Doomsday 2008

Critics score:
50 / 100

Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes

Matt Zoller Seitz, New York Times: Doomsday is frenetic, loud, wildly imprecise and so derivative that it doesn't so much seem to reference its antecedents as try on their famous images like a child playing dress-up. Homage without innovation isn't homage, it's karaoke. Read more

Steven Hyden, AV Club: Doomsday plays more like a series of mini-remakes than a single, cohesive film. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Marshall reveals himself to be a terrific showman of chaos and comic savagery. This is Baz Luhrmann's Mad Max. Read more

Gregory Kirschling, Entertainment Weekly: [Director] Marshall cribs whole sections from other movies (Aliens and The Road Warrior, most blatantly) so baldly that you have to wonder how he'd like it if someone ripped off The Descent this egregiously. Read more

Jan Stuart, Newsday: Much as one might admire the British health care system as presented in the documentary Sicko, even Michael Moore would have to admit they have a hard time over there coping with apocalyptic viruses. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Imagine the first serious competition to the Deutsche dummkopf Uwe Boll as "worst director" working today, thanks to this mad and maddening mash-up genre picture. Read more

David Hiltbrand, Philadelphia Inquirer: Most fantasy-action films blow their budgets in the first half-hour, and limp home with their makeup smeared. Doomsday is unusually patient, smartly saving most of its fireworks for the later innings. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Doomsday typifies the kind of movie that gets dumped into theaters during the late winter -- a regurgitated storyline, no big stars, and no real prospects at the box office. Read more

Philip Marchand, Toronto Star: If you can accept this farrago of nonsense, and enjoy simulated beheadings and lopped-off hands and massive spurts and splashes of blood, this may be the movie for you. Read more

David Fear, Time Out: Read more

Nigel Floyd, Time Out: Marshall's adrenalin-fuelled skill and enthusiasm propel the action forward with reckless abandon. Read more

Dennis Harvey, Variety: Those with a taste for revved-up, splattery fantasy thrills won't be complaining. Read more

Jim Ridley, Village Voice: I still believe with all my heart that no movie with real car stunts, a tough-chick hero, and a severed head that thunks directly into the camera can be all bad. But this is pushing it. Read more