Movie Review: 28 Weeks Later (2007)

28 Weeks Later (2007) co-written and directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo

In this sequel to 28 Days Later..., Don (Robert Carlisle) is hiding out from the infected in a country house with his wife Alice (Catherine McCormack) and a handful of other people. Don and Alice were lucky--their kids were on a school trip when the Rage virus broke out, so they are okay. Don and Alice have trouble when a kid comes knocking on their door, bringing with him a posse of infected who overrun the house. Don had a chance to save his wife but he went the selfish route, eventually becoming the only one to get away from the country house. 

28 weeks later he is part of the repatriation of British citizens to England. The island was quarantined and cleared out by UN Troops led by the Americans. The US military has set up one zone in London to start repopulating the country. Don is reunited with his children as part of rebuilding English society. Everyone thinks the infected are all dead and it's just a matter of time before the clean-up results in a livable country. That doesn't pan out when the two kids sneak out of the safe zone to visit their former London home. Their mom is hiding there, seemingly un-zombied, and is brought back to the safe zone for testing when the US military catches up to the kids. Alice has no Rage symptoms but is a carrier for the virus. The American doctors want to keep her to figure out a potential vaccine or cure; the American military wants to kill her as a carrier of the virus. Naturally, things get out of hand when the virus spreads again, causing chaos in the "safe" zone. One American sniper (Jeremey Renner) tries to save the day but is foiled at almost every turn as the story progresses.

The movie leans in to one of the less plausible theories from the original movie, that England was just cut off completely from the outside world. That's implausible with the existence of satellite phones, radio, television, etc., even twenty years ago. Setting that aside, the movie has some good chase sequences. It also has a lot of gore, which I don't really enjoy but will put up with for other benefits. The other benefits are too few and far between. The movie share a lot of the pessimism and nihilism of the first movie with no relief in sight. The actors are just okay, with no real great or standout performances. There are not enough interesting ideas or exciting sequences to make up for the flaws.

Barely recommended.