28 Weeks Later (2007)

~Cast~

Robert Carlyle..................Don

Jeremy Ronner.................Doyle

Rose Bryne......................Scarlett

Imogen Poots...................Tammy

Mackintosh Muggleton......Andy

Directed by......................Juan Carlos Fresnadillio

My Rating:

Back in 2002 I saw 28 Days Later, a movie that a friend of mine labeled "The Night of the Living Dead of our millennium." After watching it, I realized I agreed with his statement 100%. So when I first got wind of this sequel, I was very skeptical of it and assumed the very worst seeing the last effort from FOX ATOMIC was Hills Have Eyes 2 and we all know how great that movie was. ::rolls eyes::  As my friends and I watched the opening scene of 28 Weeks Later, we all became speechless. My jaw was on the ground the entire time. I can’t even form words to express my deepest emotions for how much ass that scene kicked. As it ended, I told my friends "that opening was worth the ticket price ALONE...I can leave now and have my money's worth" In some ways I kind of wish I did for this movie suffered from some lazy writing. A lot of "How the fuck could that happen!?" moments occurred during this movie that made me wonder how dumb could they be to let these things slip. (One scene is when one of the infected breaks out of a security room without ever showing HOW it happened) Let's not dwell here though...let's get to the story shall we?

    After an amazing ball busting opening sequence (which will NOT be ruined here), 28 weeks pass and we come to learn that the military has quarantined the city and all of the infected are now dead. Now that the infestation has been contained, re-population begins and Britain starts letting survivors come home. When a young boy and his sister arrive the military doesn't know how to handle them for they weren't ready to examine kids, but they pass and they are re-united with their father. The outbreak occurs again shortly after from...well...you will just have to see the movie to find out. Once it occurs, the military will do everything they can to contain the epidemic, but can they handle it or will this outbreak bring death and destruction to them all?

    28 Weeks Later gets its strength from its director and soundtrack if you ask me. The soundtrack is amazing and blasting through the theatres Dolby Digital speakers made my horror loving heart fill with joy. I heard people complaining about how the camera work is choppy and so close up and usually I would agree that this hurt the movie. However while in some scenes it does, in others it amplifies the moment. It creates the confusion in the audience that the victims felt during the epidemic.

The cop out final minute of this film I swear was tacked on by FOX ATOMIC solely to leave it open for a part 3. Why they would do this to this movie is beyond me since it didn't fit the movie AT ALL. An ambiguous ending like the original film had would have been 100 times better than what we got. This film tries to be different then ends on such a god awful clichéd note leaving the taste of rotting flesh in your mouth. Another thing I didn't like was the fact that a main villian was delegated to an "infected" person. Not going to say who it was but we have a "Big Daddy" zombie (Land of the Dead style) who seems to follow the main characters and leads the rest it seems. I felt this was ridiculous and made the film cheesy when it didn't need to be. Aside from that and other things that I can't really dish out here without going into huge spoilers, 28 Weeks Later retains the same creepy feel that its predecessor did.

    Acting wise, this movie bit all the right parts. Robert Carlyle plays Don, the father of the 2 kids in this film and was probably the best actor in this. Every second he was on, he stole the show for me. His character is also a lot more in depth then I am telling since I am keeping the story vague to avoid spoilers. Jeremy Ronner played Doyle, the most likable character in the whole film. I really wanted more screen time by him but I was satisfied with what I got. Rose Bryne played Scarlet and was solid in that role. Imogen Poots plays Don's daughter Tammy and I couldn't take my eyes off this girl. She was so beautiful that the mere sight of here distracted me from the movie for some odd reason. I was like "Damn!!!" She was great! Mackintosh Muggleton played Andy, the son of Don (sounds like a horror movie title) and does a pretty good job. All in all, the cast pulls off a solid job as a whole but they weren’t all that memorable seeing that I had to look at photos of them to see which characters they played. In the original, I didn't have to look at photos, I knew all the characters names and for the most part, who played them even after the movie ended and weeks had passed. You could say the name Seline or Jim and I would know who they were. IN this film, you mention Don or Doyle or any of the characters, I couldn't tell you who the fuck they were to save my life! That was one of the biggest factors that hurt this film.

    To the directing, Juan Carlos Fresnadillio takes over for Danny Boyle in the director’s chair and while I have read many a complaint about the choppy editing and up the nose shots, I felt it actually aided this movie in some scenes. Yes, for once I enjoyed that tight camera work. I felt it added to the ambience and over all feel of mass hysteria that the characters were experiencing in this film. Granted, some scenes (the parking garage scene) I fucking despised, but the opening scene was perfection. I felt that Juan did a great job with this movie. The problem lies in the hands of the writing team. They were NOT up to par in the slightest and should have run it across someone who enjoys COMMON SENSE in movies. The camera is shakey at times but that happened in the original as well and while I would have dug being able to see the gore that was being thrown at me, I really wasn't dwelling on it for the most part. Overall...Juan does a damn fine job.

    Gore wise, of what you can ACTUALLY see, this movie goes above and beyond the original. We get eye gougings, head decapitations, head explosions, crispy critters, a helicopter massacre, flesh ripping, and more. Nudity wise we get a woman being hosed down and I believe another quick side boob shot. Not 100% on that...

    I say, 28 Days Later raised the bar for horror films and became an instant classic among fans everywhere. Unfortunately the same can't be said for the sequel in terms of it being put on that same pedestal. Instead of getting the "Dawn of the Dead of the new millennium" we get a sequel that holds true but falls short of the original leaving the ultimate of clichéd endings tacked on for the world to see. Fans of the first (like me) will miss the character depth that the first had but will still get a bite out of this none the less.  Is it worth seeing in theatres? You bet your sweet ass it is! In fact, the opening scene is worth the $10.25 ticket price alone (and to think my friend saw this and the film restarted itself right at the end of the opening and he got to watch it all over again...lucky fucking asshole!) and the movie, while it has it's random bouts with stupidity and laziness on the writers parts, is a gut wrenching, jaw dropping, pull no punches film that pulls several "Holy fucken shitballs! I can't believe I just saw what I just saw!" Check it out!

Special Guest Reviewer:

"Love knowing that when you have 2 kids hop over into areas that are 100% off limits, that it takes the military at least 30 minutes to get them even after the kids STOP for food and dilly dally for half the time in the middle of the city. Wouldn't have minded had they not been spotted by the military so quickly, but they were. The instant they hop the wall...they are spotted. Real good marines we have over here. Nice to know they have good reaction skills! ::rolls eyes::

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