Saturday, May 12, 2007

Spiders and Zombies

Megan and I have been staying on top of new movie releases the past few weeks. We went to Spider-Man 3 last Friday, and just got out of 28 Weeks Later. While we don't do many reviews we thought we'd toss out our thoughts on this recent deluge of sequels.

Spiderman 3
If you liked the first two movies you'll probably have to watch this one for completeness, but this trilogy does not end on it's highest note. I'm pretty sure Sam Raimi was thinking this was his last Spider-Man flick and wanted to cram in every villain and plot line that he loved when reading the comics. The result is a movie that bit off too much story to tell in the time allotted. There are some great parts though. My favorites were watching the evil and suave Peter Parker disco down the street and seeing Bruce Campbell as a snooty French concierge in a very classically Raimi scene. The lowest point had to be the ending, which was the lamest cryfest I've ever seen. Mary Jane is crying. Spider-Man is crying. Green Goblin 2 is crying. Even the freaking Sandman is crying. He's made of freaking sand, how can he cry? What are his tears made of? Anyway, we walked away feeling like something had happened that was expensive and kind of enjoyable.

28 Weeks Later
This movie was great. It opens with one man's story of how he survived the outbreak from the first movie. He's holed in a small cottage with his wife and about five other people, surviving on canned food. There is a knock at the door and they let in a haggard little boy. He talks about running from his parent and a horde of the infected, and the pounding on the wall lets us know he was followed. The house is ransacked and the husband and wife are upstairs with the new kid. The zombies rush in and we see the husband shut the door on his wife and run for it. Roll opening credits. Whoa.

What I really want to do is retell the whole movie to you guys, but I won't spoil it. The film follows the American led reconstruction of England. The movie makes some comments on the Iraqi war, but it doesn't preach or editorialize. I don't want to spoil it but there's one scene that captures the whole situation so perfectly... I wish I could just give it all away, but I won't.

The moral of the story is, go see this movie so I can talk to you all about it.

11 comments:

Andrew said...

Thanks for the reviews. It makes me want to hit our local multiplex and view some flicks. Take care and have a great weekend!

Sincerely,
Andrew in Alabama
The 4th Avenue Blues

Anonymous said...

Hello there kids, this is your old pal Dan Stanley from far far away back in Chicagoland. I have no actual comments regarding Spiderman 3 or 28 Weeks Later, as I have not yet seen either, I only wish to share a short story. I was out to dinner in good ol' Joliet, Illinois the other night, when the waiter told the four of us to make sure to thank the gentleman a few tables away, as he had just paid for our drinks. Quite confused and wondering if one of us was being hit on, we looked over to see a giant table full o' Smiths. I barely recognize your sisters anymore, they've grown up so much. Anyway, be sure to thank your dad again for leading me to the blog and contributing to my alcoholism. Shoot me an email at danieljstanley@yahoo.com if you have a chance. Hope all is well!

marthamatters said...

Spiderman 3 was stupid. Cheesier than the first two, but I thought that Venom and the Sandman were done really well. I think I hate Toby McGuire. Why did they have to turn Black Spiderman into
Emo/Gay Spiderman?

Oliver said...

I'm eager to see 28 weeks now. Spidey was a bit shite. I watched the cartoon version of teh same story line; it's about 35 mins long and much better.

Caleb said...

I agree with just about everything on the Spidey issue.

The 28 Weeks Later comments surprised me. I didn't expect a lot from this movie because the studio gave the story to new writers, producers, and director so it had nothing to do with the original crew. It has gotten great reviews though so now I want to see it.

TaylorStreet said...

what's the deal with spanish-speaking directors completely kicking ass?

marthamatters said...

I just wanted to let you know that Matt and I watched 28 Days Later in preparation for viewing the sequel. I originally wasn't interested in seeing it, but you've piqued my interest. Plus, Matt had never seen 28 Days, so he was super impressed.

TaylorStreet said...

wow, did Matt like 28 Days?

Anonymous said...

i'm not going to see 28 days later and will probably wait to see spiderman when i buy all three movies in the super-rad-awesome-ilovetobymcguireasanemokid-superpack.
so far 28 weeks later is just a lame name to a crap first movie i thought was... crap. I'm sure i'll hear more crap about it when ang and oli come back... so far my 28 weeks later experience has been babysitting kid that sleeps like a rock, eating great barrito, calling cute man for date tomorrow, and drinking red stripe. that pretty much makes me the best 28 weeks later movie seeing parents babysitter ever.
i miss you guys. visit my myspace and leave me fun comments. i check it about as often as i leave "anonymous" blog comments, but know the love is there... you are missed. i can't come to london this summer. Maybe next year... next year.... come visit me damnit!
-jnice

Oliver said...

why does Janice hate blogs so much. What a blog-hater! I saw 28 weeks later and it was amazing; utterly relentless and gruesome.

Penny's Uncle said...

I saw Spidey 3 in IMAX, and Joe's sarcastic comments ruined it for me. Otherwise, I give the experience a six out of ten. Keep in mind the first two were a nine-point-five out of ten, so yeah, this Spidey was pretty lackluster. Petey Parker going emo? Yeah, okay. Why not just make him angry, for Pete's sake? (Pun intendend)