Doomsday (2008) ***
Doomsday (2008) wears its influences proudly on its sleeve and I'm sure writer/director Neil Marshall is perfectly okay with that. It's an intentional mashup/rip-off, but in the best sense (the way the Italians did it in the 80s), effortlessly swinging from genre to genre as good exploitation films do.
Doomsday steals liberally from three cult classics from 1981—Escape From New York (review), Mad Max 2 and Excalibur, and throws in a bit of 28 Days Later (2002) (review), Aliens (1986) and The Warriors (1979) (review) for good measure.
It would be a better film if the characterization weren't so thin, the tropes so heavy, the action/editing so quick-cut and the score so much sonic wallpaper, and yet I always have a good time with this movie, which never seems to take itself too seriously. It's loud, it's gory, it's fun and yes, it's silly at times, but it continues to entertain me and it holds up on repeat viewings. Throwing Bob Hoskins and Malcolm McDowell into the mix to provide gruffness and hamminess, respectively, doesn't hurt either.
Doomsday steals liberally from three cult classics from 1981—Escape From New York (review), Mad Max 2 and Excalibur, and throws in a bit of 28 Days Later (2002) (review), Aliens (1986) and The Warriors (1979) (review) for good measure.
It would be a better film if the characterization weren't so thin, the tropes so heavy, the action/editing so quick-cut and the score so much sonic wallpaper, and yet I always have a good time with this movie, which never seems to take itself too seriously. It's loud, it's gory, it's fun and yes, it's silly at times, but it continues to entertain me and it holds up on repeat viewings. Throwing Bob Hoskins and Malcolm McDowell into the mix to provide gruffness and hamminess, respectively, doesn't hurt either.
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