Eli_Cash

Wow, such a polarizing film! It seems everyone either detests this work as something less than terrible or conversely praise it to the heavens. I guess I'm sadly somewhere in between. Having read a bit of theory behind the film before I saw it I won't rehash that here, only state my reaction, for if there's anything this picture cries out for it is a reaction. Well here goes. Parts are horrifying. Far more disturbing than slasher film gore (mostly because the imagery being dispensed with aren't human). Parts are boring (and NOT the ten minute tracking shot which was a gem. Has anyone even been in a traffic jam before? Godard merely replicates it and all the while makes you wonder where that couple's car is heading, and what could have caused such a jam). Parts don't make sense, mostly because I don't think they are supposed to. That is their purpose, to disrupt sense. And, surprisingly something that nobody on here has mentioned, parts are very very funny. Okay, so perhaps not everyone will laugh as often as I did, but please, lighten up kids, Godard is making fun of us, its healthy to laugh at oneself once and a while. And some of his film is just fun too. Okay, now go back to the other reviews of how hopelessly miserable you'll feel after watching this, or how much of a religious awakening this will be if your down with the art-house film-erati. Definitely worth seeing.

This movie is an unsalvageable wreck. The acting is wretched with apologies to Bonham Carter and Cotillard who do not belong within a hundred and fifty miles. Burton seems confused as to which of the 4 or 5 different movies he wanted to make. None of them is fully realized. There is the sappy fun-for-the-whole-family melodrama that has infected his recent work. There is the 'trademark' weirdness that he has failed to develop significantly since Scissorhands. It just seems recycled and out of place here (Burton himself absolutely pillages Peewee's Big Adventure, which by the way, is a far superior film). There is a contrived story between father and son which leaves me with the impression that Burton not only never had a father but has never seen a father and a son interact in the same room. And there are at least three moments, horribly short, where one sees what the film could have been. That is the most infuriating part. The most disappointing film I've seen this year. 2/10 stars

It truly bothers me that many viewers of this film do not find its contents frightening. Or that they find elements of the plot and structure in similar styled movies which preceded it.

An honest interpretation of this film destroys both of these false conceptions. It wasn't formed seemlessly in a vacuum. _28 Days Later..._ does indeed pay homage to the heroes of its genres whether they be the apocalyptic or more straight forward horror. This is not to say that it doesn't spin these themes around on their heads and give them us something provocatively new.

Quite simply, _28 Days Later..._ takes one of the most numbingly frightening aspects of our contemporary culture, that of blind, irrational, and implacable hatred and lets it destroy the world or most of it. Sure its an infection but lets be quick to the point here, there's a reason its called rage. No longer are the 'zombies' the dead ghouls rising to plague the living. No, these 'zombies' are very much alive, exaggeratedly so, ruthlessly fast and completely indiscriminate in their destruction. The only thing they can actively discern apparently is who doesn't share their boundless blood-lust. And all they want to do is pass it on.

Ironically the dead are the only ones at peace and the living no longer need their help finding ways to die.

This film does have its flaws (I did give it a 7 after all) but not detriments such as shameless unoriginality or lack of terror. At times it can be a bit heavy-handed, delivering its morals with a listless dull thump, exactly the kind of strikes I remember _Night of the Living Dead_ zombies making, which makes them all the more unacceptable now that Boyle has decided to usurp such creatures. The latter third of the film, the Manchester-third (without giving anything substantial away) is far from subtle and can be a bit tedious. Thankfully the breath-taking opening and terrific middle portions will be remembered for what they are and payed homage to in the future in their own right.