28 Weeks Later Review
by dnb@dca.net (dnb AT dca DOT net)May 15th, 2007
28 WEEKS LATER
A film review by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 2007 David N. Butterworth
**1/2 (out of ****)
As one of the few people on the planet not to be overwhelmed by the brilliance of Danny Boyle's apocalyptic/cathartic zombie allegory "28 Days Later..." I thought I'd give that film a second chance, so to speak, by checking out its sequel, the inventively titled "28 Weeks Later" (no ellipsis) which arrives in theaters some five years later as the rancid carrion crow flies.
Boyle is back as executive producer on this one but he's handed over directing duties to one Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, a relative newcomer to modest budget multiplex fare with only a handful of Spanish-language films to his credit--"Esposados," "Intacto," "Psciotaxi." Boyle's instincts prove to be right on the money, however, as Fresnadillo delivers a sprightly-paced follow-up replete with lashings of gore, shock sequences aplenty, and a thundering soundtrack that'll make you feel as though you're experiencing the surprise horror hit of 2002 all over again.
I myself enjoyed "28 Weeks Later" significantly more than the film that spawned it partly because my expectations were eminently lower this time around and partly because (Shock! Horror! Probe!) the sequel is the better of the two films.
The similarities between "'Days'" and "'Weeks'" openly range from the sublime (smartly doctored bird's eye views of a desolate, deserted Londinium) to the less so (Rage virus-infected denizens attacking with such frenetic, hand-held ferocity that everything becomes as a blur). Fresnadillo's vision feels, oddly enough, less derivative than its predecessor however: relative unknowns once again head the bill, though you might recognize Robert Carlyle ("Trainspotting," "The Full Monty," "Marilyn Hotchkiss Ballroom Dancing & Charm School") before he turns into a cadaverous, red-eyed, flesh-eating ghoul.
An early sequence in a farmhouse establishes the conflict that is to haunt Carlyle's Don, a super in a Thames-side high rise with not nearly enough curtains, after he hooks up with his estranged kids (played by the unfortunately named Imogen Poots and Mackintosh Muggleton, the latter of whom I didn't actually realize was a boy until well after an hour in!). The family's emotional reunion in the debris-stricken District 1 comes as part of the U.S. Army's capital repopulation campaign--"28 Weeks Later" takes place some six months after the epidemic, now supposedly contained, last turned chiefly Brits into murderous, rampaging cannibals.
Soon afterwards mum (Catherine McCormack), deemed to be deceased, surfaces with a set of horseshoe-shaped dental impressions on her arm that begs the natural enough question, "Have you come into direct contact with... the infected?" It seems that the military's reconstruction efforts are about to be pushed back a bit.
While "28 Weeks Later" often plays like "Resident Evil: Apocalypse" sans Milla Jovovich it's a lot more intelligent and gives us, albeit briefly, characters to care about. And its neither hopeful nor hopeless coda leaves the blood gates wide open for (presumably) "28 Months Later." Should that entry come to pass and continue this upward trend then you'll get few complaints from this doomsday detractor.
All this and more in a week in which, I should point out, some predictably unoriginal hotmail closet monkey referred to my review of "28 Days Later..." as "pretentious" and "ridiculously uninformed," claiming that I "certainly [wasn't] accustomed to films with purposes beyond incredible light shows and fanboy giggle-inducing zombie effects."
With "28 Weeks Later" I guess I am now!
--
David N. Butterworth
dnb@dca.net
Got beef? Visit "La Movie Boeuf"
online at http://members.dca.net/dnb
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
