs to be as Scotland is a post apocalyptic nightmare and she thinks the government who have sent her have an agenda.It is clear that writer/director Neil Marshall wears his film and musical influences on a sleeve here. There is a soundtrack harking back to the 198os. There are nods to films such as Mad Max, 28 Days Later, Escape from New York.I just think it was all a bit banal and bad. The gratuitous violence against women is off putting though.

It's "Escape From New York" meets "The Road Warrior" by way of "28 Days Later" in "Doomsday". Director Neil Marshall's ("The Descent") post-apocalyptic homage to the above mentioned (and more) plays it pretty fast and loose with plot and logic, never once slowing down for character-building as it jumps from one wild set piece to another. It's a film that seemingly has no attention span, never feels terribly cohesive, and yet never fails to entertain.It's the year 2035 and a virus has all but decimated Scotland. In an attempt to contain and control the virus, the government builds a wall separating the ravaged country from the rest of Britain. Presumably, they made Scotland's ravaged population pay for the wall themselves. Enter hardened officer Eden Sinclair, as played by Rhona Mitra. Part Sarah Connor, part Snake Plissken, Sinclair (and her faceless team) is tasked with re-entering the ravaged region to hunt down a possible cure for the virus. Along the way, she matches wits with the locals who include but are not limited to a group of "Mad Max" rejects and a game Malcolm McDowell (who also provides the film's lengthy expository narration). Butts are kicked and blood is shed, to say the least.Marshall knows what kind of film he is making and he also knows you've seen this film a hundred times before. Appropriately, he takes glee in his film's excess, going full Paul Verhoeven at times in embracing over-the-top gore and laugh-out-loud ultra-violence. This is a film made for the genre fan whose bread is buttered by '80s action, sci- fi and horror. It's pure homage of the highest order; a grindhouse- esque onslaught of tackiness and titillating tension. "Doomsday" never quite rises above its source material, and that's OK. As far as mindless, late-night entertainment goes, few modern films get the formula down as well as this glorious cheesefest does.

At this point I have already been a fan of writer/director Neil Marshall, as I have already seen Dog Soldiers and The Descent and are among my favorite modern horror films. Doomsday is Neil Marshall's take on the post apocalyptic action/science fiction genre. The film is mostly a combination of 28 Days Later, Escape From New York and The Road Warrior. The film brings us back to the good ole' days(the 80's) and is a highly entertaining and blood soaked action fest that I thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish. The flick is a little campy, but looks great and favors practical f/x and delivers huge with tons of great gory action. Rhona Mitra is our gorgeous lead and is very effective here as a female equivalent to Snake Pliskin. She does well in the fights and gives a very good performance here as the lead in this film. Bob Hoskins and Malcolm McDowell appear as well and are awesome as well. While there is a whole lot of stuff made that just does'nt appeal to me, Doomsday is totally the type of movie that at least, I want to see. I am sure this won't be the sort of film that gets awards, but it gets a thumbs up from me and is awesome in my book.

This movie is not good, like seriously not good. But it is fun; really really fun. The director obviously enjoyed making this movie and it shows. To say it takes inspiration from John Carpenter and George Miller's films are an understatement. It never comes close to eclipsing either of them, but it doesn't really try to. It gracefully walks the line between an homage and a straight rip-off. The issues this movie has are pretty obvious. Every character is one dimensional except for the scientist doctor guy ( who really cares what he is) who has all of 5 minutes of screen time. This movie has some god awful CGI, including a bloody eye at the beginning of the movie that looks like a video game wound. Most of the time though, this movie goes for practical effects. It uses real fire. real car crashes. Real squibs when getting shot (for the most part). The villains are in one of two camps. They're either just crazy for the sake of being crazy, or the evil leader type for the sake of being an evil leader. But then again it's pretty obvious this movie was going for a fun film rather than one with any depth whatsoever, and it mainly succeeds. overall, this is probably the only 6.5 film I can recommend to anyone. It isn't good. It isn't citizen Kane. But when it comes to movies made for getting some buddies together or switching to it when it's shown on TV, doomsday is pretty great.