Why 28 Days Later = worst film ever made

Cafe Society
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This thread is dedicated to reasons why “28 Days Later” is possibly the worst film ever made. (“Streets of Fire” used to top my worst films list, but we have a new champ, folks.) Only two of the people I watched it with made it to the end, and we survived by keeping track of the absurdities.

28DL fans: Please note there are other threads for more general discussion of the film.

Now, we all know that Danny boy is a genius. “Shallow Grave” is evidence enough of that. This film, then, seems a great puzzle, unless you stop to think that he took a few hundred k, stole the essentials of “Omega Man”, mixed in a little “12 Monkeys”, and made a bundle, which is in itself an act of genius.

I wish it had been in the “so bad it’s good” category a la “I Spit on Your Grave” or MST3k fodder, but alas no… it’s just bad.

Here are the ground rules. [1] Absurdities necessary for the WSoD (willing suspension of disbelief), such as the premise that a “rage virus” could exist in the first place, are off limits. [2] Arguments that 28DL is not actually a bad movie are off topic (see note above).

Let’s get the ball rolling, shall we? I’ll begin with a few of the literally dozens of moments when Boyle throws all common sense to the wind so he can advance a particular plot device.

  1. Taxi joyriding over piled up cars.

  2. Highways free of abandoned/crashed vehicles.

  3. Mark’s claim that he was walking on dead human bodies in Paddington Station without realizing it.

  4. Tons o’ bodies in the church – no smell. (At his home, Jim has to cover his face from the stench of only 2 bodies while climbing the stairs to his parents’ bedroom.)

  5. Jim takes the time to prop up the body of the dead soldier in the Jeep simply for psych-out effect, despite the Major being on the loose in the area with a machine gun, but does not bother to take his jacket or boots, despite the fact that he himself is wearing only pants and it’s raining.

  6. Our hero lets loose an infected maniac into the mansion where the heroines are being held.

  7. Said infected maniac supposedly kept alive two days while apparently puking a pint of blood every few hours.

  8. I think I’ll go into this hamburger stand and see if there’s anyone to attack me.

I could go on (and on, and on, and on), but that seems a good start. Looking forward to comments on the often atrocious acting, ossified cliches, cheap shortcuts, cheesy dialog, etc etc etc.

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Only movie you have ever seen, eh?

3

There’s been a few threads on this movie, and why your ciriticisms are, at best, mostly invalid.

You’re a member, do a search.

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Ok, before we go too far down this road, please let me repeat a couple of points from the original posting (which I generally recommend reading before replying):

  1. There are other threads on this board re 28 Days Later (yes, I am a member; yes, I did a search).

  2. The purpose of this thread is not to debate the virtues of the film. It’s to make fun of the film’s flaws, an honored tradition as old as the genre itself. If you’re not interested in that, please don’t clog up this thread.

Of course, if no one is interested in that, this sorry little thread will die a quiet, natural death.

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You forgot “excessive usage of penis”

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I had the same experience as you, Thingol. I watched it with two other friends, male and female, American and European. We all agreed the movie dreadfully boring. None of us commented on any of the logical or weird plot inconsistencies – it’s a movie, after all, suspension of disbelief and all that. The movie just wasn’t particularly suspenseful (IMHO), nor was it engaging. Pity, as I really liked Shallow Grave and Trainspotting, and was looking forward to this one. I still don’t get it. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I hate it, or it’s one of the worst movies ever made.

Apparently a lot of people – both critics and regular movie goers alike – like it a lot. I really don’t get it. Just like the Blair witch movie – I only found the last five minutes of it any good. Both 28 Days and Blair Witch Project had intriguing premises, but I felt both failed to deliver on the execution.

Who knows. Maybe this is one of those movies that merits rewatching. I hated the Big Lobowski on first viewing, but now it’s one of my favorite movies. Somehow I doubt 28 Days Later will have this effect, but who knows.

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You obviously haven’t seen many movies if “28 Days Later” is the worst you’ve ever seen.

Or, perhaps you just haven’t seen this one yet. Trust me, it’s the worst thing ever. And by thing, I classify everything ever created by man or nature, including war, pestilence and famine.

Either way, watch a few thousand more movies before passing judgment. I just watched this boring piece of sh*t last night, and it made “28 Days Later” look like Casa-freakin’-blanca.

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I’ve seen much worse examples of film-making in my time, but I’m almost never tempted to leave a theater or turn off the VCR/DVD without finishing a movie.

What makes this one so excrucating is that it sits almost perfectly in that dreaded middle-ground. Bad, to be sure. But not bad enough to keep your interest because it’s bad (like, for example “Psycho II”, “Gothika”, or “Battlefield Earth”). I also single this one out because, as has been noted, people seem to like it so much. I feel the need to tilt its windmill, and have been slowly uncovering sane people here and there who join me in saying “Huh?”.

Sure, it’s fiction, and you can’t criticize fiction for being fictional. But like Judith Cofer always used to say (although I don’t believe it’s original w/ her), an author should never do anything to jolt the reader out of the “dream of fiction”, unless – as Vonnegut often does – s/he intends to do just that.

I loved all 3 Matrix films, for example. You can’t seriously mull the premise without seeing all kinds of fatal flaws, but that’s no fun. The problem with 28DL is that, once you buy the premise, you still can’t watch the film for 5 minutes at a stretch without being barraged by distracting inanities.

Famished people casually shopping in a (well-lit) grocery store, then taking the food off for a picnic to eat later.

Using an enormous flashlight in the apartment bldg when a mere candle summoned the infectees at the house.

Infectees who inexplicably attack only uninfected people and not each other.

Infectees who are shirtless seemingly because the hero is also at that point shirtless.

A free-standing mirror that supports the weight of a teenager without falling over.

Taking the time to chat with an infected lunatic before machine-gunning him (there wasn’t even a need for the cliche at that point… the lunatic had nothing to say).

Jim does not take the opportunity to immediately assure Selena that he’s not infected, risking his own life just to mess w/ her head for a moment?

There were brilliant touches. The postings on the wall in the abandoned city after Jim awakes – people would do that! – or even the fact that someone left him in the hospital but slid the key under the door for him. Even the scene with the horses – I’m willing to buy that, or at least rent it.

But this isn’t “The Little Prince” or “Yellow Submarine”. The story doesn’t justify this level of tinkering with common sense for cinematic effect. How can anyone watch the tunnel scene or the highway scenes without thinking, “Billy, why’d you have to pull a cheap stunt like that? I thought you loved me.”

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Can’t comment on “28 Days”, because I’m the only person on Earth who hasn’t seen it.

However, it surely CAN’T be as bad as “Red Zone Cuba”… the only MST3K offering that I was unable to sit through.

Or my personal nominee for “Worst Film I Ever Saw”… a horrible 1970’s piece of garbage called “Clones”.

10

Red Zone Cuba and the 7 boats of the invading fleet… argh.

I say “Manos: Hands of Fate” was worse, though. Any opinions, Torgo? :wink:

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SWEET ZOMBIE JESUS! A movie with Roddy Piper AND Andrew Dice Clay?

There is no God!

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While I didn’t hate this movie, I’m baffled by the fawning of the masses. What, no one else has ever seen the Vincent Price move The Last Man on Earth? You know, the movie The Omega Man is derived from. The only big differences between Last Man and 28 Days later is that 28 is bloodier and instead of the disease making people vampire-like freaks that attack and kill people, it made them zombie-like freaks that attack and kill people. Oh, and 28 Days Later had a happier ending.

Seriously. In The Last Man on Earth the girl turns out to be “one of them” and they kill him.

A fresh new take on the monster/disease genre it isn’t.

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Btw, just wondering, do any of y’all go to theaters where it’s kosher to holler at the screen?

I can’t find one around where I live now. But when I grew up, there was one cineplex (a 3-screen affair in the corner of a strip mall, with the unfortunate but apt name of “Septum Cinemas”, which was a big deal in that little town) that charged two bucks for all films on Tuesday.

Somehow, it became an immediate custom that on two-dollar Tuesday, people were free to talk back to the movie. I think that’s where my love of bad movies really got started, watching classics like “The Octagon”, “Endless Love”, and “The House of Wax” in 3-D, MST3k-style, back in the day.

I still remember some of the more insightful commentary, like this gem from the final scenes of “Endless Love”: “Dayum! 'At boy kilt her daddy, burnt her house down, and the bitch still loves him!”

Maybe that’s why I’m so down on 28DL. It fails to reach the heights of “Shallow Grave” and “Trainspotting”, but also fails to reach the heights of truly bad cinema. It just sits there in the Marianas Trench of filmdom like whale turd.

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The Omega Man is NOT derived from The Last Man on Earth. They are both film adaptations of Richard Matheson’s 1954 novel, I Am Legend.

In addition, the OP is certainly free ot dislike 28 Days Later, but it is far from being the worst movie ever.

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I didn’t think “28 Days Later” was the slightest bit scary, but it certainly was not nearly as bad as:

  • Cool World
  • Highlander II: The Quickening
  • Battlefield Earth
  • Star Trek V
  • Baby Geniuses
  • Kazaam
  • It’s Pat!
  • Super Mario Brothers
16

You left out Master of diguise
GOD! I hate Dana Carvy! :mad:

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My only problem was that we are supposed to believe that Jim was unconscious for 28 days and did not piss/shit on himself or die from dehydration.

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No such film was ever made.

Anyway what really struck me about 28 Days Later was the straightforward lifting of practically its entire plot from “The Day of the Triffids”. Only without blind people. And with something scary in place of the triffids. Otherwise it was just lifted clean.

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I’m more amused that the OP only thinks people who agree with his opinion of 28DL are entitled to post in this thread.

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I’m with the OP. I’ve certainly seen worse films, but I can’t recall any I dislike so much which is also lauded by so many…and by so many whose opinions I generally respect.

I also read the previous threads on the movie and found it peculiar that the popular defense of the VW size plot holes and logic problems went along the lines of, “Dude, what would you do if your world had been shattered and you were being chased by zombies?” As if this premise alone was enough to drive the film without the help of believable characters or logical plot progression. Or, “It’s the genre…the movie was supposed to be bad. Didn’t you see _____________ (insert list of zombie flicks here)?” Nice try.

Coincidentally, 28DL just came up in conversation last night, and I always feel like I’m in “The Emporer’s New Clothes” when I discuss this movie with others.