Doomsday

[ZNOP]

Anyone going to see this movie Friday?

[Legato]

Nah, I predict the acting will be bad, and the fight scenes will be less impressive aswell.

[Arvandor]

It looks stupid, ridiculous and cheesy.

Just my kind of film. I'm definitely seeing it.

[The Zapper]

I love the Descent, but this doesn't really look my kind of movie.

[mattx110]

Seems kinda "John Carpentery" and I heard descent was good, didn't see it, but I'll get around to it. This might be fun though.

[Jettison]

I cant get over that part in the preview-

'THIS IS SPAR......OUR CITY!!!!'

enough to make me never want to waste my time watching this crap.

[Sean Whitmore]

I have no idea what this movie is actually about, but I will say that the ad campaign is rather strange. They make it seem like someone decided to remake Escape From New York with Rhona Mitra in the Kurt Russel role.


SEAN

[Legato]

I have no idea what this movie is actually about, but I will say that the ad campaign is rather strange. They make it seem like someone decided to remake Escape From New York with Rhona Mitra in the Kurt Russel role.


SEAN

For some reason I had a Mad Max meets Resident Evil vibe when looking at the previews.

[Sean Whitmore]

For some reason I had a Mad Max meets Resident Evil vibe when looking at the previews.

The commercials certainly had some elements of them.

I just looked up the plot on moviefone.com, and damn, those were some bad ads. They revealed nothing about the actual story. If someone had asked me what the movie was about based on the commercials alone, I would have said "A city has been taken over by criminals and gangbangers and Rhona Mitra plays a badass who has to break in for some reason and beat them all up."


SEAN

[Legato]

The commercials certainly had some elements of them.

I just looked up the plot on moviefone.com, and damn, those were some bad ads. They revealed nothing about the actual story. If someone had asked me what the movie was about based on the commercials alone, I would have said "A city has been taken over by criminals and gangbangers and Rhona Mitra plays a badass who has to break in for some reason and beat them all up."


SEAN

My guess is to save someone that is held within the city.

[HulkSmash666]

I think I'll watch it just for the supossed "Incredible Hulk" trailer that's coming out with it.

Then again, I don't think this movie will be released in Australia until later, seeing as though it's not exactly a massive blockbuster.

But......

If this is any where near as good as "The Decent" (my favourite horror movie EVER!!), then I'm sure we're in for a pretty decent movie.

And Rhona Mitra is fuckin gorgeous. They have to make a new word for what I'd do her sweet, sweet body.

[mattx110]

The commercials certainly had some elements of them.

I just looked up the plot on moviefone.com, and damn, those were some bad ads. They revealed nothing about the actual story. If someone had asked me what the movie was about based on the commercials alone, I would have said "A city has been taken over by criminals and gangbangers and Rhona Mitra plays a badass who has to break in for some reason and beat them all up."


SEAN
Add in a disease that makes people wear makeup, and that's pretty much it from what I can tell.

[JDogindy]

To me, it looks like 28 Days Later mixed with Mad Max.

It doesn't even look good since you're using the standard plot perfected by recent Resident Evil movies.

[hoffmandu]

After The Decent and Dog Soldiers one pretty mych has to see this guys next project. Count me in like white on rice, on a paper plate in a snowstorm.

[Alan Lynch]

Yeah, I haven't seen many clips of this but shit - Neil Marshall has done more than enough to get my arse in a seat whenever this comes out here. Even if this sucks he's still got 2 remarkable films behind him. I'll be there next time round as well, especially if it's the project he spent a few months describing in a Total Film column.

[nervmeister]

Doomsday will be the best film since The Road Warrior. I can feel it!

[SensorBoy]

Scotland taken over by zombies? Who'd notice?

[Blueferret]

After The Decent and Dog Soldiers one pretty mych has to see this guys next project. Count me in like white on rice, on a paper plate in a snowstorm.

This movie's by the guy that did those movies? Count me in. Plus, Mitra's waaaay hot.

[Alan Lynch]

Scotland taken over by zombies? Who'd notice?
It depends. Can zombies serve alcohol?

[DWEarhart]

This movie was a bit too schizo. I'll stick with Dog Soldiers.

It's just three movies most of us have already seen rolled into one. There were alot of elements that could have been explored more than they were, but the flick wasn't necessarily intended to be a character piece. Not a bad film, but Dog Soldiers is still my Neil Marshall standard. Don't be surprised if you catch yourself checking your watch from time to time.

[david r]

This looks like Neil Marshall's first misfire.

[Ryan K]

This movie was a bit too schizo.

That was the first word that came out of my mouth as I left the theater last night. Schizo.

It's like Marshall just sat there and said 'I like Mad Max, Escape from New York, 28 Days Later, car chases, sword fights, gun fights, graphic cannabalism, and medieval stuff . . . how can I fit this all into one film'?

You can't.

The movie has so many plot holes its ridiculous. Almost every single decision the film makes is based on "is it cool". Not logic, not character, not the realm of possibility.

The film was entertaining for the most part though. If you just turn your brain off and never ever ask the questions 'would this or could this happen' or 'why did they do this; why don't they do this', its pretty enjoyable. And easily one of the most violent films I've ever seen. The gore is laughable by the end of the film. At some point the action and violence turn tongue-in-cheek, but even before that mutilated bodies have long lost any effect.

Mitra's hot. It wouldn't be very fair to attack her lack of acting ability as the role really calls for none until the last minute or two. For 2 hours she basically just puts on a face I like to call "disaffected pout". Which apparently is supposed to tell us she's sexy and she doesn't give a damn! Like I said though, its not really fair to attack her, all the role calls for is model looks and a stunt double.

It sounds like I'm bitching a lot for a movie I claim to have found entertaining, but that's because with some constraint this could have been a good entertaining movie. There's just a lot of stupid shit in it thats actually executed fairly well. It's just too schizo. It doesn't know which film it wants to rip off most and settles for ripping off a lot of stuff that doesn't go together.

A more thoughtful script, with some interesting characters would have gone a long way into making this another sucess for Marshall. Instead it just looks like an experiment in homage gone terribly wrong.

[metalhead_dave743]

I couldn't stand this movie. It felt like a bad remake of "Escape from New York" except that in the place of Snake there was an unlikable protagonist with no charisma who tries desperatley to look like a badass. Throw in a little "First Knight" "Road Warrior" and a pinch of "Pulp Fiction(The Gimp)" and you have this movie. The only entertaining part of the movie was the bad guy Sol(and I guess Bob Hoskins).

All the action scenes and cool fighting shit has been done already and it's been done BETTER... in BETTER movies. This was one of the biggest wastes of my time and my money.

[Legato]

I couldn't stand this movie. It felt like a bad remake of "Escape from New York" except that in the place of Snake there was an unlikable protagonist with no charisma who tries desperatley to look like a badass. Throw in a little "First Knight" "Road Warrior" and a pinch of "Pulp Fiction(The Gimp)" and you have this movie. The only entertaining part of the movie was the bad guy Sol(and I guess Bob Hoskins).

All the action scenes and cool fighting shit has been done already and it's been done BETTER... in BETTER movies. This was one of the biggest wastes of my time and my money.

I suppose I was right in not wanting to see this movie and my prediction of how the movie would turn out was accurate.

By any chance was that bad guy you mention was the one who screamed "This is our city!"?

[metalhead_dave743]

I suppose I was right in not wanting to see this movie and my prediction of how the movie would turn out was accurate.

By any chance was that bad guy you mention was the one who screamed "This is our city!"?

If he had a yellow mohawk then yeah, he was one of the two bad guys. Don't bother asking about the other one.

[EZMOHR]

I couldn't stand this movie. It felt like a bad remake of "Escape from New York" except that in the place of Snake there was an unlikable protagonist with no charisma who tries desperatley to look like a badass. Throw in a little "First Knight" "Road Warrior" and a pinch of "Pulp Fiction(The Gimp)" and you have this movie. The only entertaining part of the movie was the bad guy Sol(and I guess Bob Hoskins).

All the action scenes and cool fighting shit has been done already and it's been done BETTER... in BETTER movies. This was one of the biggest wastes of my time and my money.

Wow, mix up of New York, Road Warrior, and RE, and hell even Pulp Fiction(It looks like leather would be a supporting actor in this movie just from the previews) is how the commercials look. But, FIRST KNIGHT. Wow, I'm almost tempted to see this movie. Is there a Julia Ormond sighting? Is Ben Cross the bad guy? Does Richard Gere have a mullett in it? Is Sean Connery creepy going after the way younger chick? Damn, First Knight would be like the last movie I would think Doomsday would be associated with. I was thinking more along the lines of......Sci-Fi Saturday Night Premiere.

[metalhead_dave743]

Wow, mix up of New York, Road Warrior, and RE, and hell even Pulp Fiction(It looks like leather would be a supporting actor in this movie just from the previews) is how the commercials look. But, FIRST KNIGHT. Wow, I'm almost tempted to see this movie. Is there a Julia Ormond sighting? Is Ben Cross the bad guy? Does Richard Gere have a mullett in it? Is Sean Connery creepy going after the way younger chick? Damn, First Knight would be like the last movie I would think Doomsday would be associated with. I was thinking more along the lines of......Sci-Fi Saturday Night Premiere.

Well our star heronie takes on a bunch of morons who decide to live like it's the Middle Ages again, complete with Knight Armour and Crossbows. First Knight was the first movie to come to mind when I thought of Middle Ages movies... hence there you go.

[EZMOHR]

Well our star heronie takes on a bunch of morons who decide to live like it's the Middle Ages again, complete with Knight Armour and Crossbows. First Knight was the first movie to come to mind when I thought of Middle Ages movies... hence there you go.

Wow, Sci-Fi Saturday Night'riffic.

[PamGrierOverdrive]

If you think about it, Dog Soldiers and The Descent both had their fair share of silly, logic-out-the-window moments as well.

[ultramandingo]

It felt like a bad remake of "Escape from New York".

...........didnt carpenter allredy make a bad remake of "Escape from New York" ? good thing my car broke down or i probably woulda went to the matinee and killed some brain cells

[DWEarhart]

If you think about it, Dog Soldiers and The Descent both had their fair share of silly, logic-out-the-window moments as well.

But, as a whole, they didn't suck, in my opinion.

Doomsday was dryer than a mummy's sex life.

[metalhead_dave743]

...........didnt carpenter allredy make a bad remake of "Escape from New York" ? good thing my car broke down or i probably woulda went to the matinee and killed some brain cells

Yes he did. It was called "Escape from L.A." :D

[Rattlehead]

Yes he did. It was called "Escape from L.A." :D

That surf sequence is still awesome, in a completely dumb way.

[PamGrierOverdrive]

Any movie with Kurt Russell, Bruce Campbell, Pam Grier and Steve Buscemi can't be all bad.

[metalhead_dave743]

That surf sequence is still awesome, in a completely dumb way.

There was a surf sequence in the movie? I must have plum forgot about it. I remember a Basketball sequence.

[ultramandingo]

Any movie with Kurt Russell, Bruce Campbell, Pam Grier and Steve Buscemi can't be all bad.

..........thats what i thought, until the final credits rolled .

[phantomstranger]

"Doomsday"

Wow, I haven't seen so complete a rip off of "Escape From New York" since, well..."Escape From LA".
Actually it's not a complete rip off of "New York" it also steals from "Mad Max" and "Resident Evil" and a little bit of George Romero's "Knight Riders" too.
But you know what's kind of funny about all of this. The movie is actually entertaining.I guess when you take the best parts from other films and blend them all together you can't help but come up with something fun.
A modern "B" movie with a truly beautiful leading lady.

[DWEarhart]

Had this been made on an actual grindhouse film budget, meaning cheap, I might have enjoyed it more.

[DoubleDip]

I caught a free showing of the movie in the city, and i have to say it was very entertaining, but pretty bad... lets just say if i paid to see the movie, id probably be pretty upset.... I feel like this is a copy of resident evil 2... and the characters arent even zombies... its kinda wierd... and the infected reminded me of the planet terror zomie things...
Its like the remake Dawn of the Dead... entertaining, but just going for $$

[jesse_custer]

So let me attempt to sum up the views of this thread: I shouldn't watch this expecting the intelligence of "The Descent." And if I watch this, I should let my brain go.

[ultramandingo]

Had this been made on an actual grindhouse film budget, meaning cheap, I might have enjoyed it more.

........or in 80s era hong hong staring maggie chung and anthony wong as the villian

[mlcm]

If you're going to remake Escape From New York and mix in every other action flick out there, you've got to go balls to the wall. This movie did not. I wasn't entertained. Until I saw that car. Then I was grinning - but then I saw the car chase featured only - like - six cars. See what I mean? Not balls-to-the-wall enough! I hated it. I hated it with every fiber of my bean.

[SensorBoy]

This movie makes "Feast" look like Lord of The Rings.

[king mob]

The DVD of this is out & I finally caught up with it & it's a glorious bit of piss taking, plus any film featuring a Glaswegian action hero in a post-apocalyptic Glasgow (I hooted like a loon during the scene in Queen Street Station) is fine by me.

Yes it's wearing it's influences broadly, yes the satire of Tony Blair & Alistair Campbell (Siddig & O'Hara's characters)is rubbish but still fun, Bob Hoskins adds a class the film needs but isn't on screen enough to make it rise above it's B-Movie roots. But it's huge fun & very, very British in it's humour which is why it's probably not been successful outside the UK.

It's an ambitious British film and one that proves that there's life in our industry yet, plus it shows that Neil Marshall has a unique voice in an industry where he could easily churn out costume dramas or rom-coms for an international market. Doing this type of film is hard in our tiny film industry but Marshall is an important British filmmaker to be ranked with others (Shane Meadows for example) who refuse to compromise.

[Jared]

If you're going to remake Escape From New York and mix in every other action flick out there, you've got to go balls to the wall. This movie did not. I wasn't entertained. Until I saw that car. Then I was grinning - but then I saw the car chase featured only - like - six cars. See what I mean? Not balls-to-the-wall enough! I hated it. I hated it with every fiber of my bean.

I know what you mean. It seemed to me that the only area in which the movie went all-out was with the gore, at least in the unrated cut i saw. But that isn't enough to justify the movie for me. It was lifeless from start to finish.

[ultramandingo]

t plus it shows that Neil Marshall has a unique voice in an industry where he could easily churn out costume dramas or rom-coms for an international market. .

............wish he woulda tried a lot harder - though the use of frankie goes to hollywood was pretty inspired - i call a ban on all mohawks in the future starting right now

[DWEarhart]

Neil Marshall is a diverse filmmaker, though I still have yet to seee Combat, but Doomsday was just flat. There was no suspense and a lot of watch-checking.

I was worried about the bigger budget. Doomsday was made for $26 million, where his previously three directed films were made for $8 million or less, if I've done my research right. And, sometimes, that hurts a director. If you look at George Romero; a bigger budget isn't exactly a good thing, and I've often thought that the same bug infected Neil Marshall, though until he makes another big budget flick, I can never really tell. Maybe he learned something from having more money.

I have no doubts that he can continue to create some really good movies, but Doomsday had no legs, no life, and felt like a flick that someone just wanted to finish instead of experience.

[stealthwise]

I saw bits of this and then the final half hour or so, and it was pretty bad. Like, 80s movie bad. All of the cheese and none of the charm of a Mad Max 3 ripoff.

[kalorama]

I know what you mean. It seemed to me that the only area in which the movie went all-out was with the gore, at least in the unrated cut i saw. But that isn't enough to justify the movie for me. It was lifeless from start to finish.

It seemed to have something resembling an idea (a derivative, overdone idea, but an idea nonetheless) at the beginning. But once they got inside the city it seemed like they just forgot about the whole idea of a mission and just decided to start piling up the bodies.