28 Days Later

A few animal activists break into a lab where there is research taking place on chimps and gorillas. While they are taking photos they are interrupted by a scientist. He tells them that the monkeys are infected with a rage virus that makes them 100% feral. One of the activists doesn't listen and opens on of the cages and she is bitten by a monkey. In a flash she goes bat shit crazy and the scientist kills her, but by then it's already too late.

28 days later, Jim (Cillian Murphy) is waking up. He's been in a coma for who knows how long after being hit by a car. He is also completely naked. Woo hoo full frontal male nudity! Now there's something you don't see everyday. He stumbles out of the hospital into the heart of London, but doesn't see anyone. Not knowing what's going on he makes his way into a church where there are dozens of bodies everywhere in either a body dump (but I don't think people a) had time to dump bodies or b) would choose a church as the first place to dump them) or a mass suicide. He also sees people eating the bodies.  As he runs out, chased by the infected, he is saved by Serena (Naomie Harris) and Mark (Noah Huntley). After they make it to safety they explain to him (and us) what is going on. Apparently a virus spread throughout the country that turns people into wild cannibals. It totally wiped out all of  England (and Wales and Scotland I'm guessing) in less than a month.

Jim insists on going to his parents' place, so they take him there to see that his parents killed themselves. That night they are attacked and Mark is bitten. Serena promptly kills him saying you only have fifteen to twenty seconds before the infection takes over. As Serena and Jim are heading back to their hideout they spot Christmas lights flashing. When they go and investigate they discover Frank (Brendan Gleeson) and his daughter Hanna (Megan Burns). Frank tells them about a radio broadcast that tells them of a military blockade that is set up outside of Manchester and I can't help but picturing the entire Man U team running through the streets completely infected, taking on the Man City team with a head as a soccer ball.

Um...anyway the four of the go but it turns out to be a bust and Frank gets infected. He is then killed by what is left of the military, eight soldiers. Serena, Hannah and Jim are taken to their base. Hey Christopher Eccleston is in this movie! Dude I love that guy.  Anyway Major Henry West (Eccleston) tells Jim how they are going to rebuild the human race. Jim takes that as a cue to get Serena and Hannah out of there, but he gets caught and is taken out to be executed with one of the soldiers who is opposed to the Major. The soldier is killed but Jim manages to get away. He makes it back to the blockade where he calls every single infected in the immediate area. While the soldiers are fighting off the infected, Jim goes back to save Serena and Hannah from the rest of the soldiers and the infected.

28 days later, Hannah, Serena and Jim are all living peacefully in a small rural cottage sewing a large HELLO sign to flag down a plane.

This movie was awesome. It wasn't that scary, actually it was scary at all. Which is a little disappointing. I was kind of hoping for a little terror. It was more psychological than anything else.  It was still great thought. The acting was fantastic, I love British actors, I don't know why but I find them to have so much more depth than North American actors, on the most part.

The plot was excellent, as was the script, and it flowed nicely. There were a few parts where the action dragged, but that's why the acting had to be spot on to move us through the slow scenes. If the actors hadn't been as good as they had been it would have been very slow. I wasn't really fond of the end of the movie. I didn't really like the soldiers, not only because they were jerks, but because they were kind of dumb. I mean they let themselves get taken out by some guy who just woke up from a coma.

The only other thing I have a problem with in this movie is at the beginning. I don't under stand the point of the research. Why were they making monkeys enraged? What were they studying? Why were they going about it in they way they were? I whish they had explained that instead of it being just a random experiment gone wrong, which happened in almost every single horror movie.  Besides those somewhat small points in the scheme of things, the movie was excellent.

Grade: 8/10