 |
28 Weeks Later (Widescreen Edition) by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
DVD detailsActor: Amanda Walker, Catherine McCormack, Garfield Morgan, Robert Carlyle, Shahid Ahmed Director: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo Brand: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT DVD: Region Code 1 Audio: English (Original Language); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Dubbed); Spanish (Dubbed) Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, 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: Five stars for the strength of the metaphor Summary: 5 StarsSmall spoilers ahead:
On first watching, I, like many others, did not like this sequel as much as I liked the original, but by the next morning I had changed my mind. I like it even better after watching it again. The message here is a lot more insidious than the message of the first movie. It's harder to grasp, at first, but once you see it and start thinking about it, it just keeps finding its way back to the front of your head.
This movie is, from beginning to end, a heartbreaking treatise on how a father's failings destroy, first, his own family and then, as a consequence, his entire society. That's a powerful and (I think) controversial thought to put out there, but the movie handles it delicately and responsibly, weaving the father's flaws and best intentions into the most human zombie since Bub.
Robert Carlyle executes this role with subtlety and grace: his character's love for and abandonment of his wife, the lie he tells his children, the pain in his face even when he is completely out of control - all of these emotions are evident on his bloodstained face. Catherine McCormack is amazing in a far-too-small role as the wronged wife and mother whose compassionate choice leads to her death - more than once.
Yes, the dialogue is terse, and, yes, the plot is spare, but this is a poetic depiction of how a family disintegrates and takes down everything around it - and how society's efforts to change that - public housing, incarceration, state-sanctioned violence, and finally catastrophic military intervention - ultimately fail.
I guess it probably goes without saying that zombie movies are pretty misanthropic as a general rule, and 28 Weeks Later is no exception, but unlike most other movies in the genre, this one is balanced with a fairly sympathetic take on nearly all of the humans involved - not just a few heroic ones. Almost all of these characters are doing their best. And failing in spite of it.
DVD Review: Sequel is a different movie entirely Summary: 2 StarsThe premise behind the plot of 28 Weeks Later is great. However, implementation of that premise was terrible. I won't go into the plot--there are plenty of reviews you can read for that--I will go into the faults. There are several plot holes that are never filled: how did the boy live for so long, and how did he know there were people inside the house? How did the wife live? I understand the genetic abnormality--that part is cool--but how did she make it out alive at all, with a house full of ragies, when very capable men can't seem to avoid being eaten and torn to shreds? Why did the father retain some personality traits/memories when no other rage victim had before? How did the ragies get to the snipers? You get the idea.
The writer/directors ought to have developed the genetic abnormality a little more, created smoother transitions, and relied less on all out gore. Of course, these are just my opinions.
I'm glad I watched it once, but unhappy that I didn't just borrow it.
DVD Review: An example of how you ruin a good thing Summary: 2 StarsWhile I am not going to preach about how great the first movie was, I felt these sequel just messed up too much to be an enjoyable film. To keep it simple, i will just list the cons and pros of the film.
Pros:
1) The first 10 minutes were very cool, and set the movie up for an incredible story, unfortunately, they flopped it.
2) A couple scenes were cool, I enjoyed the helicopter scene, although that was just utter gorefest crap, that some people may feel takes away from the movie.
Cons:
1) They flopped it, the most interesting and dynamic characters got killed literally when the first zombie appears, and they throw out all character anything to start a mindless chase scene.
2) Breaking zombie lore. It is really bad when a squeal feels the need to break the zombie lore established in it's own movie. I am surprised noone has mentioned the fact that these zombies run around freely at daytime now. In 28 days, they avoided light and remained indoors during the daytime if they could help it, that is why the characters were so capable of moving around and you only saw infected indoors or in tunnels during the day. Every scene that had zombies outdoors occurred during sunset with the light fading. The other lore broken is the formation of the "intelligent zombie" that seemed to explicitly harass his loved ones and avoid the failsafes.
3) The sheer stupidity of it. So many things in this are just stupid, so stupid that it is unforgivable. For your convenience, I will list them now.
-The women in quarantine is left completely unguarded, even after they realized she was infected. A Janitor is given open access to her door with his card (a quarantined area for infected). The then infected janitor, apparently quarantined areas have no cameras, manages to open the door to let himself out of quarantine (quarantine, mind you) and kill several armed guards who are completely incapable of shooting and killing him.
-In response to this threat, the army shoves everyone into a single, dark, crowded room, cause naturally, placing everyone in a crowded room is the best thing to do when confronted with a highly contagious virus. A room, I might add with a back door that is unguarded and easily opened by a single infected.
-The army begins opening fire on everyone to kill the virus. So insanely, in fact, that they target and kill people that are obviously not infected. The best example, of course, is when they open fire on a moving car. Cause naturally, there could be a zombie driving that car? Maybe I can understand the napalm and poison to stop the threat, but shooting someone who shouts, "don't shoot I am not a zombie" in an area with no zombies present, without making any attempt to extract them is idiocy.
- Apparently, not only do legions of zombies managed to escape a quarantined area after a napalm raid, even though it only showed like 15 escaping, but they all have radar gps units in their heads even with all of London at their disposal and immediately run to the area the few surviving humans head to for pick up. Plus the "intelligent" zombie I mentioned earlier manages to track them perfectly, yet doesn't choose to attack at numerous opportunities.
- In the stadium tunnel, the stairway leading down is apparently pitch black, yet there is plenty of light at the bottom of the stairs for them to navigate once they fall down the stairs and wonder out about 10 feet from it. Plus, after falling down the stairs in a pitch black environment, whose impulse would be to calmly wonder away, not panic and run, but just meander away before the only person that can see has a chance to find you.
Alright, after that, maybe you can see why I chose the score I did. I will grant it a 2 simply because of the potential, that under better hands, could have made this movie a great experience. At the moment the first zombie appeared. I muttered quite loudly, "Oh my god, that is not the direction this movie is going". Yet it was, they just tossed away the plot and started running from crazed gps infected, the end.
DVD Review: Stinker Sequel to a Stinker Original Summary: 1 StarsI STILL don't get it! The original movie was bad enough; did we have to have more of the same? As much as I don't mind accents, I couldn't understand a word of what was being said unless it was the US troops speaking. I was also looking for some thread of a plot - no dice. The infected were about as scary as my Dachshund. I know that some folks think these two movies are cult classics like the Romero zombies, and to each his own. If there's a third one brewing, I hope it's "28 Years Later" when I hope to be dead and gone!
DVD Review: BEST HORROR MOVIE EVER!!! Summary: 5 StarsSure there are a lot of fantastic horror movies out there from the Exorcist in the 70's to The Ring in the 2000's. But in my opinion this one tops them all! Why? Because it will scare the hell out of you!!! What I look for in a horror movie is not the acting, although it's not bad at all here. It has to do with not being too cheesey (unless it's a cult classic like Evil Dead II), has to have decent effects, it has to make you become somewhat involved in the characters so you feel for them, & it has to make you feel like you need a hallway light on when you are walking to the bathroom afterward.
I thought 28 Days Later (the prequel) was a great movie. Original & realistic story that seems to be copied more & more these days (biological warfare wipes out much of the population & leaves survivors vs themselves or zombies). It introduced a new kind of zombie that was fast as hell & who could infect you with blood to blood or by mixing internal fluids with yours. And the victims turned INSTANTLY. When the survivalist couple in the first one runs into the main survivor (Cillian Murphy) in the convenient store & the guy gets infected, the black woman hacks him up without hesitation. Her only companion to that point! No time to think about it. That was freakin brutal!
And that's what 28 Weeks Later brings. A group of survivors is sitting around having a quiet dinner when a group of zombies assends upon thier cottage & all hell breaks loose. Literally! Crank up the surround sound & tell me you don't jump out of your chair & start sweating. And the movie NEVER lets up from there! Fantastic movie. Don't root for anyone because they probably won't make it through to the end. This movie is insane & the subway scene is one of the scariest in a movie just by how it makes you feel when you think about it. You're in the complete dark & you hear people screaming all around you. People are changing & killing each other left & right. You just want to survive, to get to the light alive. But there is fear & panic all around you. That's what this whole movie is about. And the best zombie dismemberment ever with the helicopter scene!
If you love horror movies, or if you liked the first movie, or you just want to see a great suspenseful movie, or even if your a scardey cat just daring yourself to get through a tough movie..THIS ONE IS FOR YOU! 28 Months Later is supposed to hit theaters in 2010 or so. Let's just hope the mayhem is as good as the first 2 in this series!
Description of 28 Weeks Later (Widescreen Edition)28 WEEKS LATER is sequel to the successful 28 Days Later. The film pick up six months after the Rage virus has spread throughout the city of London. The United States Army has restored order and is repopulating the quarantined city, when a carrier of the Rage virus enters London and unknowingly re-ignites the spread of the deadly infection, wreaking havoc on the entire population. The virus is not yet dead, and this time it's more dangerous than ever!! As an exercise in pure, unadulterated terror, 28 Weeks Later is a worthy follow-up to its acclaimed predecessor, 28 Days Later. In this ultraviolent sequel from Spanish director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (hired on the strength of his 2001 thriller Intacto), over six months have passed since the first film's apocalyptic vision of London overrun by infectious, plague-ridden zombies. Just when it seems the "rage virus" has been fully contained, and London is in the process of slowly recovering, an extremely unfortunate couple (Robert Carlyle, Catherine McCormack) is attacked by a small band of rampaging "ragers," and the cowardly husband escapes while his wife is attacked and presumably infected. Their surviving children (Imogen Poots, Mackintosh Muggleton) fall under the protection of a U.S. Army sharpshooter (Jeremy Renner), but nobody's safe for long as 28 Weeks Later goes into action-packed overdrive, with scene after blood-gushing scene of carnage and decimation. The film's visuals follow the look established in 28 Days Later, this time with bigger and better scenes of a nearly abandoned London on the brink of utter destruction. The military subplot gets a bold assist from Harold Perrineau (as a daring helicopter pilot) and Idris Elba (in a too-brief role as the military commander), and their firepower--not to mention the efficient lethality of helicopter blades--turns 28 Weeks Later into a nonstop bloodbath that's way too intense for younger viewers and guaranteed to leave hardcore horror fans gruesomely satisfied. That's all there is to it--this film is almost plotless and dialogue is minimal throughout--but as a truly terrifying vision of survival amidst chaos, 28 Weeks Later honors its origins and qualifies as a solid double-feature with Children of Men. Could there be another sequel? Thanks to the "chunnel," the answer in this case is definitely oui. --Jeff Shannon Beyond 28 Weeks Later  28 Weeks Later on Blu-Ray |  28 Days Later |  More from Fox |
Stills from 28 Weeks Later
|
 |