 Mankind Has An Expiration Date 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! Storyline: A lethal virus spreads throughout Scotland, infecting millions and killing hundreds of thousands. To contain the threat, acting authorities brutally quarantine the country as it succumbs to fear and chaos. The quarantine is successful. Three decades later, the Reaper virus violently resurfaces in London. An elite group of specialists, including Eden Sinclair, is urgently dispatched into Scotland to retrieve a cure by any means necessary. Shut off from the rest of the world, the unit must battle through a landscape that has become a waking nightmare. Written by Nicolettea Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Martin Liebman, July 18, 2008 A virus doesn't choose a time or place. It doesn't hate or even care. It just happens. I couldn't help but to be excited when I first saw the trailer for Doomsday several months ago. Not only was the film directed by one of my favorite up-and-coming directors, the English-born Neil Marshall (Dog Soldiers, The Descent), but it looked to be a cross between several post-apocalyptic favorites, including I Am Legend, The Road Warrior, and 28 Days Later with a slick, futuristic twist. On top of all that, the film starred the likes of the legendary Bob Hoskins (Nixon), Alexander Siddig (Dr. Bashir from "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine"), and Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange), a primary cast not necessarily composed of the most common of household names, but actors who can and have held their own for years, and whose screen presences may not be larger-than-life, but they more than make up for their lack of familiarity with the most general of audiences with their first-rate acting abilities. For me, Doomsday brought everything to the party that I needed to virtually assure me of a great time, and after screening the film for the first time on Blu-ray, a great time indeed was had. In the future, Scotland has been quarantined from the rest of Great Britain after an outbreak of a deadly pathogen know as the Reaper Virus which spread like the common cold and for which there was no cure. A wall was built to quarantine the country. Scotland's coastal areas were mined, and its airspace deemed a no-fly zone. Those unfortunate souls stranded in the quarantined zone were left to perish, and it became a hell on Earth. Now, in the year 2035, the virus is back, and it has spread to London. The only hope to save the city lies in a band of survivors a satellite has detected in Glasgow. A team of soldiers and scientists, led by Eden Sinclair (Rhona Mitra, Shooter), will infiltrate the quarantined zone and search for Dr. Marcus Cane (McDowell), a scientist left behind to work on a cure. Instead of a dead city with a small cluster of survivors, the group discovers in Glasgow a band of barbaric cannibals, known as Marauders, hungry for human flesh and blood, unaffected physically by the virus but degenerated mentally from its effects around them. Through the chaos, Sinclair and her team must fight for survival while still attempting to complete their mission of locating Dr. Cane and, hopefully, returning to London with a cure for the Reaper Virus before it's too late. Doomsday may not be your father's post-apocalyptic movie, but it rocks and rolls and spills the blood with the best of the gruesome horror movies tailored to the tastes, wants, and desires of 21st century audiences. The movie truly is many of the classic 70s and 80s post-apocalyptic greats on steroids, borrowing themes from everything from Mad Max and Escape From New York to more modern fare like 28 Days Later, and perhaps more apropos to the discussion, 28 Weeks Later, all personal favorites in one of my most beloved genres. As a genre piece, Doomsday works very well. There are no major thematic undertones that we haven't seen before and no games or messages to bog the movie down; nothing interferes with the relentless pursuit to throw action, blood, and guts at the viewer. The movie strives to be the latest in a storied genre that raises the bar in terms of violence and style, and it easily succeeds. Bloodier than 28 Weeks Later, snazzier than The Road Warrior, and showcasing a car chase sequence for the ages, Neil Marshall's latest effort is a winner, at least in terms of satiating the appetites of genre fans everywhere. Unfortunately, Doomsday seemed doomed from the start; despite the success of director Marshall's previous outings, his name does yet not carry a film, and with a cast of fine actors but no one headliner to sell tickets, combined with a split reaction from critics upon the film's initial release to theaters, the film has failed to recoup even its "measly" $30,000,000 budget, money that Marshall stretched to excellent effect. Doomsday is slicker than its budget suggests, and like one of my other favorite directors, Danny Boyle, Marshall seems to have a knack for creating good movies on a shoestring budget. Doomsday is not a traditionally "good" or "great" movie. It's as easy to tear apart as the various men and material seen throughout the movie, but it doesn't strive to be the next great Oscar winner, either. The film is definitely for fans of this sort of movie, and it teeters on splatter/exploitation, especially considering the graphic nature and over-the-top moments seen in this "unrated" version that are sure to send some audience members scrambling for a paper bag, but will draw laughter and a smile from filmgoers who know not to take what they see seriously. A perfect example from the film likely to draw this sort of reaction comes during the car chase and the lengths one character goes to to keep his girlfriend by his side. With plenty of other homages, from the APC vehicles that look similar to those seen in Aliens to a scene where a character's head is blown off by a shotgun blast that reminded me of one of the famous scenes from the apartment massacre at the beginning of Dawn of the Dead, there is plenty of material here for horror, gore, exploitation, and post-apocalyptic genre fans to love. I have no doubt that Doomsday will prove to be a very divisive film among Blu-ray fans. On one hand, those pre-disposed to enjoy this kind of movie will certainly love it, but the film provides plenty of ammunition to more discerning filmgoers who will see fit to trash its over-the-top violence, thin plot, and heavy doses of winks and nods to other films. Taken for what it's meant to be, however, Doomsday works like a charm, providing nearly two hours of nonstop assaults on the visual and aural senses, both of which are captured on this Blu-ray disc magnificently. With its excellent picture quality, booming audio that suffers only from sometimes difficult-to-hear dialogue, and a small but entertaining package of supplements, Doomsday may find a new home and admiration on home video. Highly recommended only for those who are prone to enjoy films like this one and who possess an iron stomach. Cast Notes: Caryn Peterson (Vagrant Girl), Adeola Ariyo (Nurse), Emma Cleasby (Katherine Sinclair), Christine Tomlinson (Young Eden Sinclair), Vernon Willemse (David / Gimp), Paul Hyett (Hot Dog Victim), Daniel Read (Sergeant #1), Karl Thaning (Pilot), Stephen Hughes (Soldier #1 / Johnson), Jason Cope (Wall Guard), Ryan Kruger (Soldier), Nathan Wheatley (Patient "X"), Cecil Carter (DDS Assault Trooper), Jeremy Crutchley (Richter), Rhona Mitra (Maj. Eden Sinclair). IMDb Rating (10/24/09): 6.1/10 from 29,583 users
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