Talk us through itDon and his missus are holed up with a group of survivors in an isolated farmhouse somewhere in Britain. You seeing the similarities to the ending of the first movie, Fesnadillo is at pains to point this out. Anywise while everyone is sitting down to dinner there's a knock at the door, and I'm betting it's not Postman Pat and his freaking black and white cat. Don lets in a young kid who has also somehow survived the zombie hordes. Bad move as it attracts the attention of the not quite undead who proceed to really impose themselves on supper time. Hey guess what's on the menu. Don manages to escape while everyone else is apparently massacred including his wife who he could have helped. Leap forward a few weeks and the zombie plague is over cause the pseudo undead have carked it due to starvation, a point Romero continues to miss. Don is now head honcho on an Island compound the U.S military are using to stage a re-occupation of England. While head dude in terms of being a maintenance engineer the Yanks are running the show. His kids show up from their summer holidays in Spain and he spins some BS about what happened to their mum. Kids being kids and all they sneak off the Island and head back to their former house to score some personal belongings. At the house they discover good old mom who has somehow survived the farmhouse that dripped blood. And if you think this can't be a good development then you are dead right. Unfortunately for family re-union time the U.S military have been tracking the kids and make an appearance. Army hot shot medic Scarlet quickly deduces mom is carrying the rage virus but is somehow immune to it, but you really want to watch out for blood and saliva. Well one thing leads to another and Don quickly gets infected and the rage plague is on again. Scarlet, the kids (Tammy and Andy), along with army sniper with a conscious Doyle are soon on the run with a number of disposable cast members. Dogging their steps are not only the zombie rage victims but the U.S military that has decided to exterminate anything that moves in an attempt to contain the virus. An often times engrossing movie ensues. Lets go and napalm this one ...
Review“You said you saw mum die!” - TammySlight detour before we hit this one over the head with a mallet. Is 28 Weeks Later a zombie movie? A lot of people are spending a lot of bytes arguing that it isn't cause the undead aren't actually resurrected dead in either this movie or the first one. We can excuse their post Romero loving arses but they are completely wrong. Yes this flick is a zombie flick, since when did zombies have to be in fact dead? Originally they were conceived as victims of diabolical voodoo practices, see pre-1960s classics in the sub genre White Zombie, Revolt of the Zombies, and of course the all time classic I Walked With a Zombie amongst others. Different Directors and writers took different approaches to the whole zombification process, Romero simply added his ideas into the pot and gave it one hell of a big stir. Chuck MacKenzie has coined the term "trad-zom" for traditional voodoo induced zombies we may need a new term for the virus infected fast movers amongst the zom hordes. Food for thought, write in with your term if you like. Okay enough of these back to the meat and three veg. 28 Weeks later is another one of those movies where you can put everything down to one or more characters making a big mistake; this time it's the Hanson wannabe kids who directly lead to the deaths of 20,000 or so people (assuming a reasonable U.S military presence to control the 15k refugees). If they hadn't of snuck off none of this would have happened, this goes way beyond grounding for a couple of weekends in my opinion. Just wanted to point that out and also hint at why I really didn't give a toss about any of the characters in this movie. Fresnadillo singularly fails to do anything remotely two dimensional with his characters and you really are left shaking your head at how so many people can make so many bad decisions over the course of a single movie. 28 Weeks Later is the sequel to Danny Boyle's cult hit 28 Days Later and naturally it sucks donkey balls in comparison to the original movie. Let's tear it limb from limb. You get the feeling through the course of 28 Weeks that Director Fresnadillo is trying to go all art house on your arse, and you also get the feeling that the Spanish Director has absolutely no bloody idea of what he's doing with the movie. The film starts with good intentions and a firm sub plot about vision. Yes that's right, what you see, and no I had no idea where Fresnadillo was going with this either to be totally truthful. Right from the scene of Don's wife looking imploringly at him from an upstairs farm house window, through various U.S snipers positioned high on buildings in the “green zone”, to the surveillance equipment being used, everything is about what you the audience, or various characters can see. The U.S General in charge of the whole shebang simply watches things develop on various monitors in his bunker. Then of course when things go to hell in a rage filled basket it's about blindness. As soon as Don gets infected he takes out his wife's eyes, the U.S General is effectively blinded when his monitors go off line (leading effectively to complete loss of control), and of course that subway scene which is filmed all Descent like with the only vision being through a night scope, the scene of course does end with characters heading towards the light and supposed salvation. While nodding in approval over the plot device I have absolutely zero idea what Fresnadillo was doing with it. It doesn't really impact or have any underlying reason. Authority blind to the situation perhaps? I'm blaming Children of Men for the modern uptake of the almost documentary approach to filming action scenes with hand helds. Alfonso Cuarón has almost single handily forced this heist of production standards on the now suffering cinema audiences. Fresnadillo goes all out with it and adds in some post MTV rapid cutting to ensure we have no idea of what's happening and to also make us wonder if we shouldn't have a bucket next to the sofa. And don't get me started on the CGI dripping helicopter scene, yes the teens probably thought it was cool but have seen it before, notably by the good application of a combine harvester. The Director here really proves he can't do action and I remain convinced he shouldn't bother in the future. No doubt a lot of Critics will be applauding the inherent political satire 28 Weeks presents us with, I wasn't, the sound you were hearing during the course of the movie was my head being repeatedly banged against my desk. Heavy handed doesn't even begin to describe it. Yes the U.S military are pretty gung ho and use maximum force when things start to go pear shaped, signed on board, got the message. Except this is a rage outbreak, you know imminent destruction of human civilization etc, “code red” seemed a reasonable response in my humble opinion. But feel free to shake your fist at U.S military empiralism, it's what the Director wants you to do after all. 
So you may be wondering why I gave this movie an 8 out of 10 considering to date I haven't said anything nice about Fresnadillo's sequel. Well it's because this movie is a horror flick, and as a horror flick it's working like a brought one. In fact I would go so far as to state 28 Weeks may be one of the best horror flicks of 2007, jury still out as there's a few more to come. Fresnadillo has his scare tactics out in the open and rocks the house down with them. Don running across a field with a whole bunch of zombies on his tail, I was up and screaming run dude run. Don's missus tied to a hospital table while the big fella succumbs to the virus, freaking chilling. A whole bunch of people locked in a room with the virus breaking out, please calmly walk to the exits, to hell with that I would have been running over the top of people to get out of that black hole. And the cherry on top, the fore mentioned subway scene that winked broadly at Marshall's The Descent, new undies time friends and neighbors. Finally an actual horror movie that decided it should try to send the chills up my spine rather than grossing me out, sign me on board that freight train! Where as Danny Boyle ended the first movie on a note of hope Fresnadillo goes nihilistic with his concluding scene, no one is getting out of this one intact. Interpret the final helicopter cut scenes how ever you want. There's a couple of parts of the whole horror smack down here that could be interpreted as plot holes or at least over indulgence by the Director. Zombie Don tracking the kids through a desolate London, did I mention Fresnadillo is on fire with his panoramic vision of post apocalyptic London? The almost zombies are attracted to the non-infected, lack of viable victims, hence Don and cohorts following our small band of survivors. Director has you covered. The almost sugar sweet use of the Eiffel tower to show the virus is breaking out in continental Europe, sorry you or I might have figured this out due to the helicopter leaving England via the white cliffs of Dover, but a lot of people wouldn't. Robert Carlyle (Don) is always a welcome addition to any cast and with his performance in 28 Weeks we can see why. The dude is on top of his game here. Note also Rob goes from being the nominal flawed hero to the blood thirsty antagonist in a surprise twist, Carlyle handles both aspects of his character like the pro he is. Catherine McCormack (Alice) had what turned out to be a minor role in the face of her billing, but that role is crucial to the movie and McCormack owns it. Rose Byrne (Scarlet) emotes all over the place and you are really hoping she'll make the final credits. Imogen Poots (Tammy) and Mackintosh Muggleton (Andy) get to pout a lot, wasn't buying their performance. And Jeremy Renner (Doyle) was doing the business as the tough army dude. T&A is on the low side, a quick boob flash but given the circumstances not a Kleenex moment. John Murphey handed in the score for the original movie and pretty much reprises that score here with some added edge to it. Good stuff and was working for the visuals.
Summary ExecutionYes I know the movie was flawed, and yes I know the Director lost it in places, but I still had a fun time with 28 Weeks Later. Had the feeling the movie was being slightly pretentious in places but who the flock cares it's got that zombie vibe going down and at least goes with scare tactics rather than trying to bludgeon the audience over the head with gore for gore's sake. Noted a couple of rips from other movies, the mentioned The Descent inspired scene, but also slightly too Land of the Dead in terms of the Island for my comfort zone. End of day the horror genre self references itself to hell and back so no foul called. 28 Days Later is still the better movie in my opinion, this movie sucks in comparison, but was happy enough with what this sequel had to offer. 28 Weeks Later pretty much can be viewed as a stand alone, and that's what I based my rating on rather than an out and out comparison to the original. Fresnadillo delivered to my horror loving arse, and that was the only thing I was after.28 Weeks Later managed $28.6 million in North America, while Australia pretty much tracked in a similar vein (teehehehe) with a rounded $2.5 (AUD). Total in all markets was a disappointing $62.7. Fox Atomic distributed so no doubt are happy with the results, though horror fans would have expected something better box office wise. On the trivia front Danny Boyle directed some of the second unit filming. Full recommendation on 28 Weeks Later to horror movie fans who like a bit of chill to spice up their cinematic requirements. General movie watchers need not apply as the movie is pretty much flawed from a purely artistic sense. If after a horror movie that tries to scare you then 28 Weeks is the business, go take a bite out of it.
ScaryMinds Rates this movie as ... Decent enough sequel for horror fans to latch onto.
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