Movie Review: 28 Days Later

I have often wondered how the late director George A. Romero would have reacted to the hundreds of zombie movies and long-standing TV shows his original "Night of the Living Dead" (1968) has spawned since its release. This original zombie movie was about as disgusting, disturbing, and horrifying as any horror movie could be. However, 1968 was 57 long years ago, and by now, anyone would think that we have all had enough of the living dead, and the living dead eating living people, and the shooting or stabbing the dead in the head to kill them. Enough already.

The new movie "28 Years Later" is somewhat unique for two reasons. Number one, the movie trailer is one of the most annoying and overplayed of all time. Number two, by far the most used method for killing the zombies in this story is by using a bow and arrow.

This movie is mainly about two acts. Act one is about a father, Jamie, leaving the confines of a protected human camp and teaching his 11-year-old son Spike how to hunt and kill zombies with a bow and arrow. Obviously, this is an absurd idea, risking the life of a young boy like this, but for some unknown reason, this is the longest part of this movie. This first act consists of running, stopping, and shooting zombies in the head with a bow and arrow, resulting in repeated scenes that get old very quickly, in this remarkably bad movie.

The second act unfolds after a significant argument between Spike and his father. Following this conflict, Spike ventures out with his sick mother, Isla, into Zombieland for reasons that mostly lack clarity. By the end of the second act, they encounter Dr. Kelson, played by the film's only well-known actor, Ralph Fiennes. To protect himself from the zombies, Dr. Kelson covers himself in iodine, which I found amusing, almost as if Fiennes was trying to disguise himself for participating in this surprisingly bad and boring movie.

It is anyone's guess why the Rotten Tomatoes ratings for this film are as high as 90%, with a far more accurate audience rating of 67%. My rating for this waste of 2 hours is 30%, but only for the most die-hard zombie movie hobbyists.