Doomsday_360P

source: Doomsday

I just love the end of the world. Whether it's Day Of The Triffids, War Of The Worlds, The Stand, 28 Days Later or any number of other books or movies, there's some vicious little child in me that takes great joy in seeing the whole of civilization smashed into little bitty pieces. So when I heard that Neil Marshall, the director of the great Dog Soldiers, was making an end-of-the-world movie, my sadistic little heart leapt for joy. This was going to be good. This was going to be one of the movies of the year. And I gave it the benefit of the doubt, at least at first. The clunky voice-over I could live with, the excessive gore wasn't a problem (exploding bunny, yay!), and... OK, why are those soldiers standing in the middle of a horde of rabid, disease-carrying Scottish people? Especially when there's a big, safe wall not a hundred feet away? And how did they build that wall so quickly, and how did they prevent anyone from getting out of Scotland, especially before anyone knew how serious the virus was? All right, asking too many questions. There's bound to be one or two plot holes, you just have to look the other way and pretend they aren't there. There's a good action sequence, and then - who's this stumbling old man? He clearly can't act for toffee, but he looks strangely familiar... Bob Hoskins? When did he become such a lousy actor? OK, we can ignore that - my God, the guy playing Canaris is even worse. And how come, with Britain's economy in the dumper, the population of London has doubled thirty years into the future? Wouldn't people be, you know, leaving, rather than moving INTO horrible slums in a dying city? Where did the infected people in that London basement come from? Did they drop from the sky? How come they got there without infecting half the country on their way? And if the evil mastermind is going to wipe out London anyway, why did he bother sending a team up to find a cure for the virus? What was the point of that? And how did those tanks run into the middle of a vast herd of cows without noticing? One cow you might miss, but there are about a thousand of the buggers milling around, and despite the tank's big glass windows, they don't see any cows until someone steps out of the vehicle. I've heard of selective vision, but that's just dribbling madness. And oh yeah, you didn't think tanks generally had large, plate glass windows, did you? And if they did, they'd be made of some amazingly tough material, right? Nope. The windows of this tank can be busted by THROWING A ROCK AT THEM - making the invincible machine vulnerable to anyone with a throwing arm and a pebble. OK, that's enough. 24 minutes into the movie and I just can't write any more. The dialogue is clichéd, the acting is abominable, the plot doesn't make the slightest bit of sense, everything about this film is poorly done trash that seems to have been knocked off in a couple of days by a bunch of witless clowns with less talent than a dung beetle. And yeah, I have seen the rest of the movie - I could be here all day talking about the bits that make no sense, but I'll spare you. All right. Getting worked up now. I'll just take my medication and go off to bed. And when I wake the next morning, maybe I'll have forgotten this wretched, pathetic, miserable dog's dinner of a film.

OK this movie was awful. the camera shots are way to quick - its like you're having a seizure the entire time. the script sucks. being as 'strong' as the leader is, he's horrible at chasing after the 'enemy.' the movie was confusing because it tries to tie in 8000 different scenarios..i mean, how do you go from getting chased by a horseman to driving a Bentley? honestly, i would say the first 7 minutes of the movie are the best. if any type of gore or cannibalism affects you, don't watch it. and if you still really want to watch it, rent it. on the flip side, Rhona Mithra looks amazing in the movie.

I was very impressed by both of Marshall's previous films. Dog Soldiers was a very good addition to the often poorly served werewolf sub-genre and The Descent had some really good and realistic ideas for a horror film... until the cave monsters showed up and it went a bit further than necessary. Still, both were reasonably intelligent modern horror films that showed him to be a talent to watch. I saw this as a free screening due largely Marshall's other films. After seeing it, however, I really wish I had passed. It's little more than a mish-mash of much better films with little in the way of plot or character to fill in the moments between set-pieces and gratuitous moments: e.g. random topless girl, something blows up for no reason, something explodes in a cloud of blood... these occur left and right and entirely without reason or purpose. It blatantly rips off the plot from Escape from New York (a character is even named Carpenter in apparent homage), the set-up will be compared to 28 Days Later (though any "massive viral outbreak in Britain" plot will get that now), steals a lot of design and atmosphere from Mad Max and still manages to throw in some medieval nonsense in there as well. Fight scenes were of the terrible, overly-fast, shaky-cam, quick-cut style making them a jumbled mess and none of the effects really felt that impressive. Almost none of the plot has any semblance of sense with almost every action occurring for little to no reason and characters being encountered so randomly that the writing doesn't feel quite good enough to even be considered lazy. In all I really enjoyed most of the films this is derived from. Heck, I even enjoyed Escape from LA to a moderate degree. This, however, was a waste of time and money even as a free screening.

Doomsday takes place in a future post apocalyptic England, where much has been wiped out due to a lethal virus. A woman named Eden Sinclair is nominated by a policeman friend to go and lead a team to the outskirts of the city to try and find a cure for the virus. Once on the edge of the city they encounter survivors of the virus who now obey a former scientist named Kane, who has become their ruler and lots of action, violence and thrills come with this as the crew trying to find the cure has to fight off Kane's many followers who are bloodthirsty killers and look reminiscent of those you would find in any post apocalyptic film, or even a low budget Troma film for that matter. Doomsday was not screened for most critics to review, so in most cases that should tell you right off that it is not a good film because otherwise critics would have had a chance to review it. I was still interested in this film however, so I decided to give it a chance. Basically the film is a big budgeted and campy B movie although it does have a lot of style and things that do make it more entertaining than ludicrous even though it is pretty silly. The film's plot is quite hard to follow and what there is of a plot seems to be pretty out there and isn't really anything new or original. The film visually is quite interesting to look at and I was overall impressed by the style and production values done by the director and crew. As for the rest of it, I did find myself getting into this nonsense and actually enjoying it because of the stylish direction and the non stop action and gratuitous violence. In other words if you are a fan of films that are loud, violent and have non stop action, then this would be the perfect film for you. It's not a film that will go down in history for breaking any new barriers and it is most likely to become a film that would be seen on cable television at midnight when all the offbeat enthusiasts would be watching, but because the film kept me entertained and never bored me and because I did appreciate the style of the film I 'am giving the film the rating I have chosen because of this. Please note that this is in no way a masterpiece and is simply a slice of entertainment with style and gore that entertained me and nothing more. So with that in mind if this sounds right up your alley then I recommend it, however if you want something with more style and substance then check out some of the Oscar nominated films from last year that are now hitting DVD.

I think that the movie starts out well. The narrative is fine and the atmosphere of impending doom gets through to the audience. At the very moment that we enter the virus-zone the movie falls apart. They are attacked fiercely by a large number of punks and since the team was so unprepared it made you wonder what information they had from the photographs taken from the satellite. They try to escape in their vehicles and somebody smashes the window with a rock or something!? How is this possible as we were told that their armored vehicles could withstand high caliber weapons...? Many obvious flaws in the movie combined with a world in the virus infected zone that is to unbelievable... I can't recommend this movie no matter what.... You will not be able to suspend your critical thoughts when watching this movie. Regards Simon PS. such a shame that Malcolm Mcdowell chooses to appear in this movie. Ps. When you read reviews that gives max score check to see if the user has made more than one review. If not consider the possibility of a lobbyist. If you agree consider putting this post scriptum at the bottom at your own reviews.

Neil Marshall, the multi-talented British director who previously made the gory but nevertheless tasteful "Dog Soldiers" and "The Descent", surprises and primarily pleases his fan-base audiences with this mega-outrageous, campy and tasteless SciFi-horror-action hybrid that is simply destined to become a cult classic within the next couple of years already. I was lucky enough to see the film during a national film festival, where Neil Marshall was at guest himself to single-handedly present his film to anxious Belgian genre fans. Marshall described his own film in only a few words, but it was much better than any film-critic could ever do it in his place. He openly admitted that "Doomsday" is principally a direct love letter to all the movies he grew up with and that he deliberately stuffed the screenplay with numerous tributes and hidden references towards the paranoid and apocalyptic Sci-Fi (road-) movies of the early 80's. It only requires a glimpse at the screen and you immediately know Marshall is right. "Doomsday" catapults you straight back to the glorious days of cheesy exploitation where literally everything was possible and plot-logic and coherence weren't necessities. The two main inspirations for the film are obviously "Mad Max" and "Escape from N.Y.", but talking in terms of absurd plot twists, OTT set pieces and flamboyant costume designs, uncompromising gore, deliberately bad acting performances and insane character drawings, "Doomsday" is actually far more reminiscent to the (mainly Italian) rip-off industry of that time. Apart from the aforementioned and acclaimed landmarks, I also recognized bits and pieces – though I may be mistaken of course - of far more obscure titles like "The Atlantis Interceptors", "After the Fall of New York", "2033: The New Gladiators", "The Bronx Warriors", "Warriors of the Wasteland" and countless of others. In 2008, there's a sudden outbreak of the unstoppable and incurable "Reaper Virus in Glasgow. In order to prevent further spreading, the British government simply decides to build a wall all around Scotland and leave everyone within the borders to die a slow and painful death. Almost twenty years later, in 2035, the feared Virus returns and threatens to rapidly extinct the entire population of London. The Prime Minister and his corrupt as hell right hand Canaris send the fearless Special Agent Eden Sinclair to Scotland to search for a remedy. Because there definitely are survivors in Scotland; the government just decided to keep it secret. When entering the area with her troops, Eden almost immediately runs into large clusters of survivors that reverted to primitive and barbaric life-styles. Their search for the virus' cure quickly turns into a vile battle to stay alive. "Doomsday" is simply Fan-Tas-Tic entertainment and it's undoubtedly the greatest trash-film of the past two decades. The plot stops to make sense quite early in the film and has more holes than the average fishing net. The narrative is also wildly incoherent and even the tiniest plot twist and line of dialog is stolen from another film. But, seriously, who cares about all that when a movie is this much fun! "Doomsday" is extremely violent, with unhinged footage of anarchy and even a throwback to the Roman times in the arena, but simultaneously hilarious, with the craziest characters imaginable and even a soundtrack featuring golden eighties bands like The Fine Young Cannibals and Franky Goes to Hollywood. The campy highlights in "Doomsday" are literally too numerous to list, but I assure it has everything any fan of B-movies could ever dream of. I hate to sound obnoxious and/or pretend all knowing, but all those people claiming "Doomsday" is a pointlessly stupid film either missed the whole point or simply don't fit within Neil Marshall's target group and thus shouldn't criticize.

This is, without a doubt, one of the worst movies I have ever seen. It is so fantastically bad, I could talk for hours and hours about each and every little atrociously bad element of the movie. I am no stranger to the incredible or the suspension of disbelief required of any sci-fi fan wishing to be entertained. I love outlandish and outrageous things! I cannot, however, abide things which are literally UN-BELIEVABLE, and which conflict with ANY world, fictional or not. This movie is a tour de force of idiocy. It is one long line of things so unimaginably retarded, you end up with a slight sensation of vertigo from shaking your head so thoroughly from start to finish. I will mention a few things that stood out as being particularly idiotic, but please believe me when I say that there are somewhere in the neighborhood of five hundred to a thousand equally appalling scenes left unmentioned. Let's begin. Why are the soldiers at the beginning standing amidst a crowd of plague-carrying Scots? Why are they in front of the fence? As you ponder this, watching them get torn to shreds, you are interrupted by the realization that not only is there a fence behind which they would have been safe, there is also a forty foot tall steel wall a few hundred feet further back. Why are they not behind this wall? Who is in charge of this completely incompetent band of military morons? Why is a chopper behind enemy lines at this point? Why are the soldiers in the chopper not wearing protective gear? Why do they let indigenous Scots covered in blood and grime approach the helicopter? Why do they bring a blood-covered, bleeding, Scottish girl fresh from the crowd of plague-carrying lunatics onto their chopper, which is en route to the safe side of the wall? Is this not...perhaps a little foolish? In 2035, why does the heroine toss her eyeball (yes, really) instead of using a small mirror? Failing that, why isn't she using a little camera and a wrist-mounted monitor? In 2035? On that note: why is the technology in 2035 virtually indistinguishable from technology in 2008? Returning to our heroine, why would she give up her depth perception and risk losing her one eye? Someone might step on it, I'd think? How does the eye rotate on a flat surface without movable parts, while staying in place? Up in Scotland, if the tanks in which the special forces ride are so sturdy and gas-proof and you'd-need-a-50-caliber-rifle-to-put-a-dent-in-this solid, why does it come equipped with a large glass front window which can be shattered by throwing a brick? Why did no one spot the cows from afar? A thousand cows and suddenly they just hit one in the middle of the herd without warning? Ninja cows? Who dyed the Scots' hair? Why do they dye their hair? Why are they armed and working together? Why are they in the hospital after 27 years? Did they sit there for 27 years thinking, "One of these days...!" ? Who took the time to carve the names of disease-victims intricately into the large slab of marble at the hospital? After Scotland is walled in, its population dropping like flies, someone took the time to erect a massive marble wall and start carving the names of the dead into it? Seriously? How could a scientist in 2008 get further with his research in 3 months in a war zone than the entire body of scientists on the planet could in 27 years? Why did the rest of the world's scientists not attempt to concoct a cure for the virus? Why does the guy left behind in the vehicle outside the hospital go out to "help" the girl? Why does he carry her into the tank, remove his protective gear, and then turn his back on her? Who exactly is throwing the grenade right after the guy gets his throat slit and dies? I could go on for a great deal longer, I assure you. I repeat: EVERYTHING - every single little thing - about this movie is so indescribably retarded as to be downright depressing. This is the worst movie in the world. Hands down.

OK, like before DOOMSDAY, Neil Marshall made two great films, DOG SOILDERS and THE DESCENT, so going into this, i had high expectations. then i heard all of the negative buzz on the internet for months and months. so then i had low expectations. and the trailer sucked. basically, if you go into this film expecting anything serious at all, then yeah, you're going to be disappointed, because this is in no way a serious movie sci-fi action future apocalypse thriller. what it is - a tongue in cheek splatter fest homage to the great John Carpenter movies of the 80s and with a bunch of mad max thrown in. if you loved PLANET TERROR, then you will dig on this. really this flick reminded me of the vibe of BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA or CRANK. i'm not sure why more people weren't laughing, cause this film is simply hilarious. it just gets more and more over the top! cannibalistic punks BBQ one of our heroes to Siouxsie and the Banshees "Spellbound." and they have a GIMP!! little furry bunnies get blown up, and cows are squashed via tanks! oh yeah, look at you now, all covered in virus infected blood prime minister. what did you say, who is that guy? oh yeah! it's Dr Bashir from Star Trek Deep Space Nine, yes!!! the gore is consistently excessive and top notch. then out of nowhere, it's a knight on a horse, hey there's Malcom McDowell collecting a paycheck!! boy does his nose crazy silly for some reason! this film is totally intentionally funny and camp. the thing is, i think it has a bit too much of a British sensibility for an American audience, cause there is a certain dryness to the humor, but it's pretty clear that Neil Marshall set out to make a big dumb retarded and fun Hollywood movie, and that ironically Hollywood is too stupid to know how to market it. this will find an audience on video, cause while parts of it are derivative of it's influences, it's too much fun not to like. you just gotta keep drinking and/or smoking! there are only a couple of aspects that keep it from being great - the editing is terrible pretty much throughout, and some of the action is hard to follow. then there is the dialogue that is really poorly staged. like they were working so fast to get the shots and come in under budget (especially at what is supposed to be a climatic scene between our heroine and one of the villains) that they just staged it, shot it once, and the actors were like, hurry up lets be done with this, we're ready to hit up that catered food. but regardless, i had a blast, don't know why my roommate asked the theater management for his money back, what a loser.