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Stars:
Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Christopher Eccleston, Megan Burns, and Brendan
Gleeson
Writer:
Alex Garland
Director:
Danny Boyle
Feature
length: 113 minutes
Extras:
Audio Commentary By Director Danny Boyle and Writer Alex Garland, 3 Alternative
Endings, Deleted Scenes With Optional Commentary, “Pure Rage: The Making Of 28
Days Later” Featurette, Jacknife Lee Music Video, Animated Storyboards, Still
Photo Galleries, and Trailers
Languages:
English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and French and Spanish Language Dolby
Surround Sound
Subtitles:
English Captions and Closed Captions and French and Spanish Language Subtitles
Packaging:
Keep Case
Chapter
Stops: 32
Sound:
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Dolby Surround Sound
Year
of American Theatrical Release: 2003/DVD Release: 2003
Theatrical
Distributor: Fox Searchlight Pictures
Home
Video Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment
MPAA
Rating: R
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
“28
Days Later” opened in the U.S. this past summer after a successful opening
abroad. The film details the aftermath of a devastating plague that has left all
of England quarantined from the rest of the world. Described simply as
“rage,” the disease is transmuted by blood or saliva and is devastating
within 20 seconds of contact. The infected become raging killing machines that
vomit blood and will tear an uninfected person apart with no reasoning behind it
other than that hapless victim is there at the wrong place and time. The
heightened adrenaline gives them faster reflexes and unusual strength as well as
an uncompromising resolve. They don’t lumber or walk toward you, they run.
Even if you were to set them on fire or blow off a limb, as long as they can
move toward you, they will continue to attack, which makes killing them very
difficult. These are not zombies in that they are lifeless flesh reanimated
though they might as well be dead since they lose all of their higher mental
functions other than their most primitive and destructive desires.
The
outbreak occurred when a group of radical animal rights activists broke into an
experimental lab and set free an infected chimpanzee despite the warnings from
the scientist present about the engineered virus. Now 28 days after the
outbreak, Jim (Cillian Murphy), a cycle courier wakes up from a coma to discover
a deserted London. However he soon discovers that he is not the only resident
left behind in the wake of the plague. The infected are present and ready to
kill, but there are the uninfected survivors Selena (Naomie Harris) and Mark
(Noah Huntley), who quickly save Jim’s life and explain the situation at hand.
This eventually leads to an odyssey of horror and hope as companions are lost,
survivors band together and discover the only thing more terrible than an
infected human being, is an uninfected human with a heart of darkness.
“28
Days Later” is a fun and jolting post apocalyptic horror film that calls to
mind various other genre films it pays homage to in various scenes though not
through self referential dialogue like the “Scream” trilogy, but rather
character interactions and screen language that drive those thoughts for the
fans while still allowing the film to be assessable for the casual viewer. If
there is any question I have regarding the nature of the infected in “28 Days
Later” it would be how could a completely enraged and insane person
differentiate between who is or is not infected and if there is no real
rationality left over in the infected, why wouldn’t they attack each other?
Well the zombies in most if not all-living dead flicks only eat the living so I
guess my question is moot although I will state again that these are not zombies
as in re-animated corpses.
Shot
using digital video cameras, “28 Days Later” has a gritty quality to it that
I personally think enhances the film’s impact and at times gives it an almost
documentary like look. I am not sure if this is a direct digital to DVD transfer
or not because it doesn’t look like one to me, but in spite of the sometimes
murky quality of the picture in some scenes, I like this anamorphic widescreen
(1.85:1) presentation enough to ignore whatever deficiencies the image quality
may have at times. The English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack has a nice
enveloping quality with a discrete use of sound to create an eerie atmosphere
and then sudden shocks from the screams of the infected and their victims that
will make first time viewers jump out of their seat depending on how good their
home theater audio system is. A French and a Spanish Language Dolby Surround
Soundtrack are also encoded onto the DVD as well as English Captions and Closed
Captions for the hearing impaired and Spanish Language Subtitles as options.
Director
Danny Boyle and Writer Alex Garland provide an optional feature length audio
commentary that is quite screen specific as well as entertaining to listen to
because the two collaborators clearly have developed a great working
relationship and are able to speak about the film in a somewhat nonchalant
manner without ever becoming ponderous or dull. Boyle and Garland also provide
optional commentary for s deleted scenes with great detail as to why they were
ultimately not used. These scenes are listed as “London Walk,” “Abandoned
Train,” “Motorway Carnage,” “Taxi/Sweden,” “The Infected In The
House,” and “Floorboards.” All of the deleted scenes are presented in a
(1.33:1) aspect ratio. They also provide commentary for three alternate endings,
one of which was added after the credit role as an attraction to get repeat
viewers and new audience members with the simple premise of “what if…” and
this darker ending is presented in a (1.85:1) aspect ratio. The second alternate
ending is a slight variation on the one that accompanies the feature now and the
third “radical alternate ending” was never filmed, which is a shame because
I think it is the most interesting of the three. Presented through storyboards,
Writer Alex Garland and Director Danny Boyle narrate and read the dialogue over
the images and then present their reasons for why they ultimately did not pursue
this idea, which I have to admit I agree with though I still wish they shot it.
Boyle
also provides commentary for a motion galley of production photos and continuity
Polaroid stills. The “Pure Rage” featurette is never quite clear as to
whether it is supposed to be a standard promotional featurette or an actual
mini-documentary discussing the possibility of global viral outbreaks and as a
result the effect of the program as a whole seems weakened. The theatrical
teaser, trailer, animated storyboard Internet trailer, and the Jacknife Lee
music video, which pretty much condenses the film through images and music into
minutes, wraps up the extra features included on this DVD.
The
main menu is animated with a scene from the film while the subsequent menus are
standard interactive still frames and all are easy to navigate. “28 Days
Later: Widescreen Special Edition” is a great flick to watch in the dark alone
or huddled with someone sharing a bucket of popcorn for your fright night DVD
viewing pleasure. “28 Days Later: Widescreen Special Edition” will debut on
DVD-Video in Region One North America on Tuesday, October 21, 2003 at retailers
on and offline from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.
©
Copyright 2003 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
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