All movies28 Days Later

Rated:

R (strong violence and gore, language, nudity)

Running time:

1:52 minutes

Release date:

October 21, 2006

Capsule review:

No matter what else he does in his career, British filmmaker Danny Boyle will always be able to boast that "Shallow Grave" (1994) and "Trainspotting" (1996) are on his resume (both written by John Hodge). That's good, because the films he has done since have been what college professors like to call interesting failures. That includes this zombie movie, which owes _ as all modern zombie movies do - a great debt to George Romero and his landmark "Night of the Living Dead" (1968). The conceit here is that an animal experimental laboratory has developed a serum that turns chimpanzees into mad killers. One bite infects a human within seconds, and thanks to a band of PETA-type activists the killing madness quickly spreads. Our hero Jim (Cillian Murphy) discovers all this after waking up, 28 days after the initial infection, in a hospital where he has been in a coma. Pretty soon he catches on to the problem, teams up with a small group of other survivors and together they fight their way to a military base where they hope to find sanctuary. But as often happens in horror films, they find something else instead. "28 Days Later" moves well enough thanks to the dependable Boyle, and Murphy makes an effective protagonist. But the script that Alex Garland ("The Beach") wrote is just a retread of most other post-apocalyptic adventure. And Boyle, for some reason, chose to shoot in digital, which gives everything that irritating washed-out look. His work is always worth checking out, but he needs to work with better material. Calling John Hodge. Note: A new, four-minute ending has been planted on the film that offers a darker view of the future.