Lajos Andrejkovics Remember, how you've enjoyed the action movies from the 80's? In the 80's, yes, because action cinematography has evolved and so did the directors, the actors and the plot too... and even if you take all the power ingredients from the 80's they just look super lame nowadays...

CynicalFIN I might be a late comer for this film and Doomsday was released in 2008. It was directed by Neil Marshall who's work include The Descent, Dog Soldiers and some TV episodes. I've seen Dog Soldiers before this and loved it, so I was actually interested at Doomsday, as Neil Marshall seems to love 80's movies a lot. Dog Soldiers was pretty much a homage to 80's horror films and Doomsday obviously takes influence from Mad Max but also seems to add some elements from 28 Days Later (great film).Doomsday doesn't seem to be known by most people and was a box office disappointment and after seeing Doomsday, I wasn't surprised why it failed.Doomsday starts out great as we see that there is a dangerous disease called, Reaper virus, which kills most of the infected. UK government isolates Scotland by building a large wall near Hadrian's wall (I think). This causes diplomatic problems with the rest of the world among other issues like civil unrest and unemployment. After 25 years (or 27 or 30, I don't know. The information is conflicted), Reaper virus is found on London. Quarantines take place and most likely isn't going to hold long, so other measures should be taken. It it revealed that Scotland has survivors, meaning that there should be a cure and government sends a small group to find it.By now it's clear that Doomsday isn't very logical film and it's suppose to be like old B-movies. It doesn't make sense most of the time, but doesn't take itself too seriously. To put it simply, stupid fun. I would argue that it works for the first half, but the moment action starts behind the walls, Doomsday becomes a mess. Too many illogical situations come and go, along with the action. This wouldn't necessary be a bad thing for this kind of film, but there's so many fast cuts and poorly paced music, it becomes annoying. It's sad because I actually found the previous moments very interesting and even creepy. There were high stakes finding the cure and we do see some moments of total chaos in London (unlike in misleading trailer, it didn't have the time to spread to whole region).There are so many questions left after seeing the film. I know it's suppose to be silly on purpose but it's not silly in a good way. For example: 1. How did Reaper Virus got into London sewers without infecting people that are near Scotland. I assumed it was smugglers, but why would they go to Scotland and wasn't it the most heavily guarded places on earth? If it was the government sector that did it, wouldn't it make sense to send a squad to get the cure before releasing Reaper virus to London? 2. How did cannibals come up a good plan against two armored vehicles? Did they have scouts all over the place? They just suddenly come out of nowhere like they are ghosts or something. Also, why was it a good idea to bring that one woman inside the vehicle when it was SO OBVIOUS that she was a bait. 3. How did cannibals and medieval-like knights (seriously) find the good guys so easily? It happens three times and they somehow organized everything.4. What were good guys trying to do after finding out that former doctor (played by Malcolm McDowell) has gone crazy. I understand why the lead female intentionally got caught, but what were they trying to do before getting caught? Did they try to approach the castle or something else? There are other problems, but I don't have enough time and space to mention all of them.I can live with the wall building speed and unrealistic tribes with great amount of fuel and resources even after 25 years, but adding too much silly moments while trying to keep a serious tone can break the film. I just don't think that same magic can be added to modern movies unlike in 70's and 80's. Dog Soldiers is an exception, but somehow Marshall, with his team, failed to capture the 80's in Doomsday. There are definitely good moments in Doomsday, which is why I give Doomsday a 4/10, like the first half of the film, special effects were top notch (hard to tell difference between practical effects and CGI) and action wasn't bad until the final action sequence (which did have one shot that was awesome). Casting was surprisingly good even if dialogue was slightly cringe-worthy. Actors did fine job with the material they were given; Bob Hoskins' character being my favorite. The moments when we see Reaper virus affecting people were honestly creepy and I wished the film would've shown more. Doomsday does forget what it's suppose to be and tries too hard to be 80's film.I wouldn't give a 4/10 and instead give it a perhaps 7/10 or 8/10 if the film keep the tone and atmosphere of the first half. Too long action setup without breaks with continuous action music playing in the background and fast editing just hurt my ears and eyes. Just because you make quick edits and add music to a scene, it doesn't make a good action film. The last half was really that bad.

Leofwine_draca DOOMSDAY is one huge mess of a movie, but in a good way. Neil Marshall, the Scottish director of such low budget but entertaining fare as DOG SOLDIERS and THE DESCENT, apparently decided to make a good old-fashioned post apocalypse movie while paying tribute to his favourite movies along the way. Some might call this film a rip off of the popular '80s sci fi films, some might call it a pastiche, while others might call it a homage. For me, DOOMSDAY is original enough to be entertaining throughout, even if the story is all over the place and frequently unbelievable (even by genre stakes) and the epilogue is a damp squib compared to what's come before.For the record, this movie references THE LORD OF THE RINGS (in a strange feudal interlude, the armour is the same as that of the Orcs in Jackson's opus); GLADIATOR (there's a fierce arena battle that doesn't disappoint); ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (you can sense it in the get-in-there-and-do-the-job vibe as well as stuff like the walled-off area and streets brimming with thugs); THE WARRIORS (the punk-inspired bad guys); DISTRICT 13 (the revamped 2000s action vibe, and the film that no doubt convinced Marshall to make this); MAD MAX 2: THE ROAD WARRIOR (again, the punk bad guys as well as the climatic road chase) and also 28 DAYS LATER (infected zombies running amok). There are probably plenty of other references I either didn't get or didn't notice at the time.Anyway, the main reason I liked this film was because it's fun, and a whole lot of fun. Genre fans will have a ball. Marshall throws in plenty of crowd-pleasing stuff and the movie never stops moving. There's a ton of action and it's also very gory, with lots of heads being severed, as well as limbs and arterial sprays of god-knows-what. Marshall is a guy who shows a rabbit being machine-gunned for a laugh and who doesn't shy away from showing cannibalism in graphic detail, either. The cast are champions, sharing fun, hard-ass dialogue and it's great to see the likes of Bob Hoskins and Malcolm McDowell giving authority while letting the likes of Rhona Mitra and Adrian Lester have some new-found glory – Mitra and Lester are both fine, by the way. Sean Pertwee pops up yet again for an exceedingly unpleasant demise and there seems to be no end to the budget, with tons of shoot-outs, chases, explosions and more.I'm not really sure why this film gets a lot of flak, because it sets out to be a fun romp and never pretends to be anything else. It's gory, funny, action-packed and well-choreographed; I didn't find a single thing not to like, and that's great. If TAKEN and RAMBO are 2008's best serious action thrillers, then this is the tongue-in-cheek flipside of the coin.

reid-hawk 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.