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Ok the deal. This is tongue in cheek sci-fi violence. Were talking mad max meets 28 days later. People who see this either think this is the coolest action movie in a long time or its the worst piece of crap in the world. THERE IS NO MIDDLE GROUND.
I personally think it was really entertaining. I would say check it out on DVD and make sure you watch it if you don't mind a break from the horror and throw this one in your blockbuster que. Its a fun ride with good actors. BUT... Know that you are watching an action film and it doesn't take its subject too serious.
There was a time when Neil Marshall could have been a writer/director to watch...
'Dog Soldiers' was gloriously daft but thrilling entertainment; 'The Descent' however, took a brilliant, brutal concept and executed it masterfully. Both already genre classics, for Marshall and fans of the above, the future looked good.
With 'Doomsday' however, Marshall's future ain't bright, but you still gotta wear shades.
Don't get me wrong here. If you're of a certain age and you haven't seen the following movies, 'Doomsday' might just rock you: 'Escape from New York', ' Mad Max 2: Road Warrior', ''Aliens', 'Evil Dead 3: Army of the Dead', and blatantly, '28 Days/Weeks Later'.
If you have though, then 'Doomsday' is just AN other big budget but crushingly pointless spectacle.
The wit, style and panache of Robert Rodriguez' 'Planet Terror' for example - itself a pure, loving homage to John Carpenter, is sorely missing here; and maybe Marshall's intention was to pay tribute to his favourite 80's genre classics: but why then, unlike Rodriguez, is there NOT ONE original frame in 'Doomsday'?
Let me repeat that: Not. One.
Remember Paul W Anderson? Remember 'Event Horizon'?
So the cast,(largely), do a great job with a bad script, the action scenes are effectively handled, the direction is competent: SO WHAT?
This movie is garbage.
I did not find this as much of a hommage to some 80's films as I found it totally ripping off Road Warrior. I had high hopes for this film but I left disappointed. It is an action film through and through with very little horror element in it, I was expecting more.
An absolute blast. Neil Marshall already had me sold as a talented filmmaker with 'Dog Soldiers' and 'The Descent'. 'Doomsday' (his third film starting with the letter 'D') is my least favorite, but that doesn't mean it isn't worth checking out. If you're a fan of 'Escape From New York/L.A', 'Aliens' and 'Mad Max'... this is a mish-mash of all of those with a few new spins on old ideas. Also, any film that proudly boasts Fine Young Cannibals and Siouxsie and the Banshees on its soundtrack gets a pass. Funny enough, the only actor to almost stink everything up was Malcolm McDowell. He stumbled around looking like he mistook the 'Doomsday' soundstage for Dr. Loomis' office. That guy is so fucking lame now! Anyway, brainless fun is abound here... give it a look.
What a waste of time. I basically went to amc for an Icee. So, guns that shoot rabbits? That's useless, and wow, state of the art tanks that get taken out from molotov cocktails and baseball bats? Terrible, glad I got my 10 bucks back. How the Fuck did AVP-R get a worse BD review than this? Fuck anyone who was mindless enough to enjoy this trash.
This is an homage film for the ages, and I believe Niel Marshall needed to do a goofy action romp. It was a farce at times, but overall a very fun popcorn movie!
I thought it had a pretty good ending to it. A lot of movies these days don't have very good endings and this one made me leave smiling. The overall movie had great action. =]
I thought it was pretty twistd (in a good way. There was a few of my friends that wouldn't even go see it because it was kind a like "28 Weeks Later and Resident Evil" but I felt they did an awesome and kind of not so good in parts.
My favourite film has always been ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK and as i dreamt of becoming a film maker i dreamt of one day doing that sort of movies. Neil Marshall has done it for me, a hundred times better than i could. Lack of story? The movies his flick gets compared to ESCAPE, ALIENS and ROAD WARRIOR all lacked story too. This is what Hollywood used to make, should make but is normally left for the straight to DVD crowd. This is what i want to pay money for. Absolutely mega!
Posted By: jigsaw_fan87 at 12:51pm, March 16, 2008
Let me first start off by saying that I have never seen Mad Max or Road Warrior, and the last time I saw Escape from New York was many, many years ago. I should also point out that I loved Neil Marshall's previous films. "The Descent", in my opinion, is one the best horror movies to come out in a LONG time, and "Dog Soldiers" was one of the better werewolf films I've ever seen (a million times better than "Cursed").
So with that said I went into "Doomsday" pretty optimistic. What I got was one hell of a joyride with blood, action and of course, the lovely to look at Rhona Mitra! Is "Doomsday" a perfect movie? Absolutely not. Is it a good movie? I'm not quite sure of that either. But I do know that I was entertained throughout the whole movie.
One of the problems the movie has is it's sheer lack of story. There seems to be two or three movies packed into one and after awhile it just gets ridiculous. I couldn't help but roll my eyes when the medieval times storyline came along. Another problem with this movie, and in my opinion the biggest flaw, are the characters. In Marshall's previous films I cared for the characters and when one was killed off it was like losing a friend. However in "Doomsday" that just isn't the case. Even the lead is somewhat of a bore and has very little personality. I didn't care as much for her to live as I did the girls in "The Descent".
Now on for the good. This movie is a gore hounds dream! Lot's of heads getting smashed, decapitations, virus induced bleeding. The gore was FANTASTIC! Although I did find myself snickering more than being horrified. Also, each scene is one action set piece to another, it is quite the ride!
Neil Marshall's "Doomsday" is far from a perfect picture, but it is one hell of a joyride and I did enjoy it for the most part. Plus you get to look at Rhona Mitra for 90 minutes. I can think of a lot worse things to do with my time.
My only hope is that Neil Marshall can rebound on his next flick to once again scare the living daylights out of us like he did with "The Descent".
On a side note; has anyone elsed noticed that the so-called "splat pack" members have really done poorly with their third directorial efforts? Marshall's third movie joins the likes of Roth (Hostel: Part II), Bousman (Saw IV), Zombie (Halloween), and even James Wan (Death Sentence), to have their third movie be less than stellar, unlike the previous two. Just something I was thinking about.
