Good movie but grossly overrated

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

This feature film version of the British TV series of the same name uses some of the actors from the show, while adding Ian Bannen and the lovely young Judy Geeson for name value. Bannen stars as Del Shaw, a doctor with the title department of the government. They investigate effects of pollution on the environment. Del is sent to Balfe, an island community where the locals go out of their way to NOT make him welcome. What's more, chemical dumping in an off limits area has affected the fish in the waters and subsequently the islanders that have eaten them. In addition to being surly and violent, they fall victim to acromegaly as well.Overall, this is a reasonably absorbing story, but pay no attention to false advertising. This is NOT a horror film, but more of a drama that tries to play things in a somewhat realistic manner. Thrills and suspense are minimal. The makeup effects are decent, but you don't see much of them until the end. The story is pretty simple, and straightforward, with clear cut villains and heroes. Actually, it tends to work better when Bannen's not around. The supporting characters are fine, but Del is a rather ridiculous guy, and Bannens' performance is not one of his better ones. He tends to shout his lines, and overreact.Geeson has some appeal as a schoolteacher who is something of an outsider herself, and wants to maintain her relations with these superstitious and religious islanders. John Paul (Dr. Quist), Simon Oates (Dr. Ridge), and Joby Blanshard (Bradley) all come from the series, and they do alright. George Sanders is the special guest star, with Percy Herbert ("One Million Years B.C."), Shelagh Fraser ("Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope"), Geoffrey Keen (who appeared in four of the James Bond adventures), Norman Bird ("Cash on Demand"), and James Cosmo ("Trainspotting") all providing solid support."Doomwatch" scores some marks for good intentions, and for ending in a believable enough manner.Six out of 10.

Doomwatch is something of an oddity. Initially, an investigator sent from the department known, ominously enough, as Doomwatch, investigates an island searching for what effects an oil spill could have had. Once there, he discovers things aren't quite as normal as expected.The residents act pretty strange as it appears something suspicious is happening; the inspector is followed around by a resident with a shotgun, while people occasionally lead other people deep into the forest.Occasionally said inspector together with help from other Doomwatch members look into what may affecting these people. Apparently these other team members were members of the TV series which I'm not familiar with, and thus didn't appreciate too much.Still the parts with the creepy islanders were interesting!

Scientist, Dr. Del Shaw is sent to a remote Cornish island to investigate the effects of a tanker spill on the local wildlife. On arrival on the island, he is immediately struck by the strangeness of its inhabitants, they are dismissive and suspicious of him, they seem wary of outsiders and he struggles to find a room for the one night of his stay. As he goes about his business collecting marine samples, he is aware that he is being followed, he begins to feel he may be in danger, some odd nocturnal goings on make him even ,ore suspicious that there is something amiss on the island and when he finds the shallow grave of a child he knows for sure there is. The set up is excellent, both in mood and atmosphere, one is left with the distinct impression that a Wicker Man type plot is imminent, but sadly the film never lives up to those lofty heights and instead turns out to be more of an ecological drama, interesting but never as compelling as it could have been.

This one feels a lot like the beginning of Wickerman, with out all the singing.An investigator from Doomwatch, goes to an island to investigate strange occurrences and come up against a wall of close mouthed villagers. He picks up hints that all is not well.Monsters. Monsters!Now this movie was made in 1972, and follows a British TV show of the same. (Which of course desperately needs a US DVD release.) Oddly, the Environmental cause for some of the things, is Genetically Engineered Food. A current Hot Potato Political Topic that has Industry Giants spending Millions of Dollars to quash any Ballot Initiatives for Food Labeling. On the other side, Nuclear Waste is briefly used as a red herring, but Nobody, and I mean Nobody, seems worried about Nuclear Waste.A Cool and Fun movie, just slightly on the weak side.