28 Days Later...God Bless Danny Boyle!

Cafe Society
1

I’ve had reocurring zombie dreams since the age of about 8 or so when I saw a brief scene from Return of the Living Dead that scared the ever living piss outta me. Once I got accustomed to the gore in movies, I started watching zombie flicks to help offset these dreams, and came to love this genre of films. Unfortunately, most recent attempts at zombie flicks have really sucked ass.

But last night, I saw 28 Days Later, and it looks like that could all change. Holy SHIT!!! That was a GREAT movie! If you like zombie flicks, and I mean the truly good ones that know what the genre’s about (that being the nature of humanity and suspenseful atmoshpere, and not just people in nasty makeup), you’re going to find this movie one huge blood spattered treat!

(possible spoilers ahead). The premise is rather simple: Scientists are working on a bizarre, highly contageous virus knowns as Rage by testing it on chimps, and a group of activists break into the labs late one night to set the chimps free. Well, things go bad, and 28 after the event, unconcious bike courier Jim wakes up from a coma in an empty hospital. The next 10/15 minutes or so have some spectacular shots of Jim wandering around a vacant London looking for people, scavenging, and trying to figure out what’s gone on. The mood and setting is just incredible! slowly, the music starts up in the background ever so quietly, that you don’t even recognize it’s there until the build up comes to an explosive climax.
And then Jim meets some survivors. Of course, this is after he meets a few not so pleasant inhabitants of the city. What’s nice and refreshing about this film is the zombies themselves. The “infected” as they are called, are not you typical slow moving, dimwitted undead, but still living people who’ve been turned into raging mad, violent, base-of-human-nature beasts who move quickly, and want nothing more than to tear any uninfected apart. The same thing as your typical Romero zombies in essence, only these guys are faster, stronger, and much, MUCH more terrifying. For those of you who’ve played the Resident Evil Remake, think of the Crimsons.
The Infected actually get a rather small amount of screentime, but what little you see of them is plenty to get you jumping out of your seat and squirming in your chair. What’s great about this movie is the points without the zombies, when you see the way people have pushed themselves to survive. The cold heartedness that drives others to “just survive”, or the compassion and love that gets others threw in such a terrible time, and the effects such interractions between groups has on one another. The characterization is great, the scenery is wonderful, and the mood and tone is perfect.
Overall, I’d definitely give this movie five stars! If you like zombie movies, you need to get out and see this film. If you don’t, that’s okay, because it’s still a great horror film, and you should definitely go out and see this movie. Then buy a shotgun, just in case.

2

I really loved this movie too though I’m still unsure about the last third or so. It got a little off course but overall still a good scary movie and much better than any other I’ve seen recently.

3

I loved this movie as well, and as far as movies go, I’m pretty difficult to please.

Naked Cillian Murphy (Jim) scenes were a definite bonus. Hot damn, even if he weren’t the last man on Earth (or in England), I’d still wanna f**k his brains out. Meow!

4

Loved the film :slight_smile: Great fun, with some very nice touches.


When they take them to the execution clearning, and you see the piles and piles of bodies, you realise how many times they have tried to pull off the same “deal” and how many survivors have been killed.

5

Really spectacular movie. I was afraid to go to sleep afterward.


The moment when Hannah’s hiding behind the mirror…oh MAN, that was classic.
When her father goes nuts…tragic. Incredible scene.
And when the soldiers give Jim the low-down…my jaw just hit the floor. You promised them WHAT?! Hell, no.
And I love the freeze frame when they hit that gate at the end. I sat there thinking “What – they went through all that just to die in a farging car accident!?”
One question, though. What was it that the people on the plane at the end said? I couldn’t hear what they said on their radio; I could’ve sworn they said they didn’t see anything.

Note : Spoiler tag fixed - E.

6

Iteki

[SPOILER]I didn’t even think of it like that…I figured that was just the place where they moved all the corpses of the infected that tried to get into the camp (they cleared the bodies after each little stint). I just figured it was that grave, but your take ads another interesting spin there.

One I liked is the way that it seems the British people were diliberately given false information by other countries to have the country quarantined. It makes sense that the US and other countries would send Britain news of outbreaks, then cut off all communication in order to make them believe it’s spread, just to keep them there. Also, a rather cruel act of human self-service.

One of my favorite little bits was when Jim finds his parents and they had the note to him on the back. The signiture “Don’t wake up” was nice.

Another thing I liked about it was the way that the zombies weren’t just there to kill and crush, but it seemed the virus that infected them also had a desire to spread as well. Like when the first infected military guy attacks, and instead of killing the first soldier, spews blood all over him in order to infect him, then leaves. Makes you wonder exactly what it is the virus does to people, and how much control it has over them. Nice touch, in my mind.[/spoiler]

As for what Mr. Jim said, some of the friends I was with felt the last third was rather iffy as well. Their big complaint “They didn’t really sell me on the whole hippy guy taking out a squad of British soldiers.” But looking at it, he only killed 2 himself, and the first one was a rather easy kill. The rest he left for the zombies to deal with.

Again, I really loved this movie!

7

I felt the last third was a bit iffy too, not very, just a little, but more in terms of weakness of storyline than anything else. On the other hand, I am a huge fan of post-apocolyptic stories and am always miserable when they end, I could watch people in the aftermath for ages.

As to your friends big complaint, I would say

Some, if not most, of the point of the film is the way people can and do react in even without being infected. Rage may be a TM now, but rage is within us all, infected or not. So the soldiers whose behaviour is worse than that of the infecteds, and Jim who is pushed far enough that he is enraged, destroys them all (with his helper), smashes the last guy to pulp, and is almost indestinguishable from the infected (to the point where the girls almost kill him). It’s in you… Muwahahah

8

I thought this was a great movie.

[spoiler]The shots of Jim wandering alone in an empty London were amazing. The tourist geegaws strewn on the ground and the empty landmarks perfectly conveyed the idea of a vanished world. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it, but wasn’t one shot of a deserted Buckingham Palace? The lack of guards stock-still at attention made me wonder if the royal family made it out, or were reduced to attacking each other.

I also thought it was amazing that the most horrifying character in the movie is a British army major who offers hot showers and appears to dinner in his dress uniform. [/spoiler]

9

I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, although it’s not without it’s flaws. It covers the same territory as plenty of other zombie flicks but it did so with a heckuva lot of style and suspense. The digital video cinematography certainly worked to the movie’s advantage. I’m still not sure what I think of the final third but I don’t think it was a major weakness.

[spoiler]
Was anyone else struck by how perfectly sensible the Major’s arguments were and yet, when taken all together, led him to such inhuman conclusions? The veneer of civilization is thin, indeed.

Also, when Jim becomes the shirtless avenger, I couldn’t help thinking that Danny Boyle ripped off the imagery directly from the final scenes of Apocalypse Now[/spoiler]

10

Really enjoyed this film. Thouroughly creeped me out. I do agree with the complaints about the third act, but they weren’t major enough to make me dislike the film:

[spoiler]I did have a problem with a bicycle messenger guy taking out even a few millitary trained soldiers, Rambo-style. I can accept that it was the rage in him that brought this out, but I still would have liked to have seen him use something unique to him, maybe something he learned along the way, or using his brains more than just becoming a suddenly highly trained hunter.

More than this, though, I was bothered by the fact that he’d unleashed an infected into the house where the very people he’d come back to save were. The women were just as vulnerable (actually, more so, since they were unarmed), so this seemed very much like a ‘movie moment’, as if he somehow knew the infected wouldn’t go after his friends. I found this to be unbelievable.[/spoiler]
Minor complaints, though. A highly recommended film.

11

I wondered about that, too…but I think he figured that

a) The soldiers were likely to go after the infected and protect the girls as best as they could. Women are the future after all. shudder That means the soldiers would be attacked harder.

b) Better dead than…used by the soldiers. The scene where Selena gives Hannah the Valium broke me up.

“Are you going to kill me with these?”
“No. They’ll make you not care.”

cry And this was right after I got out of womens’ self-defense class. :smiley:

12

I have to say I didn’t enjoy it much…

BUT

I’d not read much about it other than it was based around a ‘disease’ or ‘plague’ and thought they may-just have come-up with something more original than a zombie flick…

Diseases etc. could do more than turn people into ravening cannibals I’m sure :slight_smile:

Anyway - they didn’t but I do think it would have been immeasurably improved if they had…

ended when they ram the gate and fly forward and the film freezes - the bit at the end with a cottage and several square miles of parachute silk was total and utter bollox…

TTFN

JP

13

Well, actually, I think that bit could have stayed…

If they’d added a few seconds at the end reminiscent of the end of Brazil. :slight_smile:

14

I just got home from a screening of that movie. 10:00 showing - we left the theater at the stroke of midnight. We’d parked our car on the opposite side of the shopping mall as the actual theater was, as at the time of our arrival the lot nearest the theater was packed… so we left the movie, and emerged into an absolutely deserted lot. Nothing but one Jeep and some trash blowing about in the breeze. We’ve never run out to the car faster, I don’t think.

It was a brilliant film, IMO. Mainly because it was so believable. And the long, long moments of sheer tension where you could just feel that there was SOMETHING out there waiting and they were going to do SOMETHING and something HORRIBLE was going to happen and - nothing happened.

[spoiler]For instance, during the beginning scene, when Jim is wandering around London and the music crescendoes to a deafening roar while he looks at some kind of structure papered with photos and messages about people who have been lost. I was expecting whatever it was to jump out then, and it didn’t.

The car alarm going off in the middle of the silence was also a jump-out-of-the-seat moment. It would’ve been LESS scary if one of the infected had jumped out of that car, somehow.[/spoiler]

15

Also…

I expected the movie to end with the car crash. Then, when it became clear that there was a plane coming and all, and they had the sheets spelling out HELLO, I expected the plane to either
A) Not see them, or
B) Assume they were infected or something, and bomb them to death.

16

I quite liked it. Hell, I love biohorror, and I thought this was one of the best examples of the genre. There were a couple of very good bits…

The bit where it was revealed that there was no way the infection could spread further than England. Well, duh- I’d been wondering about that, myself… the virus burns too fast- the only way it could get to another land mass would be on a drifting boat, and that would be unlikely as hell. I just wonder what the natural reservoir for the virus is, anyway- or is it man-made? Another neat bit was the fact that Jim was locked up inside the hospital room- with the key shoved under the door so that if he woke up, he’d be able to get out. That was really neat- someone (we’ll never know who) was giving him the best chance of survival that they could.

I do have one question, though… what was with the monkey watching TV right at the beginning? Maybe they were trying to see how effective the “inhibitors” were?

Great, great movie.

17

I really enjoyed the movie especially:

the part where they’re camping along the way. It just set up so much tension as if they were going to be attacked in the middle of the night. Especially after the group (except the father) take the pills. It was a very good move not to do the predictable.

18

Did any anyone else wonder:

If the rats in the tunnel would carry the infection? That was my first thought when I saw them rushing toward the people and shudder over Hannah

19

Just saw it. I loved the opening and middle sequences; not so sure about the last part.

[spoiler]Like most horror movies, it doesn’t really hold up logically, although it does a great job of establishing a truly creepy mood and strong characters. I don’t mind a director being anti-military, but as in Romero’s Day of the Dead, it seemed to me that the military guys were just arbitrarily assholes.

The suicide note from Jim’s parents was a great bit of pathos. The basic premise of the movie is really immensely sorrowful as much as scary.[/spoiler]

20

I thought the film was great - and V spooky. I went to se it with my girlfriend, and afterwards we went to a bar across the road. It looked like the bar out of From Dusk Till Dawn, and we spent most of the time in there being scared and wondering who was infected and who wasn’t, ad expecting everyone to turn into zombies.