28 Weeks Later (Widescreen Edition)
List Price:
Our Price: $6.46
You Save: $8.52 (57%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $1.35 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD details
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD details
Actor: Amanda Walker, Catherine McCormack, Garfield Morgan, Robert Carlyle, Shahid AhmedBrand: Fox
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language); French (Dubbed); Spanish (Dubbed)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 100 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-10-09
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
DVD Reviews of 28 Weeks Later (Widescreen Edition)
DVD Review: A sequel which equals and at times surpasses the original
Summary: 5 Stars
Danny Boyle and Alex Garland's film was done in such a way that a sequel was almost bound to fail. Their film was a horror movie alright, but it was really an exercise in experimental filmmaking. Any film that was to follow it up will have to contend with the cool factor of not just a twist on the zombie theme (even they are not zombies) but the choice in music and look of the film. All I can say is that 28 Weeks Later doesn't disappoint and even surpasses the original film in certain aspects.
Spanish director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo does a great job of trying to stick to the premise begun by Boyle and Garland in 28 Days Later and adding his own signature to the sequel. The film begins with a scene which encapsulates what someone who never saw the original film needs to know about what to expect with this one. We're introduced to Don (played by a gaunt and quite haunted Robert Carlyle) and Alice (Catherine McCormack) trying to survive with several others at their English countryside cottage just outside London during the first couple weeks of the Rage-virus outbreak. This prologue shows just how tenuous any form of safe haven can be once sentimentality overrides the primal instinct for self-preservation. Don is given a choice of choosing sentimentality to try and save someone he cares about and maybe die in the process or follow the basic need for self-preservation in time of extreme danger and distress. Don picks the latter and we're shown how horrible his choice was but at the same time how plausible a decision it was when put into context. If we were put in a similar situation could we honestly say that we wouldn't had made the same choice which Don took. The scene with Don running across the open field with dozens upon dozens of Rage-infected people chasing after him was quite chilling.
The movie goes through an introductory credit sequence explaining the timeline since Don's escape from the cottage. We're told that the British Isles was quickly quarantined once authorities saw how futile it was to try and save it from the ravages of Rage in the first couple weeks. Following-up on the final scenes in the original film, we know now that those infected by Rage would soon die out due to starvation and that 28 weeks after the first sign of outbreak the world outside of the British Isles have decided that it was now time to clean out the last vestiges of Rage-infected victims who haven't starved to death and begin reconstruction and repopulation of the country. The U.S.-led NATO force in charge of this monumental project is led by U.S. Army general Stone (The Wire's excellent Idris Elba) and have cordoned off a safe sanctuary in London's Isle of Dogs where British citizens who escaped the initial outbreak or were outside the Islands when it began would be housed in while London was slowly sanitized.
This is where Don has been sent and given a job as a manager helping with getting London back on its feet. We're shown the arrival of Don's two children who were safely abroad in Spain when the outbreak first hit England. Their reunion is heartfelt though bittersweet as Don must answer his children's questions about what happened to their mother. Let's just say that Don's explanation is not exactly accurate. The Tammy and Andy (played by newcomers Imogen Poot and Mackintosh Muggleton) take his answers at face value but still end up sneaking out of the protected Green Zone to get to their old cottage to pick-up some items of sentimental value. This is the only part of the movie which seemed implausible and made me realize that once again a horror movie ended up with some characters doing dumb things that would lead to nothing but death and destruction. What the two kids find once they get to the cottage marks the beginning of re-infection and the extreme policies enacted by the military to contain the problem. But containment doesn't hold and soon enough a Code Red order is given to all military personnel.
It is once the Code Red is given that most filmgoers will see the allegorical similarities of U.S. policies and tactics in their War against Terror, especially in Iraq. While I do not prescribe to this notion, Frescadillo handled the situation well. I say I do not prescribe to the notion that the second-half of the movie is a direct condemnation of U.S. war against terror and occupation of Iraq, because it's a theme in apocalyptic movies that's been used before there was a war on terror. It is in this second-half where 28 Weeks Later reminded me a lot of George A. Romero's underappreciated horror film, The Crazies. Just like in that film, the military in 28 Weeks Later don't seem to be heartless about their reaction to the new outbreak and break of containment. Instead their overreaction to the whole deteriorating situation looks to be born more out of desperation and an inability to comprehend the best and most humane way to combat the crisis. As it's always mentioned in other forms of fiction, the military is a blunt instrument and never a subtle one. The Rage infection and those infected seem to only be stopped when using the most blunt procedures and tactics, but such ways also have a tendency to cause much collateral damage to the innocent.
28 Weeks Later is much more epic in scope that 28 Days Later and it is in that which it surpasses the original film. While the first film is more the lives of two disparating groups of survivors and how both groups attempts to survive shows how quickly one could fall from civilized behavior while another continues to hold on to it, the sequel shows that in the end even people with the best of intentions will succumb to the basic instinct of survival with any means necessary. The established shots of London overhead and down on the ground empty and lifeless really brings the apocalyptic nature of the movie with the force of a sledgehammer. These scenes followed up with the firebombing of Canary Wharf really highlights just how much more grimmer and nihilistic in tone and scope Fresnadillo's sequel over Boyle's more hopeful one. It is quite a surprise that its the actions of the youngest and most innocent (as children are usually protrayed in horror movies) which causes a new cycle of outbreak and ultimately the fall of the attempt to bring normalcy back to the British Isles.
I would say that --- even though the movie doesn't really involve zombies but zombie-like people --- 28 Weeks Later actually resembles George A. Romero's Living Dead films more than Boyle's 28 Days Later. While Boyle's film took some of its basic themes from Romero's work, he still didn't go far enough. Fresnadillo took the theme of humanity being more dangerous than the Rage-infected ones during the original film's third act and expands on it with 28 Weeks Later. There's a deep sense of pessimism and cutthroat survival instincts inherent in the film's themes. The only form of humanity to be seen actually comes from the same Americans whose attempts of reconstruction ends up an exercise in total annihilation of the problem even if it includes the innocent being destroyed in the process.
As a sequel to 28 Days Later, Fresnadillo's film shared some stylistic and thematic qualities with the original film, but ends up becoming a wholly independent work (one could watch this sequel without having seen the original and still understand what was going on). Where the original film only touches the surface of the Rage virus doomsday effect on the British Isles and its population, 28 Weeks Later ceases that basic notion and gives the viewer a first-hand look at its aftermath and, later on, how it looks when an outbreak occurs in an area packed with survivors. For a fan of Romero's classic zombie epics I do prefer Fresnadillo's work and the look of his film over the original one, but he does sacrifice some level of characterization to keep the film's tone and frenetic pacing in the latter-half from being bogged down. The film ends on a really downbeat note even as survivors make it to safety. This film really becomes an exercise in nihilism more than what Danny Boyle and Alex Garland were willing to do with the original film.
In the end, 28 Weeks Later brings over enough of what made the first film such a cult, and later on, a mainstream horror success to be considered a sequel that matches the first one in quality, and at times even surpasses the original in certain aspects. The acting is actually very good despite some characters not being fleshed-out more thoroughly, but I find this understandable to keep the frantic pace of the film from start to finish from being slowed down. For fans of the first film I don't think this sequel will be a disappointment. It may not reach the same creative heights for some fans but it surely won't ruin the experience of having seen the original. The film also introduces a new face to the genre world with the excellent work turned in by Spanish director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. In addition to Alexandre Aja from France and now Fresnadillo, the world of horror is getting a nice infusion of young talent.
Description of 28 Weeks Later (Widescreen Edition)
28 WEEKS LATER - DVD MovieBestsellers in DVD
![The Story of Jeremiah [VHS] Image](/images/noimg.gif)
The Story of Jeremiah [VHS]Vision Video; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Wresting With God [VHS]by Vision Video
Vision Video; Published: 1990-10-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
Study Bible Video with Workbook [VHS]Spring Arbor Distributors; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops:
Tempo:Childrens TV Favourites Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $9.17
Price in other shops:
Tempo.Herbs:Parseley'Sb/ Party Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
![Strike the Original Match [VHS] Image](/images/Strike-the-Original-Match-VHS-0001374079-X.jpg)
Strike the Original Match [VHS]New Liberty Films; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
![Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS] Image](/images/Medjugorje-The-Miracles-and-the-Message-VHS-0001373293-X.jpg)
Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS]JPN Film Production; Release date: 1995-12-15; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.99
Mayo Clinic Echocardiography Review Course for Boards and Recertification DVD 2008by Mayo
DVD
Price in other shops:
Pediatric Diagnostic Imaging DVD: Single Userby Oakstone
DVD
Price in other shops:
Cost Accounting [VHS]by Charles T. Horngren, George Foster, Srikant M. Datar, Howard Teall
Pearson Canada, Toronto; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs
The Descent (Original Unrated Widescreen Edition)Lions Gate; Release date: 2006-12-26; DVD
Best price: $5.09
Price in other shops:
2012 Zombie ApocalypseRelease date: 2011-12-27; DVD
Best price: $7.49
Price in other shops:
NEW Stake Land (DVD)DVD
Best price: $13.35
George A. Romero's Diary of the DeadWellspring Media INC; Release date: 2008-05-20; DVD
Best price: $3.34
Price in other shops:
Shaun of the DeadUni; Release date: 2004-12-21; DVD
Best price: $4.83
Price in other shops:
30 Days of NightSony; Release date: 2008-02-26; Published: 2008-02-01; DVD
Best price: $3.38
Price in other shops:
Dawn of the Dead - Unrated Director's CutRelease date: 2009-05-15; Amazon Instant Video; Movie
Best price: $2.99
Dawn of the Dead (Widescreen Unrated Director's Cut)POLLEY,SARAH; Release date: 2004-10-26; DVD
Best price: $2.93
Price in other shops:
28 Days Later (Widescreen Edition)TCFHE; Release date: 2003-10-21; DVD
Best price: $6.17
Price in other shops: