Doomsday (2008)

May 6, 2024 2:18 PM

[TRAILER] When the first outbreak of the Reaper virus hit Scotland, Eden Sinclair was one of the last to escape containment and had to leave her mother behind. Twenty-five years later, Maj. Eden Sinclair (Rhona Mitra) leads a team back into the hot zone to find a counteragent to the virus, which has re-emerged in London. She and her comrades wage a desperate battle for survival against feral survivors, as they try to prevent it from ushering in a new dark age.

Also starring Bob Hoskins, Adrian Lester, Alexander Siddig, David O'Hara, Malcolm McDowell, Sean Pertwee.

Written and directed by Neil Marshall. Produced by Steven Paul, Benedict Carver for Rogue Pictures/Intrepid Pictures/Crystal Sky Pictures/Scion Films/Moonlighting Films/Internationale Filmproduktion Black. Cinematography by Sam McCurdy. Edited by Andrew MacRitchie, Catriona Richardson. Music by Tyler Bates.

50% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

Currently streaming in the US on Max. JustWatch listing.

posted by DirtyOldTown (9 comments total)

This was probably the beginning of the end for Neil Marshall. Dog Soldiers and The Descent were excellent, but this is mostly a guy fucking around with his influences: John Carpenter, 28 Days Later, Mad Max. Marshall abandons his normally sharp writing, seemingly supposing that energetic riffs on these chestnuts and a fabulous female star (Mitra) would paper over that and people would have a good time anyway.

Here's the thing, though: for me, at least, that was correct. I enjoyed this, but in the same way I enjoy the Resident Evil movies, not the way I enjoy John Carpenter films or Mad Max.

There is a badass lady carving up zombies and punkish post-apocalyptic gangs. Okay, cool!

Backing up a bit though, he never really bothered to get back to being serious about scripts again, and his later stuff got worse and worse (looking at you The Lair). So maybe, fun as this is, it was a mistake all the same.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 2:22 PM on May 6 [6 favorites]

I've never seen this, and I'm not sure that I want to, but the vibe I'm getting from this trailer is "we have Mad Max at home".
posted by confluency at 2:26 PM on May 6 [1 favorite]

So a virus hits Scotland like in 28 Days Later. So they seal the people there off behind a wall, like in Escape from New York. So Mad Max-type gangs emerge amongst the Land of the Dead zombies, but it turns out the gangs may have a cure for the virus, sort of like The Omega Man. So the government sends a woman who is like a cross between Snake Plissken and Alice from Resident Evil to go in and get it. Also, Malcolm McDowell, Bob Hoskins, and Sean Pertwee are around being all McDowell-y, Hoskins-y, and Pertwee-y, as they do.

That's pretty much it.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 2:33 PM on May 6 [6 favorites]

I liked Dog Solider a lot, and The Descent was amazing, so I primed to watch this and... what a turd. It's exactly as DoT describes, but I did not get into it AT ALL. I don't even remember much of it, just that I was bored and rolling my eyes a lot. Very disappointing. And somehow, his Hellboy movie is even worse.
posted by mrphancy at 3:41 PM on May 6

rolling my eyes

I see what you did there.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 4:24 PM on May 6 [2 favorites]

Yeah this was very much the beginning of Marshall's descent. I went in so excited and came out "Uh....wtf just happened?"
posted by miss-lapin at 8:15 PM on May 6

I feel like this is as YMMV as movies get; it may help a lot to have been an '80s kid. I recall laughing with delight and saying something like, "Ha ha, yes, now it's Excalibur!" late in the game. If that's a reaction a film could plausibly elicit in you, you might enjoy this. Otherwise...I dunno.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 4:23 AM on May 7 [2 favorites]

This movie reminded me that I wish Rhona Mitra was in more stuff and it made me wonder why Bob Hoskins wasted precious hours of his life being in it. Other than that, it's as Dirty Old Town describes it.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 11:00 AM on May 7 [1 favorite]

I have a soft spot for this, but not really due to it being high quality. Its very silly and I like the more homegrown aspect, but yes, I also wondered what was going on with Marshall.

Post-apocalyptic non-working wind turbines though, so not all bad.
posted by biffa at 5:07 AM on May 9