A deadly virus of unknown origin has spread rapidly through Glasgow, Scotland, killing its victims rapidly. The British government has built a 12 foot steel wall the whole length of the Scottish/English Border in super quick time, so that nobody can get in or out and so the Scots can rot away to their hearts content. 20 years later in London and there is another outbreak and so the government is forced to act, they know that there are still survivors beyond the wall and so they send a crack team of experts in, to find out if they possibly have immunity and to find the mysterious Dr Kane a scientist they believe might have been working on a cure. The leader of this expedition is Maj. Eden Sinclair, a one eyed woman who as a child had been saved by soldiers at the last moment before the wall closed for the last time. her motives are to see her family home and perhaps find her mother.

Like all films by Neil Marshall this latest effort came with a great air of expectancy, so does it deliver?…well it does and it doesn't. Its an apocalyptic tale along the lines of 28 days Later, but it soon spreads its wings and delves into many genres and plucks with its plagiaristic fingers ideas at will from many films. The overall feel of the film is a hotch potch of ideas, one gets the notion that Marshall doesn't have an original idea of his own at all. What is it about the future, that when all law and order has gone and people are struggling to live, find food and drink, some shelter not to mention avoiding a deadly virus etc…rational thoughts desert them and the first thing they want to do is build a car or a hotrod motorcycle with skulls on it?….well I'll tell you why, because they need transport to the local Cyber Punk Hair Salon, where they all queue for hours with photographs of their favourite member of Sigue Sigue Sputnik and discuss the merits of Adam Ant's Kings of the Wild Frontier, where they also tell the stylist "I want a Mohican like that...oh and could I have it in bright pink please? damn all out of bright pink, How about luminous aquamarine or cerise? Not only that, but they also live in Glasgow, I don't know if any of you have been to Glasgow, I have many times and its Effing freezing, so why do they all the men go around bear chested and all the ladies wear leather bikinis or less? Maybe its because they are at war with the devilish Dr Kane, who lives in a big Castle, where all the men wear suits of armour and all the ladies have wee lace bonnets and dress like old hags? One thing about a deadly virus it always gives people bad dress sense.

Marshall has made his own bed here and must take responsibility for a lack of imagination, I believe he has stated he wanted this one to be "for the fans", so they could "guess the films he was homaging", but it can't take away from the fact that he has single handedly stolen ideas from Mad Max, Escape from New York, 28 days later, Ivanhoe, Gladiator, Indiana Jones and a host of other genre films. So enough of the good things and on to the bad, oh I mean good, Well the film wastes no time in getting going and it goes along at a fair old pace, so fast you don't always have time to turn your eyes to heaven and tut. The special effects are really good, as are the fight scenes and the driving/chase scenes, the acting is a little stilted though, (ooops I'm back on the negatives again...oh well) the dialogue doesn't fare much better. From my comments you might think I hated this film....I didn't, I don't know why but somehow against my better judgement, I actually enjoyed it, its escapism and fantasy on another level, its not great by any means but if you want a mindless entertainment for a couple of hours, this one fit's the bill. 6/10

Some time around 2008 some biological experiments conducted in Glasgow, Scotland went seriously awry and a virus got unleashed that annihilated Scotland. To contain the plague, the English,set up a barrier at the border like Emperor Hadrian did that marked the future boundary for England and Scotland.

By 2035 it's decided that a cure if any is to be found over in what was once Scotland. Especially since satellites have detected signs of life over there. Rhona Mitra leads a team over there and the team has quite the sociological experience. In contrast to the brutal but orderly dictatorship in England, the Scots society has devolved into anarchy. Glasgow has been taken over by bands of young toughs who are into grunge and heavy metal and cannibalism. No doubt Ozzy Osborne influenced them greatly. And Malcolm McDowell has a chunk of rural Scotland that is looking like the Middle Ages.

Usually science fiction has a point to make and I'm not sure what Doomsday was trying to say. Stay away from biological warfare seems the safest. An interesting film, but vague.

DOOMSDAY is one huge mess of a movie, but in a good way. Neil Marshall, the Scottish director of such low budget but entertaining fare as DOG SOLDIERS and THE DESCENT, apparently decided to make a good old-fashioned post apocalypse movie while paying tribute to his favourite movies along the way. Some might call this film a rip off of the popular '80s sci fi films, some might call it a pastiche, while others might call it a homage. For me, DOOMSDAY is original enough to be entertaining throughout, even if the story is all over the place and frequently unbelievable (even by genre stakes) and the epilogue is a damp squib compared to what's come before.

For the record, this movie references THE LORD OF THE RINGS (in a strange feudal interlude, the armour is the same as that of the Orcs in Jackson's opus); GLADIATOR (there's a fierce arena battle that doesn't disappoint); ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (you can sense it in the get-in-there-and-do-the-job vibe as well as stuff like the walled-off area and streets brimming with thugs); THE WARRIORS (the punk-inspired bad guys); DISTRICT 13 (the revamped 2000s action vibe, and the film that no doubt convinced Marshall to make this); MAD MAX 2: THE ROAD WARRIOR (again, the punk bad guys as well as the climatic road chase) and also 28 DAYS LATER (infected zombies running amok). There are probably plenty of other references I either didn't get or didn't notice at the time.

Anyway, the main reason I liked this film was because it's fun, and a whole lot of fun. Genre fans will have a ball. Marshall throws in plenty of crowd-pleasing stuff and the movie never stops moving. There's a ton of action and it's also very gory, with lots of heads being severed, as well as limbs and arterial sprays of god-knows-what. Marshall is a guy who shows a rabbit being machine-gunned for a laugh and who doesn't shy away from showing cannibalism in graphic detail, either. The cast are champions, sharing fun, hard-ass dialogue and it's great to see the likes of Bob Hoskins and Malcolm McDowell giving authority while letting the likes of Rhona Mitra and Adrian Lester have some new-found glory – Mitra and Lester are both fine, by the way. Sean Pertwee pops up yet again for an exceedingly unpleasant demise and there seems to be no end to the budget, with tons of shoot-outs, chases, explosions and more.

I'm not really sure why this film gets a lot of flak, because it sets out to be a fun romp and never pretends to be anything else. It's gory, funny, action-packed and well-choreographed; I didn't find a single thing not to like, and that's great. If TAKEN and RAMBO are 2008's best serious action thrillers, then this is the tongue-in-cheek flipside of the coin.