28 Weeks Later (2007)

Director: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo

Cast: Robert Carlyle as Don, Catherine McCormack as Alice, Rose Byrne as Scarlet, Jeremy Renner as Doyle, Harold Perrineau as Flynn, Idris Elba as Stone, Imogen Poots as Tammy, Mackintosh Muggleton as Andy, Amanda Walker as Sally, Shahid Ahmed as Jacob, Garfield Morgan as Geoff, Emily Beecham as Karen, Beans El-Balawi as Boy in Cottage (as Beans Balawi), Meghan Popiel as DLR Soldier, Stewart Alexander as Military Officer

I must immediately stress that critics who made the interpretation that
this was a statement on the Iraq War seem to know as little about it as
they do allegory. I'll write more on this later.

To put it succinctly, this movie has all that modern zombie movies are
supposed to have. Incredible gore? Check. Virus zombies? Check. Biting
zombies? Check. Soldiers shooting zombies? Check. A horror plot that
has people falling to their own weaknesses? Check.

The shocks are there, the plot is excellent, and the acting is very,
very good. My only issue with the movie, actually, was its use of some
recognizable actors- casting semi-unknowns makes the movie more
visceral, instead of having fans think, 'Oh, I saw that guy in...'.

Thankfully, fans of the first movie will notice that it doesn't try to
ret-con anything, and the same action-focused, grainy camera work makes
a welcome return. The movie moves along at a nice pace, never leaving
you room to get bored.

Carina Chocano in the Los Angeles Times commented, "The director's
message is less overtly political than it is allegorical -- that chaos
breeds chaos and that force only serves to amplify it." Given that from
the very first moment, without getting too specific, people abandoning
their duties defines the movie (as it does virtually all zombie films),
I would have to completely disagree. I even set upon another viewing of
this movie simply for the purpose of finding an Iraq metaphor- and it's
not really there; at this point, they would find a war metaphor in
Disney's 'Dumbo'. Unfortunately, I'd have to say that this time, the
critics are pretentiously political; so don't worry about getting
preached to, as I did. If you're looking for military/force/war
metaphors, look to the first film, 28 Days Later. If you're looking for
an excellent, fun, gore-infested romp, watch this right afterwards.