Went to see 28 DAYS LATER this afternoon and was basically disappointed. I enjoyed the premise, but it seemed to break down and attempt to do things too quickly. I thought it was a little too "artsy" in its execution and really didn't like the way the action scenes were done.
In a way, the premise is the problem--we only see the aftermath of the plague, not the chaos or the breakdown in society. There were a few things that I found hard to believe--how could the hero have been able to survive in a coma in the hospital? Wouldn't it stand to reason that the hospitals be one of the more dangerous places to be? Perhaps not, since the infection occurs in a matter of seconds, but he seemed rather vulnerable at the beginning of the film.
I thought the actress who played Hannah the young girl was terrible, especially in the scene where her father dies.
There are a few good scenes here and there [I like the one where they see Manchester in flames], but I think I would have rather waited for video.
have you noticed on the commercial that theres this one part where this guy is shaking around and he goes "stay away from me!!!!"
doesnt he sound like Louis Black, the guy on the Daily show? I think so
I liked it, anyone know about the alternate ending though?
There is an alternate ending to this ?!
I kinda had a feeling about that,since the happy ending seems to have been forcefully tacked on by the studio(Fox),in terms of making a sequel,and keeping the mainstream kids in the audience happy.
Otherwise,it was a splendid movie,which used its grainy digital camcorder filming to its full advantage,with the first half being scary,skin crawling,and heavily realistic,and the second half deteriorating into a "Day Of The Dead" retread,but still---a really splendid movie for all to see.
Alternate ending, Huh? Not suprised. A Euro ending, and a Yank ending. Sounds typical.
Yes ..when the film was pre-screened, the audience seemed to think that the ending was too dark so they re-filmed a happier ending.
That doesn't surprise me either.....my ending would have had them being bombed by the plane.
Flangepart wrote:
> Alternate ending, Huh? Not suprised. A Euro ending, and a Yank
> ending. Sounds typical.
>
Not the case. Alex Garland's script was far more traditional horror, but Boyle did not feel comfortable with those elements (so they were cut). He did shoot the original ending as a courtesy to his writer friend, but both argeed Boyle's vision was the better one. So the ending was changed to reflect Boyle's vision.
I'm trying to get and see it ASAP.
One thing that I did like was the whole concept of the infected, the way they move, etc. Too bad they aren't that heavily featured other than the first quarter of the film and the climax.
This is the 2nd best movie of its kind I have ever seen . . . with NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD being #1.
Yes, I think it is better than DAWN OF THE DEAD.
Yes, I think it is better than THE OMEGA MAN.
Yes, I think it is better than THE LAST MAN ON EARTH.
Yes, I think it is better than RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD.
I wish the ending had not been so "uplifting." But it was a fun ride getting there.
2 thumbs up! If I had 4 thumbs, I'd give it 4 thumbs up.
Agreed...only I think RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD owns this, just for The Tarman...and the punks. Gotta love the punks.
I don't see why people find fault in this movie at all. In the beginning in the hospital, his door was locked. That KINDA explains why the Infected didn't get to him during his coma. All parts of the movie without the Infected directly there were character studies, and yes, although the part at the makeshift military base did feel very DAY OF THE DEAD (as I told my friend Petone, it's like Boyle took DAWN OF THE DEAD and DAY OF THE DEAD and made it one), it had a nice twist with the General promising his soldiers women, and Jim's reaction to that. I, too, wish that the Infected were featured more during the military section.
I give this film 4 Tarman's out of a possible 5. Classic movie, horror or otherwise.
Very solid piece of work, one the better, if not best, of its kind. Just what I was looking forward to seeing this summer.
Well you could always give it 2 thumbs and 2 big toes up!
haha!
It just doesn't seem to go for the throat the way the first two DEAD films did. Had it done that, I could have lived with the DAY OF THE DEAD similarities--actually, as far as comparisons go, I prefer the last part of 28 DAYS LATER to DAY OF THE DEAD.
DAWN OF THE DEAD has its problems, but I would say it's better than this. Bravo for the OMEGA MAN comparison, I think it fits better than the first two DEAD flims.
jmc wrote:
> DAWN OF THE DEAD has its problems, but I would say it's better
> than this. Bravo for the OMEGA MAN comparison, I think it fits
> better than the first two DEAD flims.
I view DAWN OF THE DEAD as more of an over-the-top, social satire than a horror film. I find it to be gory, but not very scary. I think it is a great movie, but it isn't very chilling.
28 DAYS LATER works better for me as a horror film. It is bleak and full of despair and doesn't turn to slapstick, pie-in-the-face humor like DAWN OF THE DEAD. I love movies that ooze with hopelessness. I just wish that 28 DAYS LATER hadn't chickened out at the end.
If they had just rolled the credits after Hannah rammed the gate, perhaps?
I was expecting that, actually. Thought it would've been really cool had all of them died while trying to escape. And then maybe show the Infected feasting on the remains of Jim, Hannah, and Selena.
However, I know some people think that the plane at the end should have bombed Jim, Hannah, and Selena. I think that would've been too RETURN, though.
The Infected didn't eat people, just tore them to shreads. But I remember the original scripted ending being something along the lines of a mass attack on the house by the Infected. Boyle did film it, but it didn't work very well. Or so everybody thought at the time.
The ending didn't bother me too badly, nice to see something happy for a change.
Just imagine MY surprise when I went to see this movie.
I thought it was going to be about a woman who missed her period . . .
I saw this movie on DVD in England a few weeks ago and for all those curious about the deleted/alernate ending, here it is:
* The main character gets shot and the end by the Army captain, but instead of a 5 second montage of them somehow saving him in a hospital, it's a whole new scene. The wheel him in on a gurney, patch his wounds, give him an electric shock to the heart, but he dies. The last image is of the black woman and the girl, guns in hand, walking away from frame down a long hospital hallway. The doors of the operating room slowly close from the the left and right of the frame until the screen is black. The End.
Not the best ending either, IMHO, but then again, much better to be ambiguous in this type of film, then the happy-happy "we survived the apocalypse" ending they have now.
I just remembered a couple of deleted scenes from the DVD.
1. A really bad (and thankfully deleted) "comical" interlude during the taxi ride to Manchester, where everyone takes turns being the driver and pretending to be a "cabbie". Utter crap.
2. A cool "untreated" scene of motorway carnage. (You can still see real cars driving in the distance that haven't been digitally removed.) The idea being, that all the bridges and roads out of London are bumper-to-bumper wrecks, and the tunnel that they take in the movie to leave London is the only way out. Makes more sense. Wish they'd kept it.
3. Some really REALLY cool scenes in the house at the end, of literal armies of dead. One shot looks over a balcony down into a hallway on the first floor... wall to wall zombies heading to the camera. Creepy as hell. Wish they'd kept it.
4. Plus, the hospital scene I mentioned before.
>The idea being, that all the bridges and roads out of London are bumper-to
>-bumper wrecks, and the tunnel that they take in the movie to leave London is the
>only way out.
Sounds like a ripoff of a similar scene in The Stand.
Post Edited (07-01-03 06:32)
Well, the movie was not about a woman's period ;)... In average a really good movie, but...
Why the father does not bring his riot gear ?
Why the soldiers wait that long to show themself?
Why are they not wearing masks and googles when fighting?
Why the happy happy joy joy ending?
JohnL wrote:
>
> Sounds like a ripoff of a similar scene in The Stand.
>
"It's not a rip-off, it's a homage!"
- Lyle Swan, director of Hotel Satan and Hell Without the Devil.
I loved 28 days but there was still a few things I whished they had done to make it better.First I would have liked to see some more action, mostly in the middle of the movie were its kind of slow.I would have liked to see Selena naked instead of Jim.And I would have liked a more twisted ending.I kinda like the idea of Jim dying from the gun shot at the end of even better would have been if Jim was turned into a Infected and Selena had to kill him.Other than that the movie kicked ass.I hope that future horror movie directors take some cues from this movie and actually start putting out some quality work.
the reason he was safe was that the door was locked. luckly for him the key was on the floor.
But locked doors didn't seem to keep the infected out at his parents' house.
But now that I think about it, I can see how he might have been able to survive without being attacked--he wasn't on a ground floor and it might not have occurred to the infected to ransack hospitals since they don't seem to be that organized.
I think the weakness lies in that probably one of the last places to have activity would most likely be hospitals, so I would think that the infected would probably end up there. Except that there were evacuations, I guess.
I would guess that the infected left him alone because he was in a coma, and therefore was not moving. Maybe they thought he was already dead . . . or maybe they just didn't notice him because he wasn't moving. Remember, they probably had their hands full chasing the hospital staff.
Well, I seen 28 DAYS LATER on opening day and was dissappointed. the atmosphere (or film work) reminded me of DOG SOLDIERS and BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF, and again these are not terrible films, but the atmosphere is too razor sharp. I just didn't enjoy these modern Euro-films. I do hope they keep trying though.
28 DAYS LATER also reminded me of OMEGA MAN and LAST MAN ON EARTH.
Having been dying to see this since it's inital release over in Europe, I was even more estatic about it being released in America. I now have mixed feelings after having watched it. I feel that it takes too much from NOTLD, DawnOTD, DayOTD, and the other Romero classic The Crazies.
Trapped In The Mansion-NOTLD
Ravishing A Supermarket-Dawn
Tied Up Zombie For Experiments-Day
Army Controlling The Situation-Crazies
I must applaud Boyle for yet again another fantasticly directed film. I love the fact that it is fairly artsy, and I love what directors are doing with digital film (I.E. Session 9-check it out!). I thought the acting was spot on, and I loved the fact that there weren't many flashbacks. The stories, imho, were much more powerful than seeing the actual carnage.
I did love the touches of originality that Boyle was able to bring into the mix. The crow with the drop of blood, creepy. Another key scene that I thought added quite a bit of sorrow and originality to the film was the note that his parents leave him. Nearly brought me to tears the first time I viewed the film.
The ending could have been better as well. I think that having the credits roll when Hannah hits the gate would have been superb. The film has such a thick sense of despair, that when the ending finally did come around, I felt cheated. I didn't want a happy ending. It just didn't fit. Oh well.
Overall, a pretty good little horror flick. Will definently pick it up on DVD.
Post Edited (07-04-03 14:00)
I don't know why people keep comparing 28dl to other zombie flicks.28dl actually has far less in common with other zombie moves.
skaboi wrote
Having been dying to see this since it's inital release over in Europe, I was even more estatic about it being released in America. I now have mixed feelings after having watched it. I feel that it takes too much from NOTLD, DawnOTD, DayOTD, and the other Romero classic The Crazies.
Trapped In The Mansion-NOTLD
Ravishing A Supermarket-Dawn
Tied Up Zombie For Experiments-Day
Army Controlling The Situation-Crazies
To say that 28dl had ideas stolen from any of the above movies is incorect.A few things that are simular to other zombie movies does not mean that the ideas were borowed, but instead were just needed parts of the plot.The points you mention are small and insignificant, and this movie actually has little to do with the movies you mentioned.Also in night of the living dead they were not trapped in a mansion, they were in a farm house.You could say that all movies have borrowed from other movies if you are critical enough of them.Come on it wasn't like they got trapped in a shopping mall while a biker gang chases them around.
I love 28 Days Later. But for those of you defending it as being the second-coming of horror movies... don't kid yourselves!!
. These guys obviously have watched Romero, Omega Man, Days of the Triffids, Quiet Earth, etc. They are well-versed in the genre. When I watched it the first time the similarities just kept jumping off the screen, and it seemed obvious that they were reassembling the coolest bits and pieces of several end-of-the-world/zombie-type movies into their own movie.
Hey, I'm not knocking it. I think it's great, but lets give credit where credit is due. And don't take my word for it. Here's an excerpt from an interview with the director, Danny Boyle:
"Alex Garland [the film's writer] is a big zombie fan. But also he's a big fan of the sci-fi writing of J.G. Ballard. He also likes the The Day of the Triffids, the John Wyndham novel, and Boris Sagal's film, The Omega Man . We were not stealing, but nothing can stand on its own anymore -- there is always some reference point. So in a sense maybe, we do steal stuff and then try and put it together in a different way. We wanted a horror/zombie film, but we also wanted it to be more emotional than horror films normally are. We wanted you to genuinely care about these people."
Mmmkay?
For the full interview go here:
http://www.res.com/magazine/articles/28dayslateraninterviewwithdannyboyle_2003-05-21.html
I think that's some of its weakness, that the director isn't really a horror film person.
I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the original screenplay had more horror elements.
I watched the movie recently on tape and was scared out of my mind.......considering i watched it in the dead of night, around 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning.
I had to watch regular cable tv so that i don't go to sleep with it on my mind and get nighmares...
Those monsters weren't like regular slow zombies, they were like zombies on steroids!
They were jittery and fast......
Anyway the point of my response was to query the ending....
I didn't quit get.......
When the jet passed over their HELLO sign did he respond to base by saying "Yes I saw something"? or "Naw, didn't see anything?"
> Went to see 28 DAYS LATER this afternoon and was basically
> disappointed. I enjoyed the premise, but it seemed to break
> down and attempt to do things too quickly. I thought it was a
> little too "artsy" in its execution and really didn't like the
> way the action scenes were done.
>
> In a way, the premise is the problem--we only see the aftermath
> of the plague, not the chaos or the breakdown in society.
> There were a few things that I found hard to believe--how could
> the hero have been able to survive in a coma in the hospital?
> Wouldn't it stand to reason that the hospitals be one of the
> more dangerous places to be? Perhaps not, since the infection
> occurs in a matter of seconds, but he seemed rather vulnerable
> at the beginning of the film.
>
> I thought the actress who played Hannah the young girl was
> terrible, especially in the scene where her father dies.
>
> There are a few good scenes here and there [I like the one
> where they see Manchester in flames], but I think I would have
> rather waited for video.
From what I remember, the director had a Finnish friend speak the last few words - something along the lines of "There are survivors - send a helicopter"
Funny, in the scene where he first sees a plane I figured they'd end up getting bombed by one and killed in the end thus keeping in line with the theme of the movie. I think I actually would have respected the movie had that been the case. The happy ending was somewhat satisfying, but seemed a bit insincere. A bit contrived. And I guess that's what in fact happened.
I thought it was good solid addition to the genre.
The bit at the end where he sticks his thumbs in the soldiers eyes is toe curlingly gruesome.
It was a pretty low budget film as well, I think they did a great job.
The end, yes, maybe a little too happy. I think given how traumatising the later part of the film was, what with the Army just wanting the women to rape basically. Harrowing stuff on top of already heavy subject matter.
A happy ending isn;t that bad a thing.