Movie #8 - 28 Days Later

28 Days Later
Fox Searchlight Pictures
2003 - Rated R - 1 hr 53 min
Director: Danny Boyle
Starring: Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Christoper Eclleston, Megan Burns, and Brendan Gleeson

I'm going to get through the numbered movies today, I swear! I would love to jump into the A's, so I can actually feel like I'm accomplishing something. Right now, it feels like eating an eternal appetizer... it's time for the salad course, people.

Anyway, I love this movie. I forgot how much. But I guess that's the point of this whole project - to rediscover great movies that I haven't given their due and to discover other classics that I've been missing out on. Of course, I have to deal with all the fodder in between, but for the most part, there's good ones on the wall.

I don't know if this is true or not, but I credit 28 Days Later with starting today's zombie craze. It brought the classic horror film character back into the main stream and scared the bejeezus out of people. Could a virus really make us run around screaming, biting each other? It's like home Jurassic Park convinced us all that DNA in ancient mosquitos could make us a dinosaur zoo. Cinema and loosely accurate science combine to start a craze.

So 28 Days Later, I discovered, also features Brendan Gleeson who I truly love in everything he does. Great guy. He does not disappoint in this, blending well into the cast of no-names and making this movie less-Hollywood and more-real-life in its feel. It was also kind of fun to see landmarks in London now that I've actually been there myself. It's a bit bleaker when it's abandoned, but I still felt more connected to the movie from having been there myself. You know what I mean?

So the main character, Jim, is one lucky bastard in this movie. Waking up during the day, wandering around aimlessly, and getting rescued by two people... only to cause one of them to get killed, like, the next day. He's not the world's best zombie fighter, but you do find yourself rooting for him. In fact, all the characters end up quite likable by the end of the film (except those creepy army guys, led by not Kevin McKidd who really looks just like him. Weird).

If you haven't seen this, I highly recommend it. 28 Days Later has blood and gore, sure, but it also has something to say about what's important after society goes mad and eats each other. Oh yeah, and it's suspenseful too, without being too horror-flicky.