Better than the original...

Rating: 10/10 (23 May 2007)

The first extended preview I saw of this one (featuring Robert Carlyle's less-than-heroic bid for an infection-free existence) was the proverbial "grabber." As adept at the dramatic as the funny (THE FULL MONTY had me rolling in the aisle), Carlyle was inspired casting and his all-out performance proves most satisfying (the filmmakers don't punk out when it comes down to the nitty and the gritty, either). For the first time since David Cronenberg's RABID, one gets the uneasy feeling of what it might actually be like to get caught up in a siege situation in a major metropolitan city- and, also like RABID, 28 WEEKS LATER manages to convey this sense of foreboding with a minimal "show of force," as it were: the handful of rooftop snipers (voyeurs, who spy on their charges with telescopic sights at night), the solitary helicopter hovering over it all, the armed guards who usher the herds of humanity on to their holding pens, etc. Like 28 DAYS LATER, 28 WEEKS LATER makes the most of not a whole lot (by Hollywood standards) and proves, yet again, that imagination and talent can go a long way. It would be interesting to see what these filmmakers could do with a book like THE NIGHT RIDERS by M. Kelley (an Xlibris book about... well, read it and see). I can hardly wait for 28 MONTHS LATER...