Doom Review

Action-hero Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson gets to play with his BFG (that's his Bio Force Gun for those with dirty minds) in this big screen adventure based on the smash hit computer game franchise. Johnson plays Sarge, the head of a squad of elite troops who are dispatched to investigate some funny goings-on at a research station on Mars. But when they get there they find that some truly nasty creatures with a taste for humans are lurking in the shadows.

Quite simply "Doom" is not a movie designed to tax the brain. Director Andrzej Bartkowiak has created a film that will play well with the post pub masses as guns get fired, freaky mutants (and humans alike) get squished, and The Rock's left eyebrow displays the most acting talent of anyone or anything on screen.

But despite its lowest common denominator appeal, "Doom" is rather effortless fun. Let's face it, if you can't smile as the cast deliver their truly awful dialogue - our favourite is Rosamund Pike's scientist's assertion that she's a "forensic anthropologist" before telling her Marine brother (Karl Urban) "I go where the work is" - then you're really watching the wrong movie.

Fans will be pleased to see that many of the computer game creatures make the leap to the movie and there's even a first-person sequence lifted straight from the game, as we prowl the dark and dangerous corridors looking for nasties to blast to bits. Just don't expect any heart-rending monologues or Oscar nominations come award time.