“Doomsday” is a formulaic over-the-top gross-out action movie so ill-conceived and shoddily executed that it is hard to recommend to anybody.

Written, directed and edited by Neil Marshall (“The Descent”), “Doomsday” begins with the story of a crippling epidemic infecting all of Scotland, resulting in the entire nation being quarantined and cut off from the outside world.

The meat of the story follows a British defense agent (Rhona Mitra, “The Number 23″), as she tries to infiltrate the country 25 years post-quarantine in search of a cure.

The movie proceeds to throw a lot of action at the audience,yet the entire film is lit so dark and grimy, and the camerawork is so shaky, that it is often hard to tell up from down. This is intensified during the climax, when the camera is actually flipped upside down at one point.

About the only notable characteristic of “Doomsday” is its creative and abundant supply of gore. This film features some of the most depraved sequences of gore put to film.

These sequences would have been even more effective and gratifying if there were an ultimate point to them. A minor character is shown to be cooked, carved up, and eaten by a mob of dirt bike riding, Mohawked cannibals, and the audience is ultimately left to wonder if there was any value in the scene beyond the shock.

Most of the performances in the movie are lacking any sort of emotional gravity, but most of the characters aren’t around
long enough to care about anyway.

Mitra performs the action sequences admirably, but managed to create a protagonist even more hollow and devoid of humanity than Milla Jovavich’s character in the “Resident Evil” movies.

Bob Hoskins appears in the movie as Mitra’s superior in the Department of Domestic Security and is criminally underused. He is the only performer in the movie whose charisma extends beyond shooting guns or yelling, and he is only in the movie for about five minutes.

By the end of the movie, the audience has sat through depraved butchery, drawn-out and ridiculous action sequences, and inexplicable plot developments, and is left wondering what the reason for any of it was.

“Doomsday,” is ultimately a mash-up of past films in the mold of a post-apocalyptic odyssey. Unlike “Escape from New York,”
“Escape from L.A.,” and the “Mad Max” films, which are clearly its greatest influences, “Doomsday” fails to provide any
charm, clever filmmaking, or ultimate point or theme.

One out of five stars.

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