28 Weeks Later

28 Weeks Later
Studio: Fox Atomic
Rated: R
Cast: Rose Byrne, Jeremy Renner
Director: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
WorkNameSort: 28 Weeks Later
Our Rating: 2.50
This film’s predecessor, 28 Days Later, was a horror flick about a society hellbent on violence and the reactionary powers that would erode democratic ideals in the face of a crisis like a zombie plague. It embraced George A. Romero’s ideals about the genre’s ability to comment on modern culture and, in the process, resurrected the zombie movie for the new millennium. The sequel is divorced from its source material and instead focuses on bigger scares, louder music and two kids (who are almost as annoying as the Jurassic Park duo) wholly responsible for causing the return of the ‘rage virusâ?� that almost wiped England out 28 weeks earlier. London is basically a recovering warzone occupied by the U.S., and our teenage protagonists have to survive the urban naliightmare that Iraq â?¦ er, their home has become. If only there was a message behind all the curiously empty parallels.

This article appears in May 9-15, 2007.