Every now and then you need a fun brainless movie to get you away from the dull drums of mediocre love stories or high drama. Doom is the cure for this because I don't know if I used one brain cell in watching this highly entertaining yet very unoriginal action sci-fi movie.

Based on the video game with the same name, 8 marines, led by the Sarge, played by Duane "The Rock" Johnson (Walking Tall) and Ripper, played by Karl Urban (Bourne Supremacy) are sent to a research facility on the planet Mars to answer a distress signal. Once there they realize that they are ill-equipped to fight the genetic monsters created there and are now in a fight to keep them away from the portal that will take them to Earth.

The very beginning of this movie reminded me of the 1980's movie Aliens, a Bunch of bad a** marines going to a research facility to find out why they lost communication with the people. Once there they have to run around a dark facility that is wet, dirty, and full of hidden corners and metal grates where things can pop out of no where. This is very entertaining and makes for great action, all though I would to see this same thing in a clean fully lit facility jut to see if the director and editors can still produce the intensity that they do when it's dark and dirty.

I have been looking for action hero actors for the next generation of acting movies and I think that two of them are in this movie. Both Johnson and Urban have the charisma and character that would allow them to be in these kinds of movies. Two minor things I would do to change each one of their characters, for Johnson, leave the Professional Wrestling persona of The Rock behind and just go by Duane Johnson, he has done enough in movies for every one to know who he is. For Urban I would add the element of humor to his movies, he is a little to stiff and needs to bring some sarcasm to his acting characters.

Since this movie is based on a game, the trailers for the movie showed scenes that look exactly like the Doom game, first person point of view, with the appearance of holding the gun and walking down the halls. Fortunately this kind of shooting is not predominant in the movie. In fact it only shows up in the last ten minutes of the movie and was quite funny for the brief time it was there.

This movie will not do anything to cause a change in style for the action genre movies. Hopefully this helped bring us two capable actors to a genre that definitely needs some new blood. This movie should be on your list for some brainless fun and will be in my DVD collection eventually.

Brian - the Naked Gun