Doomed (2007)

Masterful Movie

Am I Missing Something?

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

The acting in this movie is really good.

First things first: I bought this at a car boot sale for 50p so I'm going easy on it. Plus I bought it because I knew it would be terrible. It just wasn't as terrible as I hoped it'd be.Story is: convicts on an island as part of a game show, split into team and being hunted by really bad army zombie types. You know the drill. These are fast zombies but for some reason is doesn't take much to kill them off.There's not much else to the story. Folk die. Folks double cross each other. This one isn't too slow on the action however and I cut it a lot of slack for not being boring or too long (It's only 76mins). The game show angle is good but not executed as well as, say, the film Slashers (picked that one up at the same car boot sale!).What really does this film in is a severe lack of gore. It's a zombie film, for f*ck's sake! The film has plenty of instances where there could be gut munching, but pulls away every single time. Not good. No nudity either, so don't expect anything there.If you like very low budget films (like me) then it's worth a watch. We've had much more terrible films foisted on us. If it had some bite to it to, I would have rated it much higher.

This is in the tradition of '28 Days Later' and 'Dawn of the Dead' (as the DVD proudly states) in that, like those horror classics, it has a 'D' in the title; with regards to style, tone, originality, and quality, it bears very little resemblance to either film, the special effects being cheap, the plot stale and riddled with holes, and the outcome predictable. A more accurate description might be 'The Condemned' (the equally dumb Vinnie Jones/Steve Austin flick that came out the same year)—but with zombies.And yet, despite all of this, I found Doomed to be far more entertaining than I had expected.The mere fact that director Michael Su isn't striving to deliver anything other than a mindless B-movie frees him from the pressures of doing anything remotely new with the zombie/action genre and allows him to just get on and have fun with things. The film wastes no time with unnecessary build-up, gets straight into the action, and the fast pace is kept going until the end; the fight scenes are impressive for such a low budget effort; and the cast put in surprisingly good performances (plus, there's the added bonus that the ladies are all very easy-on-the-eye).Admittedly I'd have enjoyed the film a touch more had the gore quotient had been higher, there were fewer shots of the CGI island (which looks nothing like the one on the maps given to the contestants), the use of gimmicky editing tricks had been kept under tighter control, and if a couple of the girls had stopped to take a shower together under a waterfall, but even as it stands, I think Doomed is worth a higher rating than it currently has.6/10 from me.

This is one of those movies where I wish I could get back the chunk of life I've wasted. I did get a little nostalgic for the red-shirted security extras from Star Trek TOS while watching this. When I get a movie like this, the only recourse I have for entertainment is noticing the abundant flaws. I found myself looking at shadows in what was supposed to be total darkness, the thrilling tilt-a-whirl camera effects, the awesomely runny blood, and wondering who was sailing those other sailboats. Still the film made it to video so I applaud all those who worked on it for making it successfully to market.I think I'll throw on Blood on Satan's Claw next, a good bad movie.Doomed ... so very aptly named.

Presented in the form of a game show (Think The Running Man or Survivor - Series 7, but not a good as either one) you have Doomed.It's cast are all no-namers and that should be the huge give-away right there. It takes ideas from films like Fortress, Resident Evil, Dawn Of The Dead and manages to make a pretty bad film.It's pretty low budget or looks that way.Teams of convicts are paired together (yep, that'll be stolen from Fortress then) and are told they must make it across the island alive to win the prize. (Hmm, sounds just like Battle Royale actually) But they have unknown objects in their way (like Zombies, how predictable. George Romero must be laughing at the idea) and of course are fighting amongst themselves and each other.To be honest the plot is pretty thin and laughable. None of the tension or scares actually work. Finding zombies or failed military experiments in a forgotten bunker has been done in all sorts of things (Lost would be the most recent) and it really wasn't done all that different here.I got the feeling the writer had played the game Smash TV as a child (the game ideas are very alike) and had seen the Day Of The Dead remake (that's where he stole his crap and predictable from a mile away ending).Because the cast are all complete unknowns, you know most of them are going to die anyway.This is tired, predictable and adds nothing to the survival horror or zombie genres.