Panic on the Streets of London (28 Days Later (DVD))

Member Name: Hunting_Bears

Product:	28 Days Later (DVD)
Date:	30/05/03 (288 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: good directing, cinematography

Disadvantages: crap script

I saw Danny Boyle, Alex Garland, Andrew McDonald, Cillian Murphy, Niaome Harris and Chris Gill (editor) give a talk on '28 Days Later' at the Cornerhouse in Manchester. It was an entertaining evening, the audience was given a brief introduction by Danny Boyle followed by the film and then a Q&A session with director, producer, writer, editor and stars.

'28 Days Later' is a post-apocalyptic pretentious zombie film that can't seem to admit it's a B-movie with first rate direction courtesy of Boyle and his cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle. Danny Boyle thinks he has made a film that deals with rage, post-millennium paranoia and the hazards of bioengineering. The film really is quite daft and I would have liked it the film to be honest with the material. George A. Romero made the ultimate zombie films with 'Night of the Living Dead', 'Dawn of the Dead' and the rubbish 'Day of the Dead'. So any attempt at a zombie film will always pale in comparison unless the director is a genius.

'28 Days Later' borrows heavily from Romero but the film is missing the cruel sense of irony that is apparent in Romero's classic chillers. In fact '28 Days Later' is a complete and utter rip-off of 'The Crazies' which is also directed by Romero. In 'The Crazies' a bio-accident leaves a town infected with a virus that turns normal townsfolk into homicidal maniacs which what happens in '28 Days Later'. Alex Garland said at the Q&A that his inspiration came from the idea of 'What if zombies could run?' When in reality he just stole off Romero because let's face it, Garland is hardly a great screenwriter, this is his woeful first attempt and maybe he should stick to writing novels.

Danny Boyle is a great director but the material just isn't up to snuff. The idea of a British zombie movie made me excited indeed but the end result is just utter p
ants. There is nothing wrong at all in the way it is filmed but the script is piss poor.

'28 Days Later' starts with Jim (Cillian Murphy) waking up in hospital, everywhere is deserted and he wanders around London (an impressive opening sequence of an empty London) and he bumps into a couple of so-called zombies. He then meets Niaome Harris (a truly awful actress) and they meet Frank (Brendan Gleeson, always excellent) and his daughter. They travel up North on a motorway with no traffic to see Manchester burning to the ground (a good in-joke because Alex Garland studied at Manchester University and Danny Boyle is from Manchester). The gang then meets up with Christopher Eccleston (a great performance) and his small group of soldiers. Things turn nasty and I will tell no more because I do not wish to spoil the narrative.


The film was shot on DV and this offered Boyle the chance to shoot tonnes of footage but without the high cost. In the Q&A session he told us, the audience, how he filmed the opening sequence that involves Jim wandering around London. He basically had around a hundred cameras filming from every angle because closing off London (a capital city) was not only expensive but impractical to the demands of commuters and the running of a city. This impressed me greatly and it shows that Danny Boyle has a good cinematic eye. Credit should also be given to Anthony Dod Mantle (famous for his groundbreaking work on various Dogme 95 films such as 'Festen' and 'The Idiots').


The acting in '28 Days Later' is very mixed. Cillian Murphy is good, Brendan Gleeson is very good and Christopher Eccleston is one of Britain's greatest actors. The crap performances come from the two females Niaome Harris and Megan Burns (listen to her Geordie-London accent it's plain bizarre). The stars of the film are 'The Infected', raging lunatics with blood-red eyes, not really zomb
ies but vicious mad people who love to kill. The film does share traits with the zombie genre, the collapse of society, large hordes of killing machines and a small band of survivors making their way through a decaying world.
In the film the disease is spread through animal bites and this is quite interesting with the current SARS virus which leapt from animals to humans, but instead of turning the infected host into a homicidal maniac the person is given a heavy bout of super-influenza.

In some aspects I am glad Danny Boyle and Andrew McDonald (the producer) came back to England and made a small budget (10 million) horror film because it shows how well a commercial orientated film can bring in British audiences. So can us Brit's make horror films? Of course we can, we just need more talented people like Danny Boyle to make commercial films in England. 'Dog Soldiers' was utter crap but at least it found an audience with British cinema-goers. Horror could be coming back in a big way but we need talented people behind the creative process (Alex Garland excluded).

'28 Days Later' is a valiant effort I just wish it were a good all-round film. Watch it by all means but do not expect 'Dawn of the Dead' which it so wants to be.


INFORMATION

Cast

Cillian Murphy
Brendan Gleeson
Megan Burns
Niaome Harris
Christopher Eccleston

Directed by Danny Boyle
Written by Alex Garland
Producer Andrew McDonald


Running Time: 1 hr 48 mins


DVD EXTRAS

Audio Commentary by Danny Boyle and Alex Garland (interesting but Garland is a bit of an arrogant sod)

Deleted Scenes (good sequences for a DVD with them actually being good).

Radical Storyboard Ending (Superb the entire last quarter of the film is totally different, I wish they had shot it)

Making of 28 Days Later (poor effort)

Animated Menu&#

39;s (good)

Trailers (good)


Overall the extras make the DVD well worth purchasing besides the film's weaknesses.

Summary: