28 Days Later Reviews

London 3 - Manchester 0

I love a good post apocalyptic zombie flick me, and for the first half of this movie this exactly what it is. A great mix of excellent camera work, interesting and tense London set pieces and even a bit of humour thrown in for good measure. But then we reach Manchester and it all goes down hill. It's as though the film was shot in a linear fashion and they ran out money halfway through. From wondering what's coming next you suddenly find yourself realising that you're going to be stuck in this final location. Everything becomes very Dr Who'ish and I mean that in a bad way. Hammy acting, crappy effects cliched characters and you begin to wonder where the film you had started watching disappeared to. Having said that it's worth a watch and if you prepare for disappointment towards the end then you may be pleasantly surprised...

Plans are pointless. Staying alive is as good as it gets.

The setting of the film is London, almost entirely free of human life due to a rapidly spread virus. The infected, the 'monsters' of the film, are regular human beings who no longer function like regular people but instead are fast, violent, and primal, living only to eat and attack whatever they see. The virus spread wildly due to its high communicability. It transfers through blood contact, saliva, and even through the eyes. It is such that 99% of London was wiped out in 28 days, at the end of which the main character wakes up in a hospital with no idea what has happened.

The film slowly (not too slowly) unfolds to deliver an extremely intense roller-coaster thrill whilst maintaining realism. The only gripe I have is the Blackwall Tunnel scene, but apart from that the film was totally gripping. Definitely on par with Dog Soldiers.

Awesome way to see London!

London-lovers must see this film. The film starts '28 days later', i.e. 28 days after a deadly virus has largely eradicated the human race. The film's main protagonist, however, is a rare exception - he's been in a coma, and awakes on day 28 - so we find him wandering the deserted streets of London. You've never seen London like this, and you never will (hopefully!). Eerie, very memorable.

The way they did it involved using low-budget cameras and at times the film seems to have an almost student-production feel to it. This doesn't ruin the film but you should be prepared.

As the earlier reviewer has already said tho, once the film leaves London it goes down hill dramatically. But overall this is well worth seeing once and will create at least one dinner-party conversation.

[Highly rated reviewer]

An original take...

with the first 'running zombies', and very influencial in bringing about the glorious new Zombie renaissance that culminates in the long-awaited fourth installment to the genre-defining Dead series, Land of The Dead (please let it be good please let it be good please). For this alone, I love this film. It's such a shame that British films can't get the same financial backing their Yankie counterparts have. Budget restrains that mean rather than being driven through the smouldering remains of Manchester, as Boyle and Garland had envisaged, we get to see it in the distance. The (jaw-droppingly brilliant) pre-credit opener of the remake of Dawn Of The Dead probably had more money spent on it than the whole of this film. Mind you, an episode of friends probably did too.

A MUST SEE. And if you saw it in the cinema, get this out! Watch the DVD extras, including an alternative SECOND HALF of the film (albeit only storyboarded), and a superb alternative ending where Cillian Murphy is replaced with a chicken.

If worshipping Zombie films was a religion, with the Dead Trilogy being the Zombie-bible, this could be a worthy hymn book.

Eye opening

I was genuinely surprised as to how good this film was. The performances are generally nicely underplayed and the set pieces-abandoned London, motorways etc which must be hard to pull off were effective and convincing.

I was less convinced by the direction of the writing. The premise is not new, but having got us into a believeable distopian future, it looks as if they didn't really know where to take it. The obligatory,revelatory twist is disturbing, but not convincing. Nice to see Christopher Eccleston acting not gurning. Great characters, so-so plot, which given the subject matter is a pleasant surprise.

Also a reminder why I love this service-I missed this film when it came out and being too lazy to go through the ranks of rental DVDs at my nearest shop, clicked on this weeks ago and was delighted when it dropped through my letterbox.

A new look for London!

Pour yourself some wine, close the curtains and find the biggest pillow you have. Get yourself comfortable and enjoy a class act of filmmaking.

You will never look at London the same way again! A frenetic powerful opening leaves you gasping from the first scene. With a stunning use of camera work, you are there with the characters every step of the way…sometimes you’ll wish you weren’t!

There will be very little of the classic English politeness in evidence as you are confronted with the stark wilderness of an alternate England. Forget the old lumbering zombies and living dead from past decades. This is a modern take and a classic tale. It may be hard to find a hero in the cut of the old style in this film.

28 words later ...

Was this film:

a) A PR-piece for the London Tourist Board?

b) Typecast “Eccleston-in-megalomania-sinister-expression exercise?

c) Another “the medical scientific community are evil” advert?

d) Predictable, histrionic nonsense?

Great potential........but disappointing!

I expected so much more of the film. It started well and was pretty scary for the first 45 minutes or so but then dwindled into nothing very much. It seemed to lose track of where it was going and what it wanted to say - if anything. The acting in parts was pretty dreadful (particularly the daughter of the guy from the high rise - what accent was that supposed to be?). The film had great potential and could/should have raised some really interesting political/social/environmental issues - a great debate starter, and some of the extras supported this but it never happened. There was no explanation of what had happened and the 'happy ending' was more than a little contrived and left me feeling distinctly unsatisfied.

28 Days Later

Superbly made, superbly acted and boasting the finest Zombies ever seen on screen. This movie will keep you on the edge of your seat for almost the entire movie. Slightly disappointing ending but this is all too common, even with top-notch horrors. Well worth seeing and seeing again!

RENT IT NOW ! Top Film

Rage is everywhere these days, so scientists have set about finding a cure. Only to find a cure they have first infected monkeys with a synthetic virus called “Rage”. The scientists are just on the brink of finding a cure when a group of Animal Rights activists break in to free the monkeys, not realising that they are infected with a deadly form of the virus. The virus rapidly spreads throughout London, infecting most of the population as well as other countries. One lucky (if you can call him that) survivor is Jim, who awakes from a coma 28 days after infection has wiped out most of the population. He manages to group up with a few more people and head off to Manchester, where a group of army survivors are offering the answer to the virus. Only it is not what they are expecting.

It was very good to watch a quality made British film for a change, one where the Americans don’t come and save the world from becoming extinct. The scenes of deserted London are very chilling and were actually filmed on site. So, hats-off to this master piece. The only thing that lets it down is that the very ending is a bit weak.