Zombies! #5

4 and 5. 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later

Okay, so there's the whole they aren't really zombies argument. I know they're not in the strictest sense, although I swear the amount of blood some characters lost in attacks, they shouldn't be up and that lively *ponders*. But zombiesque in style, they are super cool movies.

Jim: And then I wake up today in hospital. I wake up, and I'm... I'm hallucinating or I'm...
Mark: What's your name?
Jim: Jim.
Mark: I'm Mark. This is Selena. OK, Jim. I've got some bad news.

The first movie tells the story of Jim and other survivors he comes across, looking for some kind of hope of a cure or somewhere safe. A 'rage' virus has swept through the population of Britain and well, obliterated it. I love the opening scenes of an abandonned London, and Jim all alone as he wanders around the city, completely unaware of what has happened. Of course, it doesn't take long for Jim to come across the infected, rage-filled monsters created from the virus, and so begins a desperate battle of survival. There are some great action sequences and the music in this and the sequel are just superb. In the House/In a Heartbeat, has to be my favourite piece of music ever - to be fair John Murphy does some epic soundtracks.


Jim: No, no. No, see, this is a really shit idea. You know why? Because it's really obviously a shit idea.

Brendan Gleeson pops up in a role of a survivor, playing a father who has his daughter with him. Together with Jim and the main female character, the ass-kicking Selena, they head off in search of other survivors. Christopher Eccleston also stars as a soldier in charge of a group of surviving very laddish soldiers that our main group comes across, and you just know things aren't going to be as easy as these guys banding together and waiting it out.

Private Jones: Mitch, I fucking got one!
Corporal Mitchell: What you want a fucking sweetie? Keep shooting, you c**t!

I really enjoyed this movie. It kind of reignited my lust of horror movies and in particular zombies. There had been nothing significant in quite a while before this movie that dealt with populations becoming infected and turned into wild, crazed monsters (there probably was something that I've forgotten *thinks*). It was a really cool movie that was followed up with an equally cool sequel.

28 Weeks Later is as it says set months after the intitial breakout of the virus. It opens showing us what happened with the character played by Robert Carlyle (I love this guy so much) set to a slightly altered version of In a Heartbeat (Oh yeah!!) It then cuts to 6 months later, the virus has pretty much died out and there's an awesome plan to start repopulating a section of London with the help of the US army. A good plan...you'd think. But alas things go tits up and off we go again.

I do just want to say... hello, Jeremy Renner. He caught my eye in an episode of Angel and then he just kept popping up in all sorts. Anyway, he plays one of the army guys and looks very good doing it. He has a big gun *nods*. I'm getting distracted. This movie is every bit as good as the first, but the tone is a lot different. The first was more creepy, fewer people with surprise bursts of violence. This is just a whole bigger thing, a lot more action once it gets going and more people around to get caught up in the ensuing chaos. Zombies or not, these are bloody great films :)