28 Weeks Later (2007)

Time flies when you're running for your life

There's always that extra obstacle to conquer when making sequels, for the lovers of the first movie the second needs a reason to exist, it has to be real, strong and carry the story further than one could have imagined. I really enjoyed "28 Days Later" because I got to see it in a half empty theater with a friend, and it felt so real and brutal that I walked out with my knees shaking. Then I saw this movie at home and while it still made me cringe I don't think that it was the lack of super sized screen that made the movie feel smaller than the first, somehow as good as it was there were flaws to it that made it hard for me to give it more stars.

Overall I'm glad I saw it, it was scary, bloody, gross, there was lots of close run ins and plenty of super hungry, super fast infected zombies but the little things that allowed the outbreak spread again made me shake my head in disbelief. At one point I was laughing (the scene in the dark at the stadium escalator) because it was so ridiculous and then I was flabbergasted at the bad decisions, like the new kids who arrived at the cleaned now London sneaked out to get something from their old home even thought it was forbidden to leave, they simply took this dramatic stance against everyone's safety as they opened the portals to hell for everyone else. I was surprised to see who was the main carrier of the virus and then who spread it to everyone else, I know the zombies were fast but the so called safe army guarded compound was like kindergarten during an Easter egg hunt, the infected ravaged anyone they pleased and it seemed that even all those weapons and precautions didn't do much to stop the spread.

The movie looked good, I liked the eerie and forlorn mood and it was a good chunk of horror watching on a rainy Sunday but the little bits of stupidity that well, allowed for the sequel to exist were little too much. At the end it left me feeling depressed, so I guess goal accomplished! Not bad but not the greatest although worth the watch for horror fans. I am guessing that if there is another entry it will be called 28 months later, now that would be interesting to see...


- Kasia S.
June 30, 2008

Awful Views

I love this type of theme that are based on "The End of the World", but I hate this type of directors modality that they try to impress the viewers by making almost 90% of the movie on close ups scenes.

I think they think that the viewer will imagine what is going on, but when I seat there to watch a movie I want to see what is going on and have good views of the whole scene; I want to see the big picture not everything so close that you opt to press fast forward to move on.

Yes! I was one of those; I did press fast forward because the scene tends to produce me some vertigo when this director shouted all scenes like close ups ones!!!

Almost 90% were that close to the face of people or to the fight that you don't understand what is happening for sure, you only know is a fight or a chase.

I am not sure if you understand me, in simple words, all scenes of chasing and all fights were so close that one can't figure out what is going on precisely.

In my opinion is a bad movie!

Ariel Maisonet
Puerto Rico

PS. Other Directors did the same for example on Alien vs Predator 2 and Transformer. Scenes shouted so close that you can't figure out exactly what is happening. June 23, 2008

Gruesome and horrifying...Grand Guignol on speed!

NOT for the fainthearted! Most horror movies do not live up the hype, but this one certainly does...in SPADES. Some of the scenes were so terrifying and claustrophobic (for example, the mass killing/infection-spreading scene in the civilian lockdown area(!)), I was literally yelling with fright and adrenaline-laced energy as the bloody carnage unfolded on the screen...Makes *28 Days Later* seem downright tame in comparison...Forget the negative reviews: if you are into hardcore horror and gore and want something like a cross between Hostel and Speed, this is the movie for you! June 23, 2008

Best. Zombie Film. EVER

Written By: Lisa Fore
(c) Dystopia Magazine | Halloween Edition; issue 1007 | October 2007

THE STORY
When someone says 'one person can change the world' noone usually believes them, however Director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo proves this theory with his amazingly executed extreme, 28 Weeks Later.

While Danny Boyle's landmark film 28 Days Later focused on an individual trying to comprehend and outlast the infection that razed his familiar world, 28 Weeks drops us straight into what we were also secretively waiting to experience--the cycle of the virus' mobility throughout England entire.

Fresnadillo starts intimately in space and character development as we meet Don and Alice in a darkened center of a nuclear family's world: the kitchen. There's a short but sensible glimpse into the hearts of this couple, from parental concerns about their children abroad in Spain to a warm moment of a kiss that's interrupted by one of the owners of the home, illustrating the very sparse opportunities of normalcy that the characters will encounter. The situation's scope instantly spirals outward to convey more survivors are living with them, that the world of the film itself is bigger than the region of 28 Days, until the infected descend upon them leaving Don to face a devastating choice.

While the virus creates obvious differences between the populations, both groups manage to find a common ground in behavior: each Infected and Survivor acts like an injured animal, chewing off the dormant parts of itself that renders it helpless in its pursuit to survive. We experience the chilling, full range of all expectations being annihilated, from the personal to national level: protectors betray the trust of those who depend on them, facets of `family' are torn to shreds (from the literal nuclear family to the military and finally, the nation) with a disturbing erasure of the hope -- or arrogance -- that something can be extinguished with a desperate affirmation and will, rather than concede that its enemy might have a will of its own.

The final coda of the film is out-and-out terrifying as the virus becomes all the Rage in Paris...

This `Survival of The Fittest' story, and the true power behind the idea of 28 Days, lies in the brutal frankness of human reaction and our natural baser instinct of survival being tested within the phenomenon of an epidemic. It's impossible to walk away from this film without honestly appreciating how plausible it all actually is.

THE REVIEW
Image/Sound
The eyes are the keynote to 28 Weeks, and Fresnadillo consistently amplified this concept by creating the film through the perspectives of its characters -- his methodology of handheld cameras gives us a wonderfully natural flavor with the edgy, frantic realism of a documentary, and recaptures the speed and chaos of Boyle's innovative film. He also gives us moments to breathe along with the characters utilizing the calming movements of stationary camerawork in placid, yet emotional, moments.

The DVD preserves his vast scope and barren landscapes that the characters have to move through, with slow, broad sweeps that are instantly unnerving as we find London so inconceivably empty, and similarly his every close up stings with impact (a favorite case in point: as Don apologizes to his children for the loss of their mother, we suddenly cut to the look on Alice's face the last time he saw her; not from that desperate plea in her eyes as she screamed for him, but from his perspective of how she must have felt about him, or how he thinks she should feel--a cold, dark hatred that fills the screen before the picture snaps to black. Also emphasized are, (Director of Photography) Enrique Chediak's ingenious strategy of almost-too bright, too-white edges around the colors that seems to replicate a viewpoint experiencing full-bodied fear during the chase and attack scenes, along with the comfortless shadows of the outside world the characters are trapped in during their internment within the "safety" of the Zone. Chediak's eerie vision behind London's `twilight' puts the final insinuating touch on England's fate in the film.

The sound quality holds every snarl, scream and explosion in crystal clear resonance, but best of all John Murphy's primal scoring also makes its return, almost as another character, with its distressing essence of intensity and precise despair.

Extras Code Red: The Making of 28 Weeks Later is an entertaining look inside of the film's creation and the determination to avoid the popular trap of rehashing the same ideas, instead expanding on the intriguing journeys Boyle suggested with the close of 28 Days. There's an interesting interview highlighting Boyle's continued captivation with the circumstance of an actual outbreak (and hopefully he will maintain his thoughtful decision to wait until there's really great story behind the plan of creating another development as his did with this one), as well as extending a sincere pleasure (that we as an audience can certainly appreciate) in handing his concept off to Fresnadillo; Robert Carlyle's laidback interview on creating his character, Don, is almost surreal while it's flanked with footage of his on-screen rampages. Fresnadillo also describes a pact that he made with Carlyle for Don's final scene with Alice: to bring the full weight of his rage against the small containment set where they were filming, and Carlyle obliged with an amazingly feral madness, having literally slammed his head into walls and doors over and over enough to sustain headaches for three days afterwards to give the audience a pure version of the transformation experience. The Director's Commentary, is an impressive insight into the talent and endurance of the filmmakers and crew, with production details that make it a film student`s dream blueprint on how to create an effective horror film.

Future filmmakers, please take notes.

THE BOTTOM LINE
28 Weeks Later is a raw, brilliant and visceral ride that stands firmly on its own, but is an equally outstanding expansion of the 28 Days Later storyline. June 18, 2008

28 weeks later

I enjoy movies with zombies and such like dawn of the dead so I decided to pick this up, basicly the plot if you haven't seen 28 days later the prequel Its in England and a terrible virus got out transfered by monkeys in the saliva that basicly turns you into these zombies. From the start of this movie Its all action, You'll see the struggle between a boy and his sister through out the movie and it really makes you get on the edge of your seat. I'd say its a must rent movie for zombie horror film fans! June 18, 2008

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