28 Days, Not 28 Weeks Later

I just finished sending back my Netflix's DVD of "28 Weeks Later" - what a disjointed, disorganized disappointment! I saw "28 Days Later" in 2002 in the theater with my son, and it was scary as all hell, believable, intense, well done in my perspective. "They're infected with rage" ...and the movie was non-stop, gripping, an interesting case study in how society degenerates following a deadly virus outbreak, and reminiscent of several nightmares I had as an adolescent and young adult, in short stories I'd written in High School and College. So 5 years later, Director Danny Boyle gets replaced by writer and director Juan Fresnadillo, and stupidity plays a main role in the nonsensical, not-believable, laden with technical and plot flaws, not-worth-the-DVD-plastic-its-burnt-onto farce.

I made the mistake of looking at the "extras" on the DVD, and there's Fresnadillo all joyfully smiling and animated in a psuedo-Tarantino-esque way saying "for the first time, we follow one of the infected to see how their character develops". What a load of crap! Robert Carlyle's character not only gets infected with rage, but he uniquely understands how to wait, and stalk, and use his "all access" card swiper to get through a heavily guarded military compound... yeah, right. Malarkey!

The repatriation of the UK at the beginning of the film shows heavily armed NATO soldiers out-numbering civilians almost 2 to 1, but suddenly, when the virus breaks out again in the containment zone, all those 30 and 50 caliber Brownings and 30 round clip assault rifles are absent. Crowds of 100s of raging infected are left to roof top snipers - yes, a dozen roof top snipers vs 100s of rage infected civilians - to be "picked off". What a freakin joke! It started off strong, and I didn't fast forward until about 30 minutes into it, and then the 110 min movie was done in far less than an hour.

Next up on my Netflix's list, is Sunshine. I hope it's far better than "28 Weeks Later", but if not, that's the beauty of rental DVDs.