Product Description

A frantic call for help from a remote research station on mars sends a team of mercenary marines into action. The descend into the olduvai research station where they find a legion of nightmarish creatures lurking in the darkness killing at will. Based on the hugely popular video game. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 09/09/2008 Starring: Dwayne the Rock Johnson Rosamund Pike Run time: 113 minutes Rating: Ur

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15032 in DVD
• Brand: Universal
• Released on: 2006-02-07
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Dubbed in: French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .30 pounds
• Running time: 113 minutes

Amazon.com
Grab your BFG and get ready to kick some Martian-demon butt in Doom, another entry in the increasingly crowded videogame-to-movie genre. The Rock plays Sarge, the commander of a squad of Marines sent to investigate a disturbance at a scientific research facility on Mars. Among the squad is John Grimm (Karl Urban, who played Eomer in The Lord of the Rings), who turns out to have had a previous relationship with Samantha (Rosamund Pike, Die Another Day), the scientist who's accompanying the Marines in order to retrieve some vital data from the facility. Based on id Software's legendary first-person shooter, Doom tries its best to look like a game, with dark, angled corridors, ferocious creatures appearing out of nowhere, and a variety of lethal weapons that will, like the aforementioned BFG, warm the cockles of a gamer's heart. There's also one memorable sequence that actually turns the movie into a first-person shooter; the good news is that in the context of the whole film, it's not quite as goofy as it might have been. And that's not a bad frame of reference for the film in general. Considering the game-to-movie field includes such duds as Wing Commander, if you go into Doom with low expectations, you'll probably find it a surprisingly respectable horror/sci-fi thriller in the Resident Evil vein (including its somewhat obligatory subplot of corporate wrongdoing). Also in its favor is that it's unabashedly R-rated, for the extreme gore that is a trademark of the game. After all, the purpose of the movie is to pack scares and thrills into a setting that gamers will quickly recognize. In that sense, it qualifies as a success. --David Horiuchi

Customer Reviews

No Hell, No Soul Cube, No Shotgun - Doomed
When it comes to game-to-film adaptations, we all know not to expect much: casual viewers are left confused as to what in the world is going on, critics are left to assume that the game is just as bad as the movie, and gamers have the pleasure of watching a favored franchise being systematically picked apart by writers who feel their story is more compelling than the source material and directors who have never even laid hands on a control pad. Short of Uwe Boll films and the earliest of live-action attempts ("Super Mario Bros.", "Street Fighter: The Movie"), no adaptation does a better job of showing just how incredibly unrelated a movie can be from the game it's based on, in the worst possible way.

In "Doom", a unit of marines (led by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) is sent to a research facility on Mars in response to a distress call in the year 2046. What they find is a base devastated by a monstrous force spawned from genetic experiments trying to replicate magnificent finds of the on-planet archaeological site...

You'll notice that I didn't mention hell at all in my summary. That's because in the movie, it has no place or relevance - thus, we have the biggest mistake the film could make. "Doom" without hell is like the Arthurian legend without the sword in the stone: it effectively neuters the story of its driving force. Indeed, the actors seem to drift rather aimlessly throughout what begins to feel increasingly like an "Aliens" rip-off...without the cool monsters, of course. Only a handful of Doom³ creatures are represented (the imp, the hellknight, and the pinky demon), and even they lack the abilities that made the game such a big hit - they just look like guys in rubber suits, without the terrifying speed or strength of their CGI counterparts.

With faithfulness to the game not a priority, you'd think that director Andrzej Bartkowiak ("Romeo Must Die") could at least give the film a healthy dose of action to keep it alive, but this is not the case: with the minor exception of the Rock/Karl Urban ("Out of the Blue") showdown at the end of the film, it's all poorly-lit gunfighting where the marines hit nothing. The acting is also a complete shot in the bucket: though Johnson earned himself a Razzie nomination for the film, it's Urban, Rosamund Pike ("Die Another Day"), Richard Brake ("Hannibal Rising"), Razaaq Adoti ("Resident Evil: Apocalypse"), and the rest of the cast that do the worst jobs with their roles - then again, you can't really blame them, seeing as they're little more than kill-by-numbers characters.

Chronologically sandwiched between the "Alone in the Dark" and "Bloodrayne" films, it's easy to see why the movie has already been put out of the minds of most people who've seen it. With the only memorable scene in the film being the lengthy first-person killing spree near the end of the film, there's really nothing to keep viewers attached to the film, unless they're die-hard fans of The Rock. While it's not quite as bad as Boll productions, it's nonetheless not worth the DVD that holds it, and doesn't deserve the respect of gamers.
The 20-minute special feature report on the actual game series is cool, though...

doom
All around a fun movie. Hard to get involved with characters but they are entertaining. especially the guy in the wheelchair. (watch what he changes into) also, was it me or was that girl who stars in it high as a kite. I mean look at her eyes. Her pupils are totally dialated. Me thinks someone is a coke fan and not the kind you drink!!!!!! The end is for true doom fans!!!! Gotta watch this if you like the game or the rock. Also, to see what I mean about the girl, you have to watch in hd somehow. So much detail.

Could Have Been Great, Just OK
I am a fan of almost Sci-Fi movies and video games, so am predispositioned to rate even "bad" movies as at least watchable. Sadly, this is the group Doom falls into. The premise is fairly straight forward and those who played game will likely enjoy seeing the monsters "fleshed out" (pun intended :-) but it loses a lot in translation from game to movie.

"The Rock" turned in a strong performance and perhaps saved the film almost singlehandedly. The special effects were great in some parts and fairly weak in others, which leads me to believe that there was more than one production company working on the CGI elements.

Overall, it is watchable and even enjoyable if you are fan of the genre.