When director Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours) and screenwriter Alex Garland (Ex Machina, Civil War) teamed up for the 2002 film 28 Days Later, little did we know what a cultural phenomenon this under-the-radar, “Zombie if they were infected with Rabies” story filmed on an $8 million budget would become. Nor did we know just how well Boyle and Garland would complement each other, as director and screenwriter, respectively. Having become a timeless film that ignited a quarter century of zombie fiction movies, television shows, books, and video games, 28 Days Later modernized this horror sub-genre with its “what if the infected zombies moved at warped speed rather than at a snail’s pace” question.
Category Archives: Jodie Comer
The Bikeriders (2024)
Director Jeff Nichols (Take Shelter, Mud) is an expert at creating ordinary characters, putting them in everyday situations, and allowing interactions and relationships to carry the story. He has masterfully accomplished this through films I adore, such as Shotgun Stories, Take Shelter, and Mud, and through films, such as Midnight Special and Loving, that aren’t quite as good as a whole but still have well-crafted characters. The Bikeriders, his most recent film, follows a similar blueprint but fails to tell an exciting story or have a single character we genuinely care about. While well made with a stellar cast that put forward the effort, the film was a snoozefest.
The Last Duel (2021)
Ridley Scott’s (Aliens, All the Money in the World) The Last Duel has been my most anticipated theater-going experience since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the last 19 months, I’ve been to the movie theater 20-25 times, far more than anyone I know. Theater attendance is down, as would be expected. I purchased a ticket 15 minutes after the previews started (customary for me when I see movies alone). My showing was at 11:00 a.m., but it was also the day after it was released. There were 15 moviegoers in a theater that held 250. It’s been a struggle to get back to the theater, especially with many movies having a same-day Video on Demand release or a release to popular streaming services much sooner than pre-pandemic days.