Seen before: Yes
I have possibly seen this film more times than any film, which is slightly surprising. It's also one of the few I own on DVD that I also used to own on VHS (going back in time a bit). It kick started my 'love' for Danny Boyle and his films.
---Plot Summary---
A bike courier (Cillian Murphy) wakes up from a coma in hospital. He discovers that he is the only person there, so sets out to find where everyone is. Upon being attacked by a group of savages, he is rescued by two other 'survivors', who inform him that Great Britain has been hit by an epidemic that fills people with 'rage', causing them to attack others on sight. Along with a father and his daughter, they set out for an army base in Manchester, hoping to find answers.
---Review---
After a frenetic opening in which the 'rage' virus is released because of some animal activists freeing the chimpanzees that are carrying it, we are greeted with perhaps one the most memorable and striking scenarios in British cinema, as Jim (Cillian Murphy) awakens to an empty and desolate London. It's truly remarkable and jaw-dropping, as locations which are usually teeming with people and traffic are completely vacant. If you start as you mean to go on, then this is a blistering start, although nothing else in the film quite matches the visual impact of these early scenes (although the M1 devoid of any vehicles comes close later on).
Jim wanders aimlessly through London, looking for signs of life, and ends up seeking refuge in a church that turns out to be filled with dead bodies, but is then attacked by the 'infected' priest. He tries to outrun and escape his attacker, and is rescued by two other survivors, Selena (Naomie Harris) and Mark (Noah Huntley), who then inform him of the events that have happened whilst in his coma. Through a series of unfortunate events, Mark ends up being killed and Jim and Selena find another two survivors, Frank (Brendan Gleeson) and Hannah (Megan Burns), who have discovered an army broadcast that directs them to Manchester. But what waits them there is not exactly what they had expected...
With it's incredibly low budget, Danny Boyle has managed to create a masterpiece. I still love this film, even after seeing it over, I'd say, 20 times. It works not only as a horror piece, but as a portrayal of the extreme measures people will go to in order to survive (not unlike 127 Hours).
It is brutal, at times hard to watch, but still remains almost bleakly beautiful, with some scenes causing your jaw to drop. When they spend the night in the countryside, Jim, Selena, Frank and Hannah see a group of horses gallop past. When asked whether he thinks they're infected, Frank replies: 'No... no they're just fine'. It is a scene accompanied by some haunting music, as are many of the scenes. And the pain Jim has gone through discovering that his parents are dead leads him to see Frank as a father figure, in a scene of amazing poignancy.
Phenomenal performances are brought out of a variety of well know actors (Christopher Eccleston excels as Major West, a man with who disturbingly views the two women in the film as 'the future'), but unfortunately for the rest of them, Megan Burns as Hannah nearly ruins it for everyone. I know she was young and inexperienced, but this is perhaps one of the worst performances I have ever seen. She manages to convey no emotion at any point during the film, even when Frank dies in the second half of the film. A truly terrible performance. But luckily for her, the script and story allow the viewer to almost ignore her scenes.
I feel I must bring up a controversial talking point in the film, where Jim encounters a young infected boy, who he manages to trap under his foot before killing him with a baseball bat. The boy screams out 'I hate you!', the first and in fact only infected person to say anything in the entire film. It is indeed curious, perhaps Boyle's way of suggesting that whilst these people are indeed enraged animals, they retain some sense of humanity. It is certainly a curious scene to leave in the final edit.
I do not feel I can sum up how much I love this film here, but I think one scene can almost achieve it for me. Whilst they are driving down an empty M1, Jim leans out of the window with his hand, brushing it through the air, to the music of Brian Eno, and with giant wind farms in the background. It is perhaps the most beautiful scene in what is largely a violent and bleak film, but fits in magnificently.
---Rating---
9/10
Tomorrow: 3-Iron (Kim Ki-Duk, 2004)
I have possibly seen this film more times than any film, which is slightly surprising. It's also one of the few I own on DVD that I also used to own on VHS (going back in time a bit). It kick started my 'love' for Danny Boyle and his films.
---Plot Summary---
A bike courier (Cillian Murphy) wakes up from a coma in hospital. He discovers that he is the only person there, so sets out to find where everyone is. Upon being attacked by a group of savages, he is rescued by two other 'survivors', who inform him that Great Britain has been hit by an epidemic that fills people with 'rage', causing them to attack others on sight. Along with a father and his daughter, they set out for an army base in Manchester, hoping to find answers.
---Review---
After a frenetic opening in which the 'rage' virus is released because of some animal activists freeing the chimpanzees that are carrying it, we are greeted with perhaps one the most memorable and striking scenarios in British cinema, as Jim (Cillian Murphy) awakens to an empty and desolate London. It's truly remarkable and jaw-dropping, as locations which are usually teeming with people and traffic are completely vacant. If you start as you mean to go on, then this is a blistering start, although nothing else in the film quite matches the visual impact of these early scenes (although the M1 devoid of any vehicles comes close later on).
Jim wanders aimlessly through London, looking for signs of life, and ends up seeking refuge in a church that turns out to be filled with dead bodies, but is then attacked by the 'infected' priest. He tries to outrun and escape his attacker, and is rescued by two other survivors, Selena (Naomie Harris) and Mark (Noah Huntley), who then inform him of the events that have happened whilst in his coma. Through a series of unfortunate events, Mark ends up being killed and Jim and Selena find another two survivors, Frank (Brendan Gleeson) and Hannah (Megan Burns), who have discovered an army broadcast that directs them to Manchester. But what waits them there is not exactly what they had expected...
With it's incredibly low budget, Danny Boyle has managed to create a masterpiece. I still love this film, even after seeing it over, I'd say, 20 times. It works not only as a horror piece, but as a portrayal of the extreme measures people will go to in order to survive (not unlike 127 Hours).
It is brutal, at times hard to watch, but still remains almost bleakly beautiful, with some scenes causing your jaw to drop. When they spend the night in the countryside, Jim, Selena, Frank and Hannah see a group of horses gallop past. When asked whether he thinks they're infected, Frank replies: 'No... no they're just fine'. It is a scene accompanied by some haunting music, as are many of the scenes. And the pain Jim has gone through discovering that his parents are dead leads him to see Frank as a father figure, in a scene of amazing poignancy.
Phenomenal performances are brought out of a variety of well know actors (Christopher Eccleston excels as Major West, a man with who disturbingly views the two women in the film as 'the future'), but unfortunately for the rest of them, Megan Burns as Hannah nearly ruins it for everyone. I know she was young and inexperienced, but this is perhaps one of the worst performances I have ever seen. She manages to convey no emotion at any point during the film, even when Frank dies in the second half of the film. A truly terrible performance. But luckily for her, the script and story allow the viewer to almost ignore her scenes.
I feel I must bring up a controversial talking point in the film, where Jim encounters a young infected boy, who he manages to trap under his foot before killing him with a baseball bat. The boy screams out 'I hate you!', the first and in fact only infected person to say anything in the entire film. It is indeed curious, perhaps Boyle's way of suggesting that whilst these people are indeed enraged animals, they retain some sense of humanity. It is certainly a curious scene to leave in the final edit.
I do not feel I can sum up how much I love this film here, but I think one scene can almost achieve it for me. Whilst they are driving down an empty M1, Jim leans out of the window with his hand, brushing it through the air, to the music of Brian Eno, and with giant wind farms in the background. It is perhaps the most beautiful scene in what is largely a violent and bleak film, but fits in magnificently.
---Rating---
9/10
Tomorrow: 3-Iron (Kim Ki-Duk, 2004)
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