28 Days Later
28 Days Later (60 days later @ 3am)
it's 3am...
I saw this movie a couple months ago...
you ready to rock...!?
no?
good. because it's 3am, and I just watched sports night. rocking is of very little concern to me.
So there's a virus, and some stupid three year-olds: nerdy guy goes "no, don't touch that!" other guy goes "what? this?" (touches). Wham. The story begins... well, the story actually begins 28 Days Later... or does it? I'd say the story began a millenia ago, back when we beat each other with bones in a feeble attempt to surface some internal desire for dominance...
heck, I'd probably say that 28 Days Later was about bunnies if it was 4am... but it's 3am, so it's about manifestation of monsters.
Oh, I was summarizing the plot. There's a base level suspension of disbelief, as in all sci-fi, and personally I took this one as not a huge leap. Ok, so the virus with those specific attributes is improbable, but who cares? It's a plot device that is introduced, and then put to good use. The "not-so-memorably-named" virus turns people into zombies. A man awakes 28 Days (get it?) after the initial outbreak to a hollow city, devoid of life, but full of hungry cannibals.... Dun dun Duun.
Ok, so it's 4am now, so I'm going to tell you about the bunnies. See, we all are looking for the happiness we found as kids in the carefree womb. The pain and inevitable manifestations of the outside world's corruption are at the heart of 28 Days Later. It constantly reminds the main character of the following fact: you can't go back to that initial state of pure happiness. All the characters are just bunnies, hopping down the interstate of life, hoping not to get sqooshed by the sudden onslaught of rushhour traffic known as "not-so-memorably-named" virus. Rage? was that it? dunno. bunnies, that's the key.
This is supposed to be a review, I think.
So, perhaps some would want me to crush this movie for some reason. And I will, starting now.... Wait wait! That priest doing the spastic hand-flinging like a ninja on speed was cool. And the sudden shift from mystery, to horror, to action, then to character study, that was good. Wait, I actually liked this movie, even if I wish I had seen it 28 Days Ago, so I could have another piddling joke.
As I said a few lines back, this movie is a mishmash of genre's, which I liked a lot. Maybe I liked it because the end result was a psychologic study rather than a derivative action movie, but I liked it nonetheless. Perhaps it was because the horror conventions were used, but not the central driving horror premise, which is a clausterphobic fear of impending death. These people have a world of danger to explore, but their fear rests right next to their loneliness. There's a scene of horses running happily, so this can't be another Scream sequel, or a new Leprechaun movie. It is what it is.
I went into this movie with an unnaturally sparse knowledge of it. I didn't know it was directed by Danny Boyle (trainspotting), which is something I normally know before seeing a movie if just for giggles and the other thing. Really, all I knew was that it was a zombie flick. And since I'm a Romero-virgin, the only other one I'd seen was Resident Evil, so I was definitely expecting something different, even if I had no clue.
That was a random note.
The acting was all solid. Perhaps the bad guys were a little too "bad" for my chi, but that's alright. Each person uses their screen time well, which is nice. Ok, perhaps the main actor (insert name here) was a bit dry, but that's overlookable.
You know what? I thought the scene at his parent's house was cool. It was unexpected, which I really liked.
Maybe that's all this movie is to me, an interesting psych study with a few convention-defying elements which make it worthwhile.
Oh I have a gripe, though. The car... in the tunnel... yeah, I didn't see a flubber sticker on the side, or Fred MacMurray* behind the driver's wheel, so it shouldn't have done that. oh, and the * means the following: (* = for the kids: "Eddie Murphy"). If the rest of the movie hadn't been as good, I'd have probably choked on that point. It was just so stupid... Oh, got a flat tire? Well that shouldn't matter in a flying car.
.... 61 Days Later .....
So let me boil down things at this point. The movie held my interest for the whole time, even if I was not blown away. There were bits I liked more than others, but none I hated (save the aforementioned harry potter outtake). The twists were enjoyable, and the characters were worthwhile.
As you can tell, I don't have much else to say. 28 Days Later was a solid movie, which is interesting, because it only cost about $8 million to make. For a modern hollywood that averages 60 million bucks per diem to make a bunch of crappy movies, this is a spit in the face. A lovely, well-needed spit in the face, from the british nonetheless, meaning it came from a mouth even less wellkept than normal (joke, funny. laugh, don't hit me).But, the truth is that audiences love the boom boom, or so most hollywood bigwigs love to tell themselves.
This movie is enjoyable for many reasons, so I feel no reservation about saying give it a watch if you're in the mood for a good little thinking actioneer. oh, and there's a boom or two, but don't mind that. Perhaps a viewing on the small screen would be preferable though, because it was shot on grainy digital, but whatever.
I give it 3 out of 4.
so, like PPV, I am seemingly on demand. is that a good thing? I don't know.... is it? I don't do laundry. Maybe I should, cause I really don't have a day job to quit. Perhaps I need one, even if just to quit it to spite any naysayers. or neegh-sayers. it's 4:22am now. late. |
