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Doomsday [2008]
from Universal Pictures UK
starring Sean Pertwee, Adrian Lester, Bob Hoskins, MyAnna Buring, Rhona Mitra
directed by Neil Marshall

Features:

• PAL

Editorial Review:

Loud, violent, and proudly derivative, the post-apocalyptic action-thriller Doomsday is the latest from UK cult director Neil Marshall, who impressed horror fans with his previous efforts, Dog Soldiers and The Descent. Both pictures established Marshall as a director with a knack for reinventing well-worn genre pictures, but here, he seems more interested in stitching together favorite scenes and elements from established horror and science-fiction films. Escape from New York is the main source for Doomsday, though there are plenty of nods to The Road Warrior and its multitude of Italian-made carbon copies, as well as the zombie/plague subgenre; the lovely but impassive Rhona Mitra is the Snake Plissken-esque loner sent by police (represented by Bob Hoskins) to infiltrate Scotland, which has descended into anarchy following a viral outbreak.

The disease has surfaced in London (now a walled city), and Mitra is dispatched to find a scientist who may possess a cure. Marshall's vision of Scotland in ruins brings together the punk/modern primitive costume design of George Miller's Mad Max trilogy with some eclectic homegrown elements (knights on horseback defending a gang leader's castle), and while these touches are novel, the picture as a whole should ring overly familiar to any viewer who's spent time in the exploitation trenches during the past 25 years. Younger and less discerning audience members will undoubtedly enjoy the plentiful violence and gore, as well as the unbridled performances of the supporting cast, especially stuntwoman/actress Lee-Ann Liebenberg as the heavily tattooed Viper. --Paul Gaita

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 3.0 / 5.0

• BIG BUDGET EXPLOITATION....FANS OF MAD MAX 2, READ ON...
  How I would have loved this back in the early 80s, in the wake of the superior Escape From New York & Mad Max 2, along with the countless knockoffs such as Atlantis Interceptors, 2019 & the Bronx Warriors movies.
  As it stands, this is very much 'seen it all before' BUT I still enjoyed it, despite the total lack of originality plot wise!
  It's loud (too much at times), action packed and extremeley gory.
  Visually, it's VERY impressive, looking even better than a $17,000,000 budget... more info

• doomsday
  Well well well isn't that an interesting take on the Scottish.
  Its been over 260years since Culloden and still the English seem to see the Scots as wild barbarians. If you closed Scotland of tomorrow, apparently we would slip back into our Celtic roots of pre Roman days.
  Not the nation that invented TV the telephone and cloning. A nation with some of the best artists, art galleries universities in Europe. Nope shut us off from England for ten minutes and if we can't get a deep fried Mars bar... more info

• EXCELLENT COPY OF ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK & MAD MAX
  I was positively surprised when I watched DOOMSDAY, expecting a carbon copy of ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK / L.A. & MAD MAX.
  Then I noticed two things. Rhona Mitra's Sinclair makes Snake Plissken look like a whimp by comparison, and DOOMSDAY is a fantastic film featuring an excellent cast including Bob Hoskins and Malcolm McDowell.
  Yes, it copies pretty much of the story from ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (even the musical score reminded me of it), it also copies parts of 28 DAYS LATER and large portions of... more info

• Another classic from Neil Marshall
  Neil Marshall delivers once again with this tale of a deadly virus outbreak that culminates in Scotland being walled off and quarantined from the rest of England. Years later the virus rears it's head once more and a small military unit is sent to the other side of the wall in search of survivors...and a cure.
  If you enjoyed Neil Marshalls other films then you should get a kick out of this. Of course don't expect it to be anything like his previous films as it's as apart from them as The Descent was... more info

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