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Curiosity got the best of me, and I had to
see "28 Days Later" opening weekend. I have enjoyed all of Danny
Boyle's films, from the nail-biter Shallow Grave to the comedies
Trainspotting and A Life Less Ordinary. Boyle used actor Ewan
McGregor in his first three films and they rose to fame together. Then he
came out with the big budget film "The Beach" with Leonardo
DiCaprio which essentially flopped (although I quite enjoyed it myself). Now
he's back to a low budget film with a bunch of nobodies filmed with a
digital camera. What this means is that people who are expecting a big
budget scare-fest with a lot of glamorized action and violence
are in for a big surprise.
The movie opens with scenes of
ultra-violence flashing before the eyes of chimpanzees (a la "Clockwork
Orange"). A group of activists enter and release a few of the primates only
to be attacked by them releasing the deadly virus "rage".
28 days later England is a only a ghost of itself. Most of it's living
inhabitants are vomiting, savage killers. Jim who has been in a coma finds
all of this out the hard way. He wakes to find a barren city with picture memorials eerily close to those after 9/11 then
is confronted by
some of the infected. When he meets other survivors they must figure
out what's truly important, if merely living is enough.
The cinematography actually is quite
beautiful at parts and the actors are believable. You may even recognize a
couple of the actors: Brendan Gleeson had memorable roles in "Braveheart"
and "Gangs of New York" and "Christopher Eccleston" was in Boyle's first film
"Shallow Grave" and was the "bad guy" in "Gone in 60
Seconds". I was also pleasantly surprised at how subtle the movie was. It
also raised some interesting questions about man's capacity for inhumanity
and it's impulse towards aggression. I think if you were a fan of
"Signs" you should also enjoy "28 Days Later".
Although "Signs" was a better film, they
both had genuinely scary moments, raised philosophical questions and were
subtle in their approach.
Warning: If for some reason you
haven't seen a trailer for this movie, don't! I hate it when trailers
contain a scene from a later part of the movie. Also... I have no idea why people
take children to rated R movies like this. Don't! I hate hearing kids
voices during these movies. Besides Jim waking up naked from his coma
(full frontal nudity) 28 Days Later definitely has it's share of violence.
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