Rhona Mitra Movie:

		List Price: $39.98		Label: Rogue Pictures Salesrank: 2634 Released: July 29, 2008
		Our Price: $18.69
		Used Price: $19.45
		MPAA Rating: Unrated Media: Blu-ray

Editorial Review:
From the director of The Descent comes an action-packed thrill-ride through the beating heart of hell! To save humanity from an epidemic, an elite fighting unit must battle to find a cure in a post-apocalyptic zone controlled by a society of murderous renegades. Loaded with ferocious fights and high-octane chases, Doomsday grabs you right from the start, and doesn't let go till its explosive end!

Description of Doomsday [Blu-ray]:
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

Beyond Doomsday on DVD

More from Universal Studios

Doomsday on Blu-ray

More from Director Neil Marshall

Stills from Doomsday (Click for larger image)

Doomsday [Blu-ray] Reviews:
Rhona and nothing more.
2008-08-28 - This is the worst movie I've seen in quite a while.

I am very forgiving when it comes to B movies. This one is a C- at best. Rhona Mitria is the only reason I didn't give it 1 star.

Think of every cliché you can of a post-apocalyptic society and you've got this movie. It's Road Warrior, Escape from New York, and The Postman, with bits of I am Legend and Resident Evil all rolled into one bland yawnfest. (Note: Each movie in that list is vastly better than this one.) There is lots of gore and truly pointless fighting that all leads to a rather boring ending.

On the good side...well, I'm stretching here, but Rhona is attractive, Bob Hoskins isn't but his character was about the only really believable one in the movie. The effects are a little over the top, but competent. Oh, and it's better than No Country for Old Men. No joke.

I had heard that this movie was a parody of "Day After" movies, but it isn't. If it had been, then shooting the cute little bunny might have had some purpose. As it is, both the bunny and this movie are DOA.


this is not a good choice
2008-08-27 - The video is good, and so is the sound, but the movie is a really bad choice. At first sight it seems to be a good action movie, but it is just a bad copy of mad max, with some new stuff, like the combination of an apocalyptic civilization with a normal civilization.

Tonight! Medium F#(%!@g Rare!
2008-08-19 - Watching the flashy fun of "Doomsday" is great, even if you understand you're watching a mash-up of every post-apocalyptic flick from Escape from New York to Mad Max: The Road Warrior to 28 Days Later. There's a walled of city/stated (Scotland), quarantined after "The Reaper Virus" starts wiping out the populous. Ah, but a good hearted soldier scoops up a wounded child and airlifts her across the boarder, leaving her crying mother behind.

Of course, that child grows up to be an aloof, cynical action heroine (Rhona Mitra) Major Eden Sinclair. When a future sleazy prime minister in London discovers that the long-dormant Reaper Virus is resurgent, he corrals an elite force to go over the wall and find a long lost scientist who may just have a cure. But the troops are also told: The mission is so Top Secret that if they don't find the cure, they can forget coming back.

So they hit Glasgow and are immediately set upon by a punk-rock band of wild survivors who seem to dig Adam Ant and Siouxsie & Banshees while having friends over for BBQ. Then it's off to the wilderness in hopes of finding Dr. Marcus Kane (Malcolm McDowell), who has gone back to the real old school...knights, jousting and gladiator battles. And yes, our merry band still has to find the cure and beat the clock to London.

It's all highly derivative and lots of fun, if not in the least bit original. But director Neil Marshall (The Descent) knows his way around creepy thrills and fast cars on deserted highways, along with a dry humor that makes "Doomsday" trip along entertainingly. Just be aware that - if you're expecting to be wowed - you'll be looking for more than what this DVD offers.

Not good bad, not fun bad, not Superbad - just bad.
2008-08-19 - This movie is just plain bad. You know that feeling you get when someone makes a really bad pun? Imagine that exact sensation, that feeling of annoyance, crankiness, disappointment and mild frustration just before you groan aloud and roll your eyes, lasting for 120 minutes - at which point you will groan aloud and roll your eyes. Reading the other reviews I thought this might be a guilty pleasure - instead it's just a damn shame. I'd rather sign a 3-picture deal to play the corpse's groin in the next "Weekend at Bernie's" sequels than endure this again.

2.5; Don't waste your time here
2008-08-18 - Being a moviegoer, you tend to realize very quickly that not everything is going to have superbly written characters, emotional depth and/or epic action sequences and sometimes you just want to watch a good dumb movie to entertain yourself for awhile. Criticize them all you want but films done by Paul W.S. Anderson (of Resident Evil and Alien vs. Predator) or Michael Bay (Pearl Harbor, Transformers) manage to entertain even when your brain is constantly being reminded the film is breaking all the laws of physics, using cliches one after another and bad dialogue. But sometimes even dumb movies can go beyond this and become utter travesties and so we have "Doomsday", the latest from Neil Marshall, which not only seems molded together with scenes from other movies but they're not even done properly.

It's the year 2035 and Britain has been hit by the Reaper virus, a particularly nasty and contagious disease. The government seals off the top half of Britain (read: Scotland) and basically just let the population die out or have them kill each other when they've resorted to cannibalism. However, evidence of survivors as well as a resurgence of the virus outside the walls prompts the government to try to locate Dr. Marcus Kane, a scientist who is believed to be in possession of a cure. With the help of other soldiers, the government sends in Major Eden Sinclair to hopefully find a cure before it infects the rest of the country.

I just have one question to ask: have you ever seen "Escape from New York" by John Carpenter? I know how cliche it is to bring up the comparisons but if you've ever watched it then start watching this, I don't think there is any way you can get that classic 80's flick out of your head. Eden might as well be a female Snake Plissken (complete with occasional eye patch), the scientist plays the President role while the band of thugs and rogues could just as easily be led by the late Isaac Hayes. And that's not the only film here as "Road Warrior" and "Mad Max" will cause familiarity and even "Aliens" which includes characters investigating a potentially hostile environment with other characters doing surveillance in a heavily-armored vehicle (named an APC no doubt) which then proceeds to run over a dude in a manner straight out of Cameron's classic. I think we're getting past the point of homage here and getting straight into ripoff territory.

So besides the large list of references, how's the film? Well not that great either. The violence is over-the-top and in one case, an unusual choice of food that will likely cause you to cringe, rather depraved. The plot's flimsy and the characters are barely likable but seeing 2 "Descent" alums pop up was fun. Speaking of which, Marshall's 2nd movie was an outright modern horror classic, a bright spot in the wave of films competing to see who can outgross each other the most (see the "Saw", "Hostel" and the recent "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" films). His first film, the werewolf-centered "Dog Soldiers" was decent but with his 2nd film, he really showed a potential since not only did it have likable characters but actually terrified but whatever momentum he was gaining is all but squashed here. Every director's got to have their one bomb (Spielberg's "1941", Fincher's "Alien 3") but this certainly takes the cake.

Ever go to the video store and rent something simply because there's nothing else to watch? And upon taking that film home, you realize just how bad the video selection is? Well that's no excuse: watch "The Descent" or re-rent even but stay clear of this one.