MOVIE - 28 DAYS LATER - Review Rating $$$$$ $$$$ (OUT OF 10)
STARRING - Cillian Murphy (Jim), Naomie Harris (Selena), Christopher Eccleston (Maj. West), Megan Burns (Hannah), Brendan Gleeson (Frank) & Noah Huntley (Mark).
DIRECTOR - Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, A Life Less Ordinary)
A new age virus decimates the population of England, turns most of the citizens into zombies and leaves those unaffected struggling to survive this nightmarish scenario.
As I sat in the theater eagerly anticipating the start of 28 Days Later I scanned the crowd around me. It was mostly twenty somethings in a fairly rambunctious mood. The usual 15 minutes of commercials and reviews that show too much did little to quiet the crowd. The opening scene, in which Jim lies nude in a hospital bed, produced giggling. I began to worry I wouldn't be able to enjoy the film. My concern was unwarranted.
It only took 28 Days Later about 5 minutes to get the whole audience's undivided attention. For the remainder of the movie, which has numerous moments of quiet dialogue, you could hear the proverbial pin drop. I could end this review, now, because that's about the biggest compliment any movie can get and demonstrates the powerfulness of this scary, cautionary tale.
28 Days Later is a metaphorical examination of the human condition. Man's Darwinian Ancestors, chimpanzees, have been purposely infected with "Rage" as opposed to some exotic jungle virus. Both the chimpanzees, and the audience, are exposed to a visual record of man's atrocities. Transmission of the disease by contact with the blood of an infected person (and the lab worker's warning that it's in the blood) is a metaphor for the Hobbian view that man is inherently evil. In other words, "Rage" is man's natural state when not constrained by societal norms, regardless of social class or status. No one, even those in positions of power, is immune.
The breakdown in social order, following the "outbreak" of the disease, is a modern day representation of the "chaos of anomie, a term coined by [the sociologist] Durkhiem to describe the normative disintegration of a society".* Jim's lament that "there is always a government" speaks to man's need for social order and partly explains why he and his cohorts are drawn to the siren's call of the last Army brigade in England.
There are numerous other instances in the movie, especially at the Army base in Manchester, when the true nature of man is further explored. Some of the scariest moments in the movie occur at this location and its the mentality of the surviving humans, not the "Rage" of the infected, that make these scenes so chilling.
Take the sociology out of 28 Days Later and you are still left with a provocative, scary and entertaining story of survival. Director Boyle uses stark imagery, like the totally deserted streets of London and the burning of Manchester, to propel the story. There is simply no need for split screens and trick photography, used to excess in The Hulk, to alert the audience to the significance of various moments.
28 Days Later, unlike The Hulk, also gets all the details right including locked and alarmed cars (ironic considering the circumstances) and the use of Sony's 'Emergency Power Radio'.
28 Days Later and The Hulk (which opened the previous week) both tackle the subject of rage/anger. Comparing and contrasting the two films is probably the best example I can think of to demonstrate the differences between what constitutes quality film making and those lesser endeavors known as Hollywood blockbusters. There is simply no comparison between the two films and 28 Days exposes The Hulk for what it truly is, a juvenile, unsophisticated, un-entertaining waste of film (despite vain attempts by certain film critics to suggest otherwise).
The performances in 28 Days Later are all excellent and the characters are well written. Indeed, in a movie that is a full half hour shorter than The Hulk, the characters are not only well developed but actually mature and respond to the circumstances they find themselves in.
28 Days Later reminds us that those who unleash the forces of evil will one day themselves be consumed by its fury.
28 Days Later is the one film you should see during this summer of mediocre blockbusters and lame sequels.
*(A Primer in the Sociology of Crime - S. G. Shoham, J. Hoffman 1991)
Running time - 108 minutes
ALTERNATIVE REVIEWS:
Roger Ebert's Review
Private Joker's Review
Peter Travers / Rolling Stone
Roten Tomatoes Reviews
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12:06:29 PM 
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