28 Days Later (2002) from Johnny Web (Uncle Scoopy; Greg Wroblewski)

There is nothing original about the premise of an end-of-the-world zombie movie, but this one is done beautifully.

A man wakes up in a hospital. He has apparently been in a coma for quite some time. He pulls out his IV's and investigates the hospital. It is empty. Ravenously thirsty, he vandalizes a Pepsi machine. He walks out into the streets of London. They are all empty. He finds a newspaper which hints of a plague which was destroying human life. There is no electricity or plumbing or any other services. The city seems lifeless.

Eventually he meets two more humans who inform him that they don't know of any others who are "uninfected". All the other humans seem to be victims of the plague, have turned into flesh-eating zombies, as required by the movie code of conduct. In the course of the bonding between the three remaining humans, the other man (not coma boy) becomes infected. The woman chops of his head. And then there were two. Coma boy spots Christmas tree lights on an upper floor of an apartment building. It must mean there are humans! Zombies don't build generators. It is a man and his daughter, looking for human assistance to undertake a trip to Manchester, where there are radio reports of the last military base.

They must then make the trek in an old Taxi, through an ocean of zombies, and when they finally arrive in Manchester, they find that hanging out with sex-starved rogue soldiers is not significantly better than hanging out with zombies. In fact, the best and "truest" thing about 28 Days is that even with a mere dozen humans standing against a zillion zombies, the humans can't band together effectively or treat one another with respect and dignity.

I think this film works perfectly for everything but the last ten minutes. After all, how do you end an end-of-the-world movie? The evil soldiers, the good guys, and the zombies square off in a Battle Royale, and ... well, you'll have to see it.

And it is worth seeing. Trust me. I hate zombie movies, but I liked this one. It has impressive shots of deserted London, real wit, an attempt to portray the situation as it might really occur, scary moments, tension, and some genuine moments of emotional truth. Even the freakin' zombies aren't completely irritating.

Ebert and Berardinelli each awarded three stars. Those British critics are tough, averaging only 2 1/4 stars.

The director is Danny Boyle, who seems to have rediscovered the skewed cult appeal he showed in Trainspotting, after years of minor efforts and minimal productivity, the nadir of which resulted in the atrocious "The Beach".