Posted by Matt Holmes. Last modified on May 8th, 2007 at 10:13pm

28 Weeks Later

w8.jpgI TRIED TO KEEP THIS REVIEW SPOILER FREE AND I THINK FOR THE MOST PART IT IS, BUT JUST INCASE THERE IS SOMETHING THAT MAY HINTS TOWARDS SOMETHING…. CHECK OUT THE RATING AND LAST PARAGRAPH ONLY.

Survival, survival, survival. That’s all this movie is about. It’s about making sure your not the one who gets bitten by the infected. It’s about you shooting down a bunch of innocent people if you think only one of them might have the disease in an attempt to stop it spreading. It’s about killing your mother, brother, father, girlfriend or a complete stranger the second they become infected. Or hell even running away and bailing out to save your own skin even if you have the opportunity to save your family members.

28 Weeks Later hits all the buttons of the zombie movie genre but at the same time improves on it in so many ways. This may well be the most significant movie in the genre since the original Dawn of the Dead in 1978.

I’m absolutely serious.

You are simply not prepared for this movie. I sure as hell wasn’t. I went into it with much higher expectations than I held for the movie originally but still I was just hoping for an entertaining yarn and if it was just as good as 28 Days Later, then I would come out thinking it was worth the trip.

It was sure as hell worth the trip alright. This movie is incredible. You know all the good bits of 28 Days Later that all came at the first half of the movie? Well this film has that going for it all of the way through and actually betters it. The film has a purpose, it has a logical narrative and it has characters who are fully fleshed out and interesting. 28 Weeks Later should become the blueprint of how you take an average movie and turn it into something spectacular for the sequel.

The basic setting of the flick is that 28 weeks after the events of the last film and the infection is seemingly gone. People are starting to come back to England and around 15 thousand people have been allowed back into parts of London. Only some parts mind you, as not everywhere has been deemed fully safe just yet.

I’m not going to tell you anything more about the plot apart from that the third act of this movie is so good it makes you want to scream out loud “YES!”. Finally somebody has got the last act of a film right… far too many movies fall down at that point, especially recently… I’m looking at you Danny Boyle with your movie Sunshine (ironically the director of the original 28 Days Later also).

Throughout the film there’s very little remorse shown for anyone and I began to feel incredibly uncomfortable watching this flick, far more so than any movie George A. Romero made in this genre. These “zombies” are like god damn super humans, they are terrifying. You can’t really out run them and instead of just biting you or killing you instantly, they rip you limb for limb or they beat you down with a bloody pipe until you can’t breathe. The best thing this movie does and it’s something that a lot of the good survival movies are taking up these days… is that any character can die at any given moment. Not one person is safe. The one’s you think are likely to be safe, a couple of minutes later will be turned into a flesh eating killer.

The performances in the movie are all strong (apart from the male kid who can’t act) with Robert Carlyle, Jeremy Renner and Rose Byrne being the stand-outs. I don’t really want to say any more because it’s still a few days until this movie is out but it’s films like this which still leave me hope for the horror genre.

The movie will stay with you… that god damn music they use for the film matches the atmosphere and visual imagery of the film so well. I wanna see more of this series… keep them coming guys.

★★★★½

28 Weeks Later is so much better than the original. It’s a brutal and nasty zombie-esque infection movie that pulls absolutely no punches and gives you one of those cinema experiences that really make you scream, squeal and cheer. If your not a fan of blood and being made to jump, avoid the film but for everyone else I haven’t seen a horror movie as good as this in years…. easily the best film of 2007 so far. YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS.

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Categories: Reviews

11 Comments »

  1. WICKED. I took your recommendation and only read the last paragraph. I was already looking forward to this and now I’m even more excited. Excellent!

    Comment by Marina | May 8, 2007

  2. Awesome Matty … I sure hope you’re right, because I have been looking forward to this one.

    Comment by Ray | May 9, 2007

  3. I liked 28 Days Later. Thought it was a smart take on the zombie flick, and a few surprises to boot. I was kinda wondering if the sequel was more of the same, only with bigger special effects. After your enthusiastic recommendation I GOTTA check it out.
    On a personal note, I’ve always felt Brtiain had a ton of good writers with great stories and storytelling ability but not the filming infrastructure to support them. Hopefully with a few big homegrown franchises that will start to change.

    The movie business needs some new blood and major competition to shake up Hollywood and get people making good movies again.

    Comment by JaySmack | May 10, 2007

  4. I really enjoyed the movie, but the setting being London (and knowing London’s geography reasonably well) kinda put me off in parts. I found myself sitting there thinking “there is absolutely no way they could run from a to b in that time”. I know it wasn’t really an issue, but I couldn’t help it!

    Comment by Peter Willis | May 11, 2007

  5. Glad you liked it guys. I hope it takes a decent amount of cash this weekend because I thought it was a great effort all round.

    Your right about the London setting… it don’t matter in the slightest.

    Comment by Matt Holmes | May 11, 2007

  6. Watched this last night at the cinema, thought it was ok. Pretty much how I felt about the first one, it was ok. Too be fair it definetly isn’t my favourite genre (Zombie movie? how many have there been) but it was watchable. I like the idea of a post-apocalyptic world. But as I’ve said horror movies rarely do anything for me. I think the 4.5 stars out of 5 is incredibly generous.

    Comment by Dave | May 12, 2007

  7. I like to judge movies in my ratings out of a number of factors, but the main one for me is to watch the movie in context of it’s own genre.

    For example. The Prestige I gave 4 out of 5 stars last year, but 28 Weeks Later gets 4.5… although The Prestige is a far superior film in nearly every way.

    However in terms of it’s own genre, The Prestige was only artistically worthy of a 4 out of 5, whereas for a zombie movie 28 Weeks Later deserves the extra .5 star. That’s because it’s not only one of the best zombie films I’ve seen in god knows how long, but also because it’s damn near as perfect as the genre can get from where I’m sitting… and it took the zombie flick in a new direction and improved on some of the “static elements” from past similar films.

    Like you say though, horror isn’t your thing… but you liked it somewhat, so that’s gotta be something?

    Comment by Matt Holmes | May 12, 2007

  8. How can you judge it almost solely on how good it is in it’s own genre? That defys logic. You just said that The Prestige is a better film than 28 Weeks Later yet you rated it lower, sorry but your reasoning doesn’t add up. A review should take into consideration everything; like I said before it makes no sense to give it a higher rating just because it’s outstanding in its own genre. Fair enough you can put that in your review but in my opinon you can’t let that fact be the defining reason for what you’re going to give it. As you’ve said the Prestige is a better film therefore it should get a better rating. Again, as you’ve already said, 28 weeks later has done alot for its own genre, but for the movie industry as a whole? Not so sure. I’m sticking with my earlier statement that 4.5 is hugely generous.

    Comment by Dave | May 14, 2007

  9. My ratings aren’t absolute. It’s a similar style that the great critic Roger Ebert uses…

    “When you ask a friend if Hellboy is any good, you’re not asking if it’s any good compared to Mystic River, you’re asking if it’s any good compared to The Punisher. And my answer would be, on a scale of one to four, if Superman is four, then Hellboy is three and The Punisher is two. In the same way, if American Beauty gets four stars, then (The United States of) Leland clocks in at about two”.[4]

    That wasn’t just the defining reason why I gave it 4.5, because I found it highly entertaining also, so that played a factor.

    I wouldn’t take my ratings into too much consideration, reading the whole review will give you a better understanding of how I feel about a film. And the fact that I didn’t quite have the same buzz coming out of the theatre for 300 (4), Hot Fuzz (4) or Grindhouse (3.5) as I did for 28 Weeks Later also played into the rating factor.

    Comment by Matt Holmes | May 14, 2007

  10. Matt … the movie is pretty cool. I just don’t care much for the shaky cam thing …

    http://therecshow.com/2007/05/14/28-weeks-later-a-review/

    Comment by Ray | May 15, 2007

  11. [...] after 28 WEEKS LATER opened but despite WEEKS LATER being majorly well liked by those who saw it (I was damn near in love with the movie last May), a sequel was not put into motion for because it didn’t make enough [...]

    Pingback by Is Paul Andrew Willaims directing 28 MONTHS LATER? | Obsessed With Film | October 6, 2008

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