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28 Weeks Later (2007)

Director: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, John Murphy

Time Out rating

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10 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

London seems to be taking a bit of a battering in SF and horror movies these days. It was a moribund slum in ‘Children of Men’, under fascist lockdown in ‘V for Vendetta’ and will be suicide-bombed to buggery in next year’s ‘Incendiary’. Things are no better in this sequel to Danny Boyle’s 2002 zombie actioner ‘28 Days Later…’: there are foot-and-mouth-style pyres near the Dome, a militarised DLR, the firebombing of the Isle of Dogs… ‘London’s mine!’ adolescent Andy cries as he charges across a deserted Tower Bridge. In this state, he’s welcome to it.

The meat of the film’s action takes place seven months after the UK populace has been reduced to a pack of slavering, ravenous automota,when resettlement of the evacuated country finally seems possible under the auspices of a US Army administration. We open, however, with a bravura sequence set during the initial crisis. In a home counties cottage, Don (Robert Carlisle) and his wife Alice (Catherine McCormack) are holed up in an odd ménage with several other survivors. A semblance of normality is established then shattered, and Don makes a cowardly escape. When their children, Andy and Tammy (Imogen Poots) return from abroad to the maximum-security ‘Green Zone’ in east London, Don is left with some ’splainin’ to do. And, needless to say, the virus isn’t quite as extinct as they’d all like...

The set-up is simple and serviceable enough, though the plot relies on too many fudges and neglects the moral complexity of Don’s position. Nor, despite the fact that much of the film’s carnage is inflicted by the uninfected military, is the satirical potential embraced in the way that, say, Romero would. But ‘28 Weeks Later’ does offer an impressively mounted series of set-pieces. Maintaining the first film’s eerie score and skittery DV camerawork (Boyle did some second-unit work himself), as well as its sense of containment or even smallness, it builds real tension around a panicked underground stampede, a civilian massacre and scenes of firebombing and gassing. A sequence involving a chopper in Regent’s Park slips into Grand Guignol but otherwise the capital locations are put to cannily distressing use. Here’s hoping there are better days ahead…

Author: Ben Walters 2007-05-08 11:56:04

Time Out London Issue 1916: May 9-15 2007

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User reviews of this film

mackintosh lover said...

Posted on Mar 24 2009 19:05 this movie is the best people can not like this movie its amazing i love mackintosh aka andy i have this movie recorded on my tv have fun with this movie!!!!!!

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Tina said...

Posted on Sep 30 2007 22:17 I liked this film - not as good as the first one, but then sequels rarely are. More gore than the first one, but less chilling. A good show if you like this type of horror / zombie thing.

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Medic said...

Posted on Sep 20 2007 00:29 The film actually started quite good with massive military presence and a cool scenery. As soon as the story kicks in, it just sucks. Once more we get to witness the terribly touching escape of a family... or a random group of people ... some teenagers ... lost soldiers. WHATEVER! Why do all these movies have to be so small scale? Why not show how the virus spreads, how the military is trying to fight it. All we get to see are stupid children that run off the green zone the day after their arrival to get a PHOTOGRAPH OF THEIR MOTHER(!!!!!!!!!!!). Heck we've got digital cameras and all that stuff and they risk their lives to get a crappy picture.
Not to mention the horribly dumb father that has nothing to do than kiss his wife that rather resembles a zombie than a human being. Not to mention how easy it is for Mr. All Access to get to her... I mean, everything on this damn island was guarded by legions of soldiers. This woman that could rescue the whole world now, is left alone. No medical supervision, nothing to drink or eat.
I am tired of movies in which everything is done wrong.

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Doug said...

Posted on Aug 01 2007 20:32 Shocking, graphic, nail biting and a little bit scary. Not original though and not as good as the first.

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Leroy said...

Posted on Jul 07 2007 18:14 Recommened must see...

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Tony said...

Posted on Jul 07 2007 18:13 10/10

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Susan said...

Posted on Jul 07 2007 18:13 Greates film eva

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Darnéll said...

Posted on Jul 07 2007 18:12 Best Sequal Yet

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miraed said...

Posted on Jun 29 2007 10:05 The first 28 days later i enjoyed, but as for the 2nd one i was really really dissapointed. It was shocking, definantly not worth paying to go and see at the cinema as you really need to be in your comfy armchair so that you can fall asleep!!! Shocking

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Will Smith said...

Posted on Jun 29 2007 08:57 I don't like horror films, and only watched this because I sat down in the wrong screen! But it's a reasonable tale, and nicely shot in London. It's atmospheric rather than a shocker. Sometimes the story doesn't completely hang together, but I enjoyed myself nontheless.

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