Search Movie Review Archives

Scientists at Cambridge University have been working with primates to explore a new disease called RAGE. The disease is highly contagious, spreading itself through miniscule amounts of blood, and the infection takes only 20 to 30 seconds before it releases an uncontrollable range in the victim. When three animal rights activists (Alex Palmer, Bindu De Stoppani, Jukka Hiltunen) break into the laboratory where the animals are being held, they let one of the chimps out despite the vehement protests of the scientist in charge (David Schneider). Instead of welcoming the release with open arms, the chimp then attacks the activists, and the spreading of RAGE begins. ***

28 days later... Jim (Cillian Murphy) wakes up from a coma in a hospital to find London abandoned. As he explores the eerily empty streets, he first encounters an infected priest, who he bats away, attracting the attention of others among the 'infected'. He then runs for his life and is finally saved by two people who did not successfully flee the city in 'The Exodus' but have miraculously not become infected, Mark (Noah Huntley) and Selena (Naomie Harris). Mark and Selena take Jim in and explain what has happened - RAGE has spread throughout England and most of the people are dead. ***

When they are attacked by some infected, Mark becomes infected and is quickly dispatched by Selena, leaving only Jim and Selena. Eventually they find others that are not infected, a father, Frank (Brendan Gleeson), and his daughter, Hannah (Megan Burns), who have managed to fend off the infected and the infection. Once together, Frank reveals to Jim and Selena that a military group north of them has been broadcasting a message saying that can save anyone that is unaffected. They decide to make the trip together. ***

With only a few adventures on the way, they arrive at the military blockade to find it abandoned. Not sure what to do, they are preparing to leave when Frank happens to become infected by a rotting corpse and is killed by soldiers in hiding nearby. The soldiers then take the surviving three back to their new camp, a rural mansion that has been fortified. But to Jim, Selena, and Hannah's surprise, there are only a handful of soldiers, along with their leader, Sergeant Farrell (Stuart McQuarrie). ***

Everything seems to be going fine, until Farrell reveals to Jim and the others that the reason for the radio message was to attract women, which his soldiers were demanding. If Jim refuses to let his men have their way with Selena and Hannah, Jim will be killed. But Jim escapes only to return and in a controlled rage, he is able to free Selena and Hannah before they are subjected to the whims of the soldiers. In the process, all of the soldiers are killed and Jim takes a bullet to the stomach. Nevertheless, they escape and make it to a remote home in rural England where they prepare for the world outside England to come to their rescue. ***

This is an interesting movie because it combines a rather classic story idea (what if you were the only person left on the planet with just one member of the opposite sex, etc.) with something akin to the novel The Lord of the Flies' (the soldiers going crazy when left on their own). Sadly, when looked at this way, the movie becomes a bit unoriginal, but at the same time, it is a somewhat original combination that works to sell the movie. ***

The story itself has some problems, not the least of which is the science behind it. But given that the basic premise of the movie rests upon a suspension of belief, I am willing to overlook the fact that there is absolutely no way a virus could infect an individual in 20 to 30 seconds (it would take much longer than that just to make its way through the human circulatory system). But at times the suspension of belief demands just a bit too much from the casual consumer as Jim repeatedly finds himself coated in the blood of the infected, but never seems to become infected. This despite the fact that the virus infects a very large man, Frank, in less than 20 seconds, through the tear duct in his eye. Because I thought the story was engaging (for the most part anyway), I was generally willing to let these faux pas go by. ***

But the whole thing with the soldiers kind of got on my nerves. First, as soldiers, didn't they have radio equipment? Well of course they did as they were using it to broadcast all the way to London. So, why didn't they use their radio equipment to contact the world outside of England to (1) See if the virus had spread outside of England, and (2) Tell those people that were looking for survivors where they were? Why? Because then the movie wouldn't have worked. Along with this problem was the problem of the soldiers not being able to survive without sex for more than 28 days. Please! I'm all for having sex, but if there comes a time when it just isn't possible and there are reasonable alternatives... I'm pretty sure they could have lasted more than 28 days, but anyway. So, there were problems with the story. But despite these problems, I still found myself entertained and even on the edge of my seat at times. ***

As for the acting, well, it was marginally better, but definitely not the movie's strong point. The person I actually had the biggest problem with was Cillian Murphy. Sometimes he was really good, but usually he was just mediocre, and there were times when he was downright bad. I think the worst part was when he went quasi-berserk at the end of the movie and killed all the soldiers. Not only did this not make logical sense (he frees the infected soldier, despite wanting to save Selena and Hannah, who are in the house where he unleashes the infected), but his borderline rage wasn't well portrayed. The rest of the actors were pretty good. I especially liked Frank, which was too bad because he died fairly quickly after he was introduced. There was also the scene in the alternate ending where Hannah kept asking, "What do we do now?" that almost drove me bonkers, but other than that, the acting was acceptable. ***

Overall, despite some major story problems and the occasional acting disasters, the movie is really quite entertaining. I generally don't like horror films, but this wasn't really so much the traditional horror film, though it had a lot of the elements of one. The movie kind of contrasts some responses to highly stressful situations and keeps you guessing as to what is going to happen next. As I personally didn't really spend much time thinking about the movie after it ended (other than to consider the flaws), I don't see this as a movie that will go down in cinematic history. But if you are looking for a twist on horror films (especially for Halloween), I think you might enjoy this one.

The 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer is pretty good. However, there were times when I noticed (on my 36" HD screen) compression artifacts. It wasn't very often, but they were occasionally visible. There are also a few spots in the film where people's faces are washed out in bright lights. Given that this is a recent film, I wasn't quite sure what to make of these things until I found out the movie was shot using digital cameras. Don't get me wrong, I fully advocate a move to digital cameras as it will allow pretty much anyone to become a film maker, but the quality was, sadly, noticeably impaired in this film. This was especially notable in the 'making of' featurette. ***

The sound, however, is another story. It is well-mastered and pretty full. There aren't a lot of scenes where the full range of 5.1 sound is needed, but there are a few and a good stereo system will give you the full effect. Overall, not too bad, though the compression artifacts are a bit annoying.

The making of featurette could have been interesting, but is really more distracting. For some reason they chose to use a lot of video effects and strange angles for the behind the scenes interviews and footage. The result was I found it hard to focus on what was being discussed by the interviewees. I recognize that it added a different dimension to the featurette, but given that I was really just interested in additional information, I wasn't too impressed. ***

The alternate endings, which have been hyped quite heavily in the marketing of this DVD, are a major disappointment. Really, you just have two options - Jim dies or Jim doesn't die. The variations beyond that aren't particularly interesting. The commentary explains why they chose not to use the one's they did, but doesn't really explain why the movie ultimately ended up with ending it did. ***

I did like the still photo galleries because they included a commentary with the pictures. They pictures rotate automatically and include a voice over. ***

The music video is actually just made up of scenes from the film. If you wanted, you could probably just use it as a synopsis of what the film is about. ***

The deleted scenes are also pretty interesting, but it does make sense why they were taken out. Of course, I did think there were a few additional scenes they could have taken out to speed things up, but I would generally agree with the editing decisions. ***

Overall, the extras are ok. The choice to include commentary on the still photo gallery was a good one, but the unique presentation of the making of featurette was a drawback.