Doomsday

The descendants of William Wallace (aka Mel Gibson) and Mad Max (Gibson again, yuck, shame on you Mel!) in a version for 2035 dance a C-grade cancan at the Grindhouse club accompanied by the A-grade rhythm of “Známky punku" (Signs of Punk) by Czech punk band Visací zámek (Padlock). And I join in with Marshall and his crazed pogoing. I as keen as a little kid who’s going to meet Sponge Bob for the first time. The supposedly confused editing didn’t bother me (unlike The Descent) and so I would only fault the needlessly long foreplay to the crazy ride that starts at the precise moment when the first punk Mohawk appears. So don’t spit in this punk-rocker’s face, every movie appeals to somebody’s taste. And let’s hope Doomsday will appeal to enough people for Neil to attract some further projects to the future. It would be a shame to lose him, especially if he gave us more five-star sequences like the forty minutes from escaping from the platform through the adaptation of Twain’s Yankee from Connecticut to King Arthur’s court, all the way to the ending car chase in the Bentley. (21/07/2008)

Lacking any sense of proportion, common sense, and higher filmmaking ambition, Neil Marshall commits the craziest cinematic theft on the m2 film box. But he also damn well entertains us for a hundred minutes, lecturing at the High School of Grindhouse in a latex suit, punk haircut, and sword in hand, in a distinguished British style. Hopefully someone will attend the class and learn something. (08/05/2008)

Doomsday offers absolutely nothing new in the post-apocalyptic genre, but it’s still entertaining. I especially appreciated Rhona Mitra's hilarious hi-tech eye. It was interesting to see the effects of the virus on the Scottish population – turning them back into savage Picts with cannibalistic tendencies. No wonder they have always been perceived as a threat by the English. A fun action movie. (26/06/2016)

Utter guilty pleasure. Neil Marshall said “sod everything” and put together a relentlessly entertaining tour into the world of computer games and B-movie post-apocalypse without any pretensions other than delivering a deluge of bloody, playful and often unpredictable attractions. Everything starts with the expected generic variation of the zombie subgenre, but the story soon turns into a straightforward badass reflection of declining pop-culture, with a punk cannibal evening in the style of Mad Max that alternates with medieval locations and insane car chases. And our guide through all this unleashed creative nonsense is the incredibly sexy Rhona Mitra – watching her is itself an analytical delight. The editing is a bit too frantic perhaps, but it rarely becomes an obstacle to clarity and Marshall’s narrative dynamics, which I have never enjoyed more. After a second screening I’m giving it 4* and I’m putting Rhona as my desktop background. (20/01/2020)

This B-movie is a mix of everything we’ve seen a hundred times before, without a single idea, with hard-to-follow action scenes and flat characters. The more space Neil Marshall tries to cover – be it as a screenwriter or as a director – the more he messes up. And Doomsday is his most expansive film yet. (13/04/2008)