Jul. 06, 2003 - 1:34 am
this is the only thing at the theater that i've really been waiting to see recently. it's the new film from director Danny Boyle who also did Trainspotting (1996), Shallow Grave (1994), A Life Less Ordinary (1997), and The Beach (2000). all of the above are awesome films and you should watch them multiple times. this one is equally great i would say. he does so many different types of films though, it's almost hard to keep up with him. there's no one particular thing that stands out as being his trademark, but you know that if he's directing it, it's most likely going to be something worth watching. so Colin, Keith, Chris and i had to go out to the Halls theater to watch this. money well spent on a midnight matinee.
the film starts out with some activists coming in military style to free some tortured chimps at a British research facility. the bad thing is that the chimps have all been infected with an unstable virus called (quite fittingly) "rage." it basically destroys your blood and makes you go insane in less than 20 seconds and makes you want to kill and eat other humans. sort of like a zombie, but your body doesn't actually die. you just become permanently infected with the evil rage. so in order to kill an infected person, it's the same as killing any other person, except that that person is nuts and will stop at nothing to kill you. plus if your body acquires any blood or other bodily fluids from an infected, you're infected. i highly recommend checking out the official site for 28 Days Later... if you have a fast connection.
anyway, after the virus goes public, we become acquainted with Jim who wakes up in a hospital after a car accident. he starts to realize what's going on and then he runs into a couple of other people who save his life. he and a girl are able to locate an older man and his daughter in an isolated apartment building and they hear a radio broadcast from a military unit that may or may not still be functioning. they then decide to work their way towards Manchester to try to find it. along the way, they end up not only trying to survive amongst rage-filled monsters, but also other humans who travel under the guise of friendship.
so i really liked this film and spent the following day talking to Colin about what we thought would be the best weapon to carry around to kill the "infected." but not only was this a violent killing spree, it also had a great script to it. each of the characters becomes a complete individual and seems to fulfill the hopes and dreams that many humans have for their own survival. so much so that it becomes incredibly painful for the audience to see or even think of anything bad or dangerous happening to them. but sometimes the best way to make you fall in love with something or someone is (to steal a line from Danny Boyle's A Life Less Ordinary) "Jeopardy Jackson."