As the crowd screams and pounds their chests, the camera shows Eden's back. It's a grim resolution, even in the post-apocalypse.
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.
Theatrical Release:09-05-2008
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
a debacle that achieves the rarified air of being so terrible it's great.
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.
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.
[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.
When people complain that Doomsday moves from one 'what the hell?' moment to another, they're overlooking the fact that that's pretty much the idea.
With my apologies to Tina Turner, "Mad Max" gets a big dose of girl power, and the results aren't pretty.
I still believe with all my heart that no movie with real car stunts, a tough-chick hero, and a severed head that thunks directly into the camera can be all bad. But this is pushing it.
Most fantasy-action films blow their budgets in the first half-hour, and limp home with their makeup smeared. Doomsday is unusually patient, smartly saving most of its fireworks for the later innings.
(Neil) Marshall, once regarded as a filmmaker to watch, is inching precariously close to being one to forget.
The acting is better than adequate, and Rhona Mitra is very good as the jaded heroine. As loud, relentless, chaotic, brutally violent and gory B-movies go, this one is a keeper.
If you can accept this farrago of nonsense, and enjoy simulated beheadings and lopped-off hands and massive spurts and splashes of blood, this may be the movie for you.
Much as one might admire the British health care system as presented in the documentary Sicko, even Michael Moore would have to admit they have a hard time over there coping with apocalyptic viruses.
Attention, apocalypse-hungry filmgoers: Doomsday may be the blue-light special you're looking for.
Let's just say that I've built more climactic medieval battles with a set of Legos during my childhood.
If Marshall's goal was to deliver a no-nonsense, tongue-in-cheek, mega-violent "throwback" action flick, I'd say he's done a damn fine job of it.
Doomsday is frenetic, loud, wildly imprecise and so derivative that it doesn't so much seem to reference its antecedents as try on their famous images like a child playing dress-up. Homage without innovation isn't homage, it's karaoke.
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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