Rating: Summary: happy endings in horror =( Review: The ending hurt and almost killed this movie. At least there are alternate endings on the DVD. 3 stars for the rest.
Rating: Summary: 28 Days Later (2003) Review: Tastefully done, art horror movie has a man waking up to find the entire world he knew before taken over by flesh-eating zombies. When he encounters another group of people, he teams up with them and they try to escape the terror that awaits them everywhere they turn."28 Days Later" delivers on all counts. The cast does an absolutely fantastic and authentic job. The special effects are top notch and so is the photography. The script has been written for maximum suspense and makes me feel worried about what I might wake up to tomorrow... Thought-provoking and nightmarish film is one of the best zombies films to come around in years and has a surprisingly happy ending...but still, it's no happily ever after. A must.
Rating: Summary: Potential lost Review: With the exception of the opening 10 minutes, 28 Days Later fails completely. The scenes of the Jim (Cillian Murphy) walking around an abandoned, completely deserted London are creepy and un-nerving. The scenes that hint at mystery and unknown danger are far more intriguing than the rest of the movie. As soon as Jim hooks up with other survivors the scares are lost. Danny Boyle stupidly telegraphs every jump to the point of disqualification. When the survivors leave London and are 'rescued' by a bunch of thuggish army louts it degenerates into extremely cruddy sub-straight-to-video nonsense. I've never seen a film lose its way so badly as this. What could have been really exciting and scary ends up being too cheap and confused. There are hardly any 'zombies' in this movie. Any action or thrills are over within seconds and the complete lack of logical thinking (even within the morally bankrupt army) becomes annoying. It did appreciate the raw-looking photography, it gave the movie a realistic edge but it's soon ruined as the plot meanders and doesn't know what to do. Cillian Murphy was quite good as the hero but the woman playing Selena was too brutish and hostile to be sympathetic. I did like Brendan Gleeson's character but he wasn't in it long enough. Mainly, 28 Days Later suffers badly from minimal plotting, awkward characters, a distinct lack of scares and a corny ending that's out of sync with everything that preceded it. Danny Boyle should NOT attempt horror again. The DVD is in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen with Dolby 5.1 sound. Extras include a commentary, documentary and deleted scenes. The cut scenes (and alternate ending) are worthless and not interesting. For a superior and more exciting zombie movie wait for the new Dawn of the Dead to hit DVD. In the meantime, rent this one.
Rating: Summary: I don't think I even GOT this movie Review: Sadly, it's NOT a sequel to Sandra Bullock's '28 Days' - I think I would have enjoyed it more if it had have been. I thought it would have been creepy. It wasn't. I thought the main characters would have ended up being infected. They weren't. The underlying love story? Adam & Eve nonsense, two people forced together, due to them having to repopulate the world or whatever. So what exactly was the point of this film? It seemed disjointed, and seemed to have no idea what direction it wanted to go in. And I nearly fell asleep during it, although I was coming close, and struggling to keep my eyes open, when thankfully it got switched off. Only kidding. It got paused. But that gave me the chance to wake myself and splash my face with cold water. And then I watched the rest of the film. Interesting as it was. It's a British film, which means Americans wouldn't like it, but if they'd done this kind of film, they probably would have over-dramatised it and maybe made a better job. (I said maybe) Being a British movie, it had a real edge to it, to see what Danny Boyle was going to come up with now. The whole love story was totally dense, and felt like it was put together at the last moment. And for any ladies reading this, would you honestly go up to a guy and kiss him, when he's covered in blood? Something tells me you wouldn't. Why did there have to be a love story anyway? There are actually some good points to this movie. Seeing main cities, like London, completely deserted. No people, no cars, nothing. It felt rather eerie. If you like these kind of non-interesting movies, which no one else owns, or even likes, then sure, go for it. Just don't expect a sequel to 28 Days.
Rating: Summary: Uncompromising and viciously unsettling Review: Take the basic mold that has perpetuated the entire zombie movie genre, and build from it into something more- along the way develop characterizations and tap into a terrifying aspect of humanity straight out of "Lord of the Flies." This film has two distinct facets. One is the more obvious, and the packaging reflects it: the zombies, the cliched running from bloodthirsty human-shapes, and the imagery of survival horror. This the movie does faily subpar, the downfall of society takes offscreen and time is marked only by the title "28 Days Later..." and the protagonist's eventual awakening. This halve of the film's content is not gory or fast-paced enough to suit the average zombie-horror buff, spending more time with character development and exploration of an empty, haunting London. It does start a progression to the second facet of the film, in which the development comes together and the uniqueness of the picture shines through. This film examines a panoptic society in post-mortum. We are presented with empty traffic patterns, empty supermarkets and highways- all the mechanics of "real life" but empty and askew. The Panoptic gaze, discussed in Foucault's "Discipline and Punish," is broken, or disrupted, because the guard or central viewer is, in this case, dead. The various characters are freed from their economic and societal roles by the destruction of the regime that enforces them. We have, essentially, a zoo without keepers. And it is from this viewpoint that the film is most intriguing. The climax of the film presents the female characters in a twisted re-affirmation of the surveyor/surveyed parallel, and this in and of itself forces the viewer to deal with this as a distanciation effect. The film end deals with the "survivalist" presentation of the genders, and ultimately comments on the internal reserves of a person when those they care for are threatened. In summary, i found this film to be an excellent discussion piece and an engrossing departure from the average zombie flick. I recommend it as long as the viewer anticipates actually thinking about the film.
Rating: Summary: 28 Days Too Late... Review: Imagine waking up in the hospital, naked and groggy. Then, wandering through the halls, wondering where all the doctors and nurses have gone. Upon exiting the building, you see that the entire city appears vacant and in a shambles. What happened? Where did all the people go? This is how it is for the hero of Danny Boyle's jarring 28 DAYS LATER. London England has been swept clean of her inhabitants, at least those of the normal variety. What is left are roaming bands of bloodthirsty maniacs, driven insane by a virus that quickly decimated the population. The story is good, owing much to both Night and Dawn Of The Dead, The Crazies, The Omega Man, Last Man On Earth, and even The Day Of The Triffids. We follow the uninfected survivors as they attempt to make it to an oasis of sanity they've heard about on the radio. A place that promises sanctuary and salvation for our battle-weary adventurers. Will they make it? What, if anything will they find there? We get to join them in their quest, hoping that they make it before some infected nut gets a hold of them. 28DL, like Boyle's Trainspotting, offers us a ride that may not take us where we want to go. Where Trainspotting showed us the utter deadness of addiction, 28DL shows us survival in it's most raw form. Just watch what these people have to do to stay alive. Watch who they must kill. I highly recommend this movie. Belongs in every horror collection...
Rating: Summary: Disappointing Review: I was really looking forward to this movie after see "Dawn of the Dead." Some friends recommended it saying that if I liked "Dawn", I would like this....hmmm...they were wrong. This movie is somewhat of a rip off and rather lame *as much as I hate that word.* We begin with a rather stupid beginning with activists attempting to free sick monkeys and then suddenly we see a man waking up to find London deserted. We get no action, no scenes of the plague going down, no chaos....nothing. The movie completely skips it. The movie then focuses on a small group of survivors occasionally interrupted bu a few idiotic running plague victims. I don't recommend this movie. If you like zombie movies, check out "Dawn of the Dead." It's much more entertaining.
Rating: Summary: The Best Uk Movie Ever! Review: This movie was the best movie i have seen from the uk! it didn't scare you like the previews said it would, but it totally made you think. it wasn't that gorey, but did have a full frontal nude scene witch i throught was not right for the movie. the movie had two very sad scenes in it. the first scene was when the charater "Frank" dies, and when the guy that wasn't in the movie very long get hacked up by the black girl in the begining. actually that scene was really really bloody! So buy the movie, if you are into slow paced horror movies. like me. i love zombie movies.
Rating: Summary: Nothing new. Review: Almost everything in this movie has been done before. It was predictable and provoked no thought whatsoever. You can tell which characters are going to die as soon as they're introduced, and when they do, it's anticlimactic because you saw their demise coming from miles away. Many questions arise that are never addressed--why do the "infected" attack anything that moves, yet they don't attack each other? And what animal-rights activists would be stupid enough to release a chimp from a cage when they're TOLD the chimp is infected and highly contagious? It would have made more sense for one person to be opening a pen while another scans through lab notes that detail the virus, realizing their mistake a moment too late. "28 Days Later" did evoke emotions, but only those of annoyance and exasperation. This is one of those movies where you throw your arms in the air and say, "Okay, WHY did they just do that? Okay, WHAT is happening?!" because the characters are often foolish, and the camera shakes so much. I wasn't the only viewer confused during the film, and there's no reason it SHOULD have been confusing because the confusion was caused by jerky action sequences, not anything cognitive whatsoever. The redeeming qualities of this movie are the acting and the character's roles. There are no B-movie performances to be found, and it's refreshing that a female (Selena) is such a strong character AND she's never nude (unlike the male lead). The script is very good for the most part, though there were some groan-inducing moments that kept the film from ever being taken seriously. If you've read "The Stand" and "Watership Down," you have already seen this movie in the theatre of your own mind, and I've concluded the theme of the movie is that animal-rights activists will be the downfall of our society. Unfortunately, this is perhaps the most original element of the whole movie.
Rating: Summary: Good, Just Don't Call It A Zombie Movie Review: 28 Days Later is of the love it or leave it variety. The problem I think a lot of horror movie fans had with the film is that it was marketed as a zombie film when it really isn't. The zombies are the backdrop for a film that questions the meaning of survival. However, the film tries to hit you over the head with this, particularly towards the end. The last half of the movie is a little slow compared to the start of the film but it has its moments. The "reinvention of the zombie genre" as the critics called it is pretty much making the zombies faster (which I think is cool but I won't argue about it). All in all, if you want to see a film that raises questions on the meaning of survival and rage, give this a try. If you want to see a two hour movie with nothing but zombies getting their heads blown off, see the new Dawn of the Dead (which by the way only has running zombies in common with 28 Days Later, despite what people say).
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