I should warn everyone that there will be a spoiler or two in this post, but since its about 28 Weeks Later (Movie Patron Review) I figure its okay.
I was trying to decide on what would be my DVD Pick for the week and there were two movies that came to mind the first is 28 Weeks Later and the second is You Kill Me (which I ended up picking). I’m pretty sure that Andrew will be picking the former on the Cinecast. While I was mulling it over I started to remember a few things that really ticked of in 28 Weeks Later. If it weren’t for the following two things I would have enjoyed the movie.
UNWRAP TEXT or SHOW **SPOILER**
1) When you create a rules for the world, you should never deviate from the rules unless you can somehow realistically justify changing the rules. In both
28 Days Later and also the beginning of
28 Weeks Later we are shown that the Rage Virus turns people into mindless rampaging killing machines. Can someone please explain why all of a sudden we now have the crazed father stalking his children. There is no justification given behind this at all. At one point you see him standing down the street and the next second he is gone. What should have happened is that he should have been sprinting towards them screaming not playing some cat and mouse game. This is my biggest pet peeve. If you create rules follow them!
2) I do not know a lot about helicopters but what little I do know makes me think that they can not fly right near the ground at such an angle as to use their propeller blades to cut up zombies. I hated it in Tomorrow Never Dies, I hated it in Mission Impossible and I hated it in 28 Weeks Later. Now you might say, “its a frigging zombie movie” and I’d have to respond with it should still be realistic. Everyone would hate it if one of the soldiers had a gun that had remote control bullets where he only had to shoot one shot and the bullet would then fly through each zombie’s head killing them all one at a time. The helicopter just forces me to remember that I am watching a movie and that it is totally fake.
Both of these really lessened my enjoyment of 28 Weeks Later to the point where I’m thinking I might just not by it on DVD. Is there anything that ruined what should have been a good movie for you? Often these peeves are small little things that don’t really impact anything but they still just seem to ruin the movie.
Oh and I just changed my movie pick for the week. It is no longer You Kill Me which is a fine movie. It is now Twilight Zone: The Movie. A co-worker just pointed the fact that it is finally getting a DVD release today.
John: IN terms of crazy killer helicopter blades which are miraculously invulnerable (in terms of keeping the heli in the air) You forgot (maybe intentionally due to the silliness of the movie) Grindhouse: Planet Terror.
My way of rationalizing out what was obviously thrown in to add gravitas to the thematic weight of familial-solidarity torn asunder (many aspects of the film can be filtered this way). The scene where the boy sees his father was a hallucination. The end sequence was co-incidence. Yea, I’m stretching it, as I love that damn film. I like it a lot better than Danny Boyle’s original, and I like 28 Days Later… a lot!
Cheers.
lol, I totally forgot about it in Planet Terror, but then again so much shit was thrown around in PT that I’ve forgotten most of it except for the minibike which I hated more than anything else.
I think your rationalizing something that the writer thought would just be cool… ie lets have the dad chase the kids. That would be cool…
I’m the opposite I really prefer 28 Days Later. A fair amount of people complain about the ending but I actually really enjoyed the way it turned. I’ll give 28 Weeks props for tension but I was just expecting more. Of course it comes down to preconceptions once again. Perhaps mine were too high. When I saw 28 Days I had none.
I agree with John. I LOVE 28 Days Later and really like Weeks. I preferred the way Boyle’s Days had a more depressing tone whereas Weeks got all “Americanized” (literally AND the way it was done) and lost that, what I feel is a, crucial tone.
2 things that piss me off:
-Cell phones that are either A) out of battery power at the most inopportune moment or B) have no signal for no apparent reason in the middle of a city (e.g. Red-Eye, Cellular, and about 5000 other movies).
- 911 does not put you on hold if you have an emergency (e.g. Panic Room).
28 Weeks Later
**SPOILER**
Just watched it again and…
I remember now the thing that pissed me off…
The military’s actions make no sense when the outbreak starts. Their idea of a code red is to first, flip a switch that makes all the lights in compund flicker. Then, lock everyone in a giant room and shut the lights off? What in the hell is the point of that?
Still, I think it’s a great movie and is intense as hell. Debatable which is better, Weeks or Days. I think either opinion is correct. I like them both equally.