28 Weeks Later

Reviewed by: - 09.27.06

YO! El Mayimbe here. Wow, now I got a lot of haters out there this week who gave me mierda porque I only read the 1st 30 pages of Charlie Kaufman's latest script. Now I tried folks, I really did but in this town you have less than 30 pages to set up your story and for my tastes Kaufman didn't. I'm sorry, but if the hero is gonna spend a majority of the 1st act in the bathroom contemplating the color of his and his daughter's feces then that script isn't for me. That isn't a strong enough central question for me to stick out yet another 122 pages! Hell no! Critics can walk out of a screening but I am not allowed to put down a script 30 pages in, I have to punish myself through it?!

Kiss my Dominican ass.

Which brings me to this week's script, which was a lean and mean 96 fast blazingly pages. A script that I read in under an hour that gets right to the point. A script that uses concrete and visual verbs in the action and description that is a line or two at best. Lean and concise writing. A script so lean, a single word on one line of description that describes the setting. A script that moves. No time wasted on details that can't be photographed. No adverbs or adjectives.

Storytelling.

Characters that after 30 pages, you have a clear central question, you know what the movie is about and what these characters have to do "proactively" for the next hour in order to resolve the central question.

What I am trying to say, what Professor Richard Walter of UCLA's writing program said in one of his books - "Make your point and move your tale."

Of all the script readers in this town, I am one of the most liberal. I don't pass on everything like most of my colleagues do. I let a lot slide.

28 Days Later was one of those kinetic movies from 2003 that was also one of the best-looking DV movies I have ever seen. Then again it had a 6 million dollar budget. It was also clever. Hence why I guess it warrants a sequel because it made some dough at the box office. They are now into their 4-week of shooting.

The sequel seems to be a Latino affair since the director, writers and DP (Enrique Chediak) are Latino.

Let's take a look at the 1st act setup.

WARNING! SPOILERS!

We are treated to a bunch of survivors in the pre title sequence that tries to make a getaway in a boat on the English Channel. We find out that the United States has intervened on the infected situation in Great Britain. The survivors spot an F-16 and wave to it for help. Instead, the F-16 blows them out of the water annihilating the survivors! We see that the English Channel is littered with other bodies of escaping survivors who tried to escape through the English Channel!

Seven months later or 28 Weeks Later...we find out that the population of Great Britain has been reduced to 7,000 people. 60 million people have been killed.

On a passenger plane, we meet 15-year-old DANNY, his 17-year-old sister TAMSIN. They meet DON their 45-year-old father on the tarmac at Heathrow Airport. The family was away when infection first happened and their mother was a casualty. Now they come back to England and their father has a new 29-year-old girlfriend named SCARLETT who obviously is going to have beef with TAMSIN. Scarlett lost her family to the infection.

When the passengers’ get off the plane they receive booklets entitled: Coming Home, Guidelines for British Citizens.

The United States is working with the British to bring back the infrastructure and take advantage of the economic opportunities of a new United Kingdom.
The marines are in Great Britain maintaining Law and Order.

The UK has been divided into zones. Green zones which the citizens can navigate and red zones which are off limits. Later, GENERAL WESTMORELAND and PROFESSOR STONE hold a press conference in which we find out that the last of the infected died 28 weeks ago. Apparently, the infected can't survive on it's own or without a new living human host to feed so it supposedly died out.

That is until Danny finds an infected boy at the aquarium in the water.
Stone and DOCTOR ROSS take the infected to a laboratory. Because it is the first live specimen, Stone wants to make an antibody.

It isn't far away until all hell breaks loose in England where we see much of the same from the last movie where a bunch of survivors must band together in order to live.
The difference between this movie and the first one is the infection itself - how people get it. I won't say because it gives away the film and it is the big reveal, which we don't find out till the 3rd act.

Jeremy Renner's cool and badass character DOYLE, a mercenary, former SAS, doesn't make his first appearance till page 59.

So what is the verdict?

Entertaining, another group of people on the run from the sprinting zombie flick which we have seen a dozen times before with the infection delivery this time around being different than the first film. That's the hook.

I give it a B- (Good Enough). A good enough quick read where it kept me interested up to the big reveal and then the irony that closes the film.

A good enough Saturday afternoon matinee.

Another recommendation I have this week is Joe Eszterha's book about screenwriting called The Devil's Guide to Hollywood, which is a decadent and delicious read and a must for aspiring screenwriters.

Hasta el proximo capitulo...

...YO SOY EL MAYIMBE!

mayimbe@latinoreview.com