Starring: Cillian Murphy, Brendan Gleeson, Naomie Harris, Noah Huntley, Megan Burns, Christopher Eccleston
Director: Danny Boyle
Genre: Horror
Cert: 18
Released: 2002

Irish courier, Jim, (Murphy) awakes from a coma in his London hospital bed to find a deserted building and deserted streets around it. An abandoned newspaper stand reveals that the city has been evacuated and the surreal experience multiplies after he is chased from a church by a vicious mob. Rescued by two soldiers (Huntley and Harris), he finds out that a deadly virus has broken out and infected almost the entire country in the last 28 days.

While we assume that we’ll be viewing a study of survival in a post-apocalyptic world, “28 Days Later” meanders off into safe territory. The emotional issues surrounding doomsday love and life itself, are replaced by a predictable, and slightly ludicrous, cat-and-mouse chase for continued existence. Maybe this is why, good as this movie is in the main, you feel left just a little bit short by the closing credits.

By no means poor, “28 Days Later”, however, could have been so much more.