After an hour and a half of this roller coaster ride, you'll wonder if you can enter London safely again. Following on from Danny Boyle's succesfull prequel, "28 Weeks Later" has mainland Britain controlled by the US Army. With Robert Carlyle starting the film having apparently deserted his wife to a group of marauding zombies, you'd think he'd end up the hero...
...not a bit of it ! He's very definitely the anti-hero. Starting the film as the doting father, looking after his children (in Spain for the duration of the first infection) Things turn sour following the discovery of his wife by his children (who go wandering off from the secure area), he visits her in hospital. Here she's kept as a possible carrier of "The Rage" and there's confusion as to whether she should live or be killed as a possible trigger for further infection. All this becomes academic when a kiss from Carlyle infects him, and he starts a new round of mad zombie blood letting when he attacks the guard who is looking after his children
With London now in turmoil, it's down to the children, accompanied by a couple of American soldiers to find a way to escape the madness. There's plenty of shocks along the way, and some uncomfortable viewing (most notably a U.S.Army sanctioned "turkey shoot" of infected and innocent people as things get out of control). A spectacular fire-bombing of London shows off the CGI to good effect, as does an interesting use of helicopter blades to rid the world of a field full of zombies.
The acting talent isn't completely made up of "stars", and Robert Carlyle is joined by Rose Byrne (currently starring in "Sunshine") and Catherine McCormack. There's also a role for Harold Perrineau (last seen in "Lost"). The best role is probably played by Jeremy Renner - an actor who I'd not heard of before, but he plays a disaffected American GI very well. There's plenty of parallels between the film and real life events, including those in Iraq. The ending (which I won't spoil here) also puns on "The Rage" name for the infection. Recommended