28 Days Later… (2002)

28 Days Later...

I’m a consumer. I like shopping for stuff. I like reading about stuff that’s coming (and wish it were here now for me to buy). I like to follow the evolution of stuff as it comes to market and see how the roll out of new stuff is accepted. I’ve got lots of stuff that never got that public acceptance it should have received. It sits right next to the stuff that did that is often replaced by the next gen stuff. I guess I’m the poster boy for consumerism. So this movie was a blow to my mad subconscious that regulates my buy, buy, buy fever. It shows a world where there won’t be any new books, movies, CDs and all manner of other toys that keeps me distracted from the real problems our world faces. And then Selena (Naomie Harris) has the gall to tell Jim (Cillian Murphy) essentially the same thing. I was bummed for a time until a buddy called to tell me what he discovered in his latest foray into the shops and I remembered this is just a movie.


Director:  Danny Boyle; Toby James
Writer:  Alex Garland
Cast:
Alex Palmer -  Activist
Bindu De Stoppani -  Activist
Jukka Hiltunen -  Activist
David Schneider -  Scientist
Cillian Murphy -  Jim
Toby Sedgwick -  Infected Priest
Naomie Harris -  Selena
Noah Huntley -  Mark
Christopher Dunne -  Jim’s Father
Emma Hitching -  Jim’s Mother
Alexander Delamere -  Mr. Bridges
Kim McGarrity -  Mr. Bridges’ Daughter
Brendan Gleeson -  Frank
Megan Burns -  Hannah
Justin Hackney -  Infected Kid
Luke Mably -  Private Clifton









28 Weeks Later (2007)

28 Weeks Later

Let’s suppose you are a solider in the military like Doyle (Jeremy Renner). Let’s also suppose you set to guard a group of civilians from insurgents intent on killing them like those infected by the Rage Virus (i.e. zombies on steroids). It seems like a fairly straightforward activity. Let’s now suppose that your commanding officer tells you that the barrier has been breached and orders you to shoot those who have broken through like the virally infected have her in this movie. Given the proper circumstances, I’d level my rifle and pop them once I had them in my scope. I imagine most would follow that order. Now suppose, the order came through to kill anything on the ground whether infected or not. Here is where I pause and examine my commitment to the situation. Particularly if I see a kid like Andy (Mackintosh Muggleton) or a doctor like Scarlet (Rose Byrne) through the rangefinder and I know neither one is infected. I might tap someone about to rip out their throat but Andy is just a kid who has been reunited with his dad after spending 28 weeks in a camp in Spain with his sister Tammy (Imogen Poots). Doyle feels much the same and decides that saving a life is better karma than taking one.


Director:  Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
Writer:  Rowan Joffe; Juan Carlos Fresnadillo; Jesús Olmo; Enrique López Lavigne
Cast:
Catherine McCormack -  Alice
Robert Carlyle -  Don
Amanda Walker -  Sally
Shahid Ahmed -  Jacob
Garfield Morgan -  Geoff
Emily Beecham -  Karen
Beans El-Balawi -  Boy in Cottage
Jeremy Renner -  Doyle
Harold Perrineau -  Flynn
Rose Byrne -  Scarlet
Imogen Poots -  Tammy
Mackintosh Muggleton -  Andy
Meghan Popiel -  DLR Soldier
Idris Elba -  Stone
Stewart Alexander -  Military Officer
Philip Bulcock -  Senior Medical Officer