the audience applauded

Memorable, crazy movie

Fantastic!

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Lets start with the good parts. I liked the overall visuals and sets and seemingly this was quite a big budget film minus the actual star actors which were missing. Especially the Mad Max style gang scenes were believable and quite intense. The main baddie could also act (unlike the main heroine). Some of the scenes were pretty cool like the first attack scene from the raiders and there was a sense of danger in it. Overall the acting was hit and miss. Needless to say that the main character was a huge miscast. I haven't seen this wooden and uncharismatic acting since, forever. Malcolm McDowell, a great actor, was mentioned in the initial credits, I waited him, and he had like 5 minutes of screen time. Figures. Mostly it was cringe-worthy performances and cliched dialogue from b-grade actors. The story and screenplay was crazy jumping from futuristic "Aliens" style of military stuff towards a zombie flick, and then to Mad Max, and eventually to some medieval castle with knights and all. A lot of it made no sense. I guess they just wanted to show cool scenery and costumes to audience.Action scenes went on and quickly it was made clear that the main lady could take any kind of damage and pretty much kill anybody and everybody. That, and the fact that she was annoying and arrogant bitch made this film lose most of the stars from my eyes. It is very typical in these times to set a woman to be the "bring best man you can find" as it was said in the film. Forget the physics and realities, this skinny woman can take down any man twice at her size, even unarmed against steel armor-plated warrior. No problem. Can take full force punches to stomach without any injury. Also she can just run away from motorbike raiders coming right at her. Surely, if this is a superhero film, I'd have no problem with that or anything else happened in the movie. But if you lose believability, you lose everything. Mostly that was because of lazy scripting and when all the suspense and danger disappears, you get numb and bored.As said, there were some cool scenes in this film but they were quickly forgotten by crazy out of place bits. Most definitely, the most ridiculous scene was at the end when the Bentley pierced straight through a bus without even a dent in its bumpers. I guess the bus was made out of paper or something. Just like all the bad guys.Final verdict: 2/10 with the lead actress, 6/10 with Jason Statham.

Yet ANOTHER lazy, cliched, absolutely pathetic view of the future. As soon as I saw the first punk hairstyle, the whole film was destroyed and all credibility lost. Don't waste your time seeing this as the make up and costume departments, writer, producers and Director all bailed out and couldn't be bothered to use ANY imagination whatsoever. It incenses me beyond belief that nobody involved in this said "NO!...NO MORE PUNK HAIRSTYLES!" Throughout the 1950's, nigh on ALL Sci-Fi movies had spacemen in SILVER outfits. How many astronauts in REALITY who went to the Moon wore silver? EVERYONE in the MAD MAX series of films had bloody silly hairstyles with no explanation whatsoever HOW they cut, blow dried, coloured/dyed, and maintained those cuts in a future without electricity and or dyes or shampoos. It is SO lazy to not even consider (and thereby be unique) how men and women without even hot water could achieve such fashion. It is so stupid! Just look how much the budget was and how much the film made! If only somebody could've used a different way of showing a dystopian world and the people/survivors who inhabit it! I need to lie down and I suggest you all do the same and AVOID this steaming pile of poo from affecting and infecting your brain.

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.

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.