Review - 28 Days Later (2002)

Director: Danny Boyle

Made In: UK

Released: 2002

Plot: Stupid animal rights activists break into a lab and release all the test-subjects including a monkey who has been infected with the "Rage" virus. (From this point, the fall of humanity can be blamed on animal rights activists.) The monkey bites the hippies, and the scientists, and although we don't see the events that follow, we can assume that within the next four weeks there is much wailing and gnashing of teeth as the virus spreads. 28 Days later, Jim, the protagonist, wakes to find himself in an abandoned hospital, unsure of why he is there and confused about the total lack of people in the place. Jim walks out of the abandoned hospital, and out into the street, only to find a similar lack of humanity, he walks for miles without seeing anyone, but eventually comes across a wall plastered with 9/11 style flyers from desperate families desperately trying to find the whereabouts of lost loved ones (who have obviously been infected). Jim reads a few newspapers and eventually realises that the population has been wiped out. As he continues to walk around he soon catches the attention of a few zombie-like infected beings – who chase him like he was a cupcake in a weight-watchers meeting. Jim is rescued by two others - Selena (Naomie Harris) and Mark (Noah Huntley), who tell him to wake up to himself and be ready to kill anyone infected with the "Rage" virus. Soon mark is toast and Selina and Jim keep moving. They come across more survivors, London cabbie Frank (Brendan Gleeson) and his teenage daughter Hannah (Megan Burns ) who convince Jim and Selina to come with them to Manchester, after hearing a recurring military radio announcement declaring that they have "found the answer to infection". When they reach the abandoned blockade, Frank the cabbie is bitten and promptly shot by a sniper. A team of soldiers reveal themselves and take the survivors back to a heavily defended mansion where the few soldiers are living relatively comfortably, albeit without any women. It is revealed that the commanding officer of the team, Major Henry West (Christopher Eccleston) has promised his men the opportunity to re-populate the earth and Selina and Hannah seem to be the perfect candidates. After a few struggles and traps, all the soldiers are killed and Jim, Selina and Hannah escape to a farm and after catching the attention of a jet passing overhead they are presumed rescued. The remaining infected are seen laying on the ground dying slowly from starvation. They are still human after-all, and not zombies, who are already dead, so don't die of starvation.

Review: This is a pretty good movie, similar to other zombie movies, except for one main diferrence – there are no zombies in this movie! The infected humans act like zombies – with the biting and the killing and the running like a zombie, but they are infected with the "Rage" virus – and have not risen from the dead.

The movie is shot very cleverly, the infected humans are frantic and whenever a group of them get together – panic ensues, translated by the use of quickly changing frames and music-video style effects. The scenes where Jim is walking around in an abandoned London are absolutely amazing and one can only wonder about the inconvenience caused to real-life Londoners when they filmed those shots. The director is said to have chosen relatively unknown actors to make the characters seem more realistic and desperate, and all the actors are relatively convincing, even if the story does get a bit crap by the end when the soldiers get a bit frisky. The ideas in the movie are nothing new, but the British influence gives the story a bit of an edge. A sequel has been released, called 28 Weeks later, which expands on the story but with a different set of survivors.

All in all a solid movie but nothing to write home about. Nothing new.

2.5/5

Review - Dawn of the Dead (1978)

Director: George A. Romero

Made In: USA

Released: 1978

Plot: 2^nd in the series of “Dead” movies by director George A Romero, after “Night of the Living Dead”(1968) and before “Day of the Dead”(1985). The movie is set in the early stages of a post-apocalyptic America after the majority of the population has either been killed by zombies or have become zombies themselves. The streets are deserted, supplies are scattered and it is unlikely that help is coming. Two news reporters, and two SWAT team members steal a news chopper and flea for higher ground. They end up landing on top of a relatively abandoned shopping mall, where they immediately start barricading the doors and sweeping the corridors of zombies. The mall is well stocked with food and equipment – including guns – so the only problem they have is overcoming boredom and coming to grips with the grim reality of living in this oasis surrounded by crowds of zombies. Eventually, more humans and a gang of bikers invade the mall, letting hundreds of zombies in with them. Only two characters, Peter (SWAT team member) and Francine (female reporter) escape by fleeing in the helicopter with an unknown amount of fuel.

Review:

This is my all time favourite Zombie movie and definitely the best of Romero’s “Dead” series. There are a lot of zombies in this movie. For most of the time they are directed towards anything that moves that isn’t a zombie, so when there aren’t any screaming women or gunfire, they tend to just drag themselves around aimlessly. This movie suggests that the zombies still have some human inclinations, so the zombies end up in the mall only because it was part of who they were when they were alive. There is a classic 80s montage in the movie that scans the mall, with cliché mall elevator music, with scenes of zombies walking aimlessly up and down the mall corridors and through shops, some even walking on the ice-skating rink.

All the zombies featured in the film walk around in a way that has now become the standard zombie motion. Slow, but still determined, with 1000 yard stares, mutilated appearances, half-eaten body parts, and the classis “errrrr….” groan that has become the stereotype for zombies in the majority of zombie movies to follow. The difference between these zombies and those from other movies, like “28 days later” for example, is that the humans can run between the zombies without too much trouble because the zombies are so slow. However, the sheer number of them make the opportunity for a zombie-frolic less appealing. Also, as with most zombie movies, the only way to kill the zombie is to “Shoot em in the head” or “destroy the brain”. Which always makes for great gory special effects and bloody scenes.

The make-up and effects used seems pretty basic compared to most modern zombie flicks. There were hundreds of volunteers and zombie-movie fans who offered to dress-up like corpses for this movie, as the director George A Romero had already developed a huge cult following. Most of the background zombies only had some grey face paint and ripped clothes. And the zombies that featured in close-up shops didn’t look that much more detailed. Maybe a bit more blood.

However, its not the effects – although there are some great gore and blood scenes – that make this movie great. It is the originality combined with satire and the late 70s charm that make it great.

Great scenes: When the zombie that walks into the helicopter blades -- When the car plows down like 500 zombies at high speed inside the mall -- When the black SWAT team member Peter slaps the hysterical woman news reporter -- The classic montage showing everyone living it up in the abandoned mall -- Every scene in the movie with a zombie in it. (so basically every scene in the movie)

Overall Rating: Not for everyone, but for those who love zombie movies, this is a must see. 5/5

Review - Shaun of the Dead (2004)

Director: Edgar Wright

Made In: UK

Released: 2004

Plot: Shaun (Simon Pegg) is going nowhere in his life. His girlfriend is unsatisfied with his lack of direction, the younger employees at the electronics store where Shaun works don’t respect him.His flatmate is annoyed at him because Shaun has let a friend, Ed (Nick Frost) sleep on the couch indefinitely and although Shaun enjoys his company and friendship, Ed is a bad influence – convincing Shaun that any problem in life can be fixed by visiting the “Winchester” which is the local pub.

After Shaun’s girlfriend dumps him, he decides to rebuild his life and get her back. However, at the same time the town has been over-run with zombies. Shaun battles his way through the hordes of un-dead to save his girlfriend, mum and step-dad (who hates him). He decides to seek refuge in the Winchester because it has heavy-doors, food and pints. (I would have done the same thing). However, the zombies eventually break in and only Shaun and his girlfriend escape, only to have the national guard sweep in and rescue any survivors.

Review: This is a hugely funny and clever movie made by some very funny british comedians with countless references to classic zombie movies, especially Romero’s “Dead” trilogy. The interaction between the two main characters, Shaun and Ed, is brilliant and probably developed over a long time as these two guys (Simon Pegg and Nick Frost) have worked together on many other TV shows, including “Spaced” and “Big Train” They act like normal guys, and enjoy doing everything together - drinking beer, playing the playstation and listening to crappy 80s music. The comedy comes from the fact that Shaun has elected himself leader of the group, but has absolutely no idea what he is doing. This is shown in a few scenes, like when they come across the first zombie in their back-yard, and thinking it was just a drunk girl, begin hurling insults, and eventually crockery at her to scare her away. There is another scene where Shaun gets hold of a gun and furiously unloads at a group of zombies without actually hitting any of them. It doesn’t exactly go well for the group in the end, mainly because everyone is killed/zombified except Shaun and his girlfriend. The end is interesting, because it skips to 6 months later when some level of normality has been re-introduced into British society and the remaining zombies have been put to work as a form of cheap labour. Shaun keeps his friend Ed, who has become a zombie, in his back shed and joins him regularly to play video games. Brilliant!

Overall Rating: 3.5/5