There are great movie directors and then the others.
Some are jobbing hacks who thrash out any old film to placate audiences and the studios.
Those filmmakers enjoy long careers as long as their movies keep making money.
Other directors have a film or two at the start of their careers that shine but they subsequently struggle to reach the same heights.
Many fade into obscurity because they can't score another critical or commercial hit.
Great filmmakers, however, hit the heights with impressive regularity, building up a body of work that may not be consistently good but still fascinates.
Every time they get behind the camera, they seem to go for broke and even when their work is flawed, you can still see theitr flair for visual storytelling.
Danny Boyle is that sort of director.
Movies like 'Shallow Grave' and undoubtedly his best film 'Trainspotting' made his name early in his career, giving him an immediate reputation as the most innovative British director of his generation.
Subsequent movies like 'The Beach,' '28 Days Later,' 'Millions' and 'Sunshine' still made people sit up and take notice.
Those films were visually stylish, impressively acted and they were fashioned around compelling stories.
The next movie 'Slumdog Millionaire,' though, earned Boyle the ultimate cinematic accolade - taking a hatful of Oscars home including Best Director.
Even with all that success, the Mancunian filmmaker continued to aim high.
'127 Hours,' 'Steve Jobs' and 'T2: Trainspotting' were well made, cementing his reputation as the closest British cinema has ever got to having someone on a par with Martin Scorsese - even if those movies weren't among his very best.
'Trance' and 'Yesterday' were disappointing but they nevertheless had moments of real panache.
Now Boyle is back with a sequel of sorts to his 2002 zombie classic '28 Days Later,' having given us a Sex Pistols TV series 'Pistol' on Disney+ back in 2022
Twenty three years on from the original, audiences still rave about his 2002 zombie film with Christopher Eccleston, Brendan Gleeson, Naomie Harris and Cillian Murphy who stars as a bicycle courier who wakes up from a coma to discover the UK has succumbed to a zombie virus.
So iconic was the shot of Murphy's courier Jim wandering along a completely empty Westminster Bridge that it was the film reference people immediately turned to during the 2020 COVID lockdowns.
Fans of the original will know it spawned a sequel '28 Weeks Later' from director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo with Robert Carlyle, Rose Byrne and Jeremy Renner.
Fresnadillo's film was well received by audiences and critics but it did not set the box office alight like its predecessor nor enjoy the same warm revjewx.
But it undoubtedly helped whet the appetite of audiences for a slew of zombie TV shows like 'The Walking Dead' and its spin-offs, 'The Last of Us' as well as movies like 'Shaun of the Dead,' '65,' and the 'Zombieland' and 'A Quiet Place' franchises.
Given all the TV and movie shows about the undead since '28 Days Later,' the stakes are now higher for Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland as they return to genre.
Returning to the apocalyptic world of '28 Days Later,' they have to conjure up a story that explains how the UK and Ireland has remained ravaged by the zombie virus leaked from a laboratory 28 years before while the rest of Europe has moved on.
With audiences used to flesh eating zombies and sound sensitive monsters, the duo needs to come up with something fresh.
In '28 Years Later,' they have opted for a tale about a self-contained island community in the north east of England cut off from the mainland - linked only by a causeway that appears at low tide.
The islanders include Alfie Williams' 12 year old Spike, his father Aaron Taylor-Johnson's Jamie and his seriously ill mum, Jodie Comer's Isla.
A respected scavenger and zombie hunter, Jamie takes Alfie onto the mainland armed with bows and arrows as part of a rite of passage where he is expected to carry out his first kill.
After they leave the safety of the island at low tide, we discover there are now two types of zombies roaming Britain and Ireland - plump, slobbering, slow ones that are easy prey and much faster, stronger, feral ones who are much more dangerous.
Targeting the slower ones, Spike carries out his first kill but when he and his dad encounter the faster ones, he becomes a bit overwhelmed and they are forced to take shelter in the ruins of a dilapidated farmhouse.
There Jamie and Spike encounter a person who has been infected with the zombie virus but has been shockingly hung upside down in the rain sodden living room with a bag over his head.
Spike is reluctant to kill the infected person but Jamie does what is necessary.
After a couple of close calls, the duo manage to make it back to the island where a boozy celebration of the boy's first kill is held.
Holding court, a boozed up Jamie gilds the lily about Spike's exploits, much to his son's embarrassment.
But that embarrassment soon turns to revulsion when Spike witnesses an act of betrayal by his father.
Learning of an eccentric doctor, Ralph Fiennes' Ian Kelson who is believed to have gone mad on the mainland but who might be able to help Isla, Spike engineers an escape with his mother from the island in defiance of his father.
However to get to Dr Kelson, they must first navigate dangerous zombie terrain as well as Isla's occasional bouts of delirium.
Prior to the story of Spike's adventures on the mainland, Boyle and Garland give us a prologue from 28 years earlier about zombie hordes invading a Scottish Highlands village.
At the start of the film, we see tearful, terrified children huddling in a living room watching the 'Teletubbies' as the adults fail to fend off a zombie invasion.
As most of the children and villagers are savaged by zombies and infected by the rage virus, one boy Rocco Haynes' Jimmy escapes - only for him to resurface at the end of '28 Years Later' played by Jack O'Connell.
Rather disturbingly and forebodingly, O'Connell's Jimmy is the eccentric leader of a gang who fight zombies while dressed like the infamous British DJ and prolific paedophile Jimmy Savile.
Make of that what you will but this is typical of a movie where Garland and Boyle play with a number of themes.
The most obvious is COVID related, with the film's island community rigourously enforcing lockdown rules as the virus rages outside but relaxing them on occasion when they need to scavenge for supplies.
The other idea that looms large in the film is Brexit - as the islanders cut themselves off from the mainland and engage in dated English nostalgia like old portraits of Queen Elizabeth II, trade union style banners and pints of home brewed ale.
In terms of style, '28 Years Later' comes across like a fusion between the gritty realism of Ken Loach's 'Kes' and Francis Coppola's 'Apocalypse Now' with shades of 'The Last of Us' and Stephen Fingleton's 'The Survivalist' thrown in for good measure.
Fiennes' Dr Kelson has definite Colonel Kurtz vibe off him when Isla and Spike eventually come across him.
Williams' Spike also feels what it would be like if Billy Casper from 'Kes' was thrust into a zombie world.
A film of two halves, the first half is an action tale of a father and son bonding over how to survive a harsh world, only for the boy to realise his dad isn't all he's cracked up to be.
The second is a much more meditative tale of a mother and son not just bonding as they face zombies but facing other adversities.
Tonally, there's too much going on in '28 Years Later'.
While the film is never dull, it overflows with ideas.
The film is exhilaratingly shot by Boyle's regular cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle mostly on an iPhone 15 Pro Max, while deploying drones and other digital and film cameras.
The use of multi cameras takes us right into the heart of the action and it is impressively stitched together with a Young Fathers' soundtrack by editor Jon Harris who gives the film a punk ethic.
But as impressive as it all is technically, you just wish '28 Years Later' would settle down and focus on a few things instead of too much.
Williams is good value as a 12 year old boy forced to grow up really quickly.
Taylor-Johnson is effective as his very flawed, macho father.
Fiennes is wonderful as a man who is not quite the savage you'd expect.
Christopher Fulford provides strong support as Jim, an older member of the island community led by Stella Gonet's Jenny who influences Spike.
Swedish actor Edvin Ryding is good fun as Erik, a NATO soldier who comes to Isla and Spike's rescue.
Chi Lewis-Parry is chilling as Sansom, the leader of the more deadly set of zombies.
And while O'Connell isn't onscreen long enough to properly assess his performance, his cameo at the end of the film is nonetheless deeply unsettling.
The actor who undoubtedly steals the show, though, is Comer who finds depth and beauty in Boyle and Garland's slobbering, bloody and slimy world as a mother facing a very different challenge.
Hers is the performance that lives longest in a movie that will spawn at least two more films.
With Boyle handing over the baton to American director Nia Da Costa, it'll be interesting to see how she handles a very British zombie story.
Da Costa has a tough act to follow but it is also one hell of an opportunity.
Here's hoping she scales Boyle's heights.
('28 Years Later' was released in UK and Irish cinemas on June 20, 2025)
Last year Danny Boyle's '28 Years Later' collaborator Alex Garland delivered one of the best movies of 2024 as a director.
'Civil War' is one of the best films ever made about media operating in a conflict zone.
The twist, however, was that the warzone portrayed in the movie was not in the Ukraine, Sudan or Gaza.
It was on the streets of New York and Washington DC and the rural towns and highways in between.
In the year of a divisive US Presidential and Congressional Election, Garland depicted what would happen if the country fell apart because of the regular demonisation of the other side.
It gave a nightmare glimpse of what could happen to the US if an autocratic President took over.
Shamefully overlooked during 2025's awards season, Garland's movie starring Kirsten Dundst, Cailee Spaeny, Wagner Moura, Stephen McKinley Henderson and Nick Offerman also featured a lot of stunning battle sequences.
It explored the depths men can plumb in war, with a chilling cameo from Jesse Plemons.
And now, arising out of the rubble of 'Civil War' has come 'Warfare,' a directorial collaboration between Garland and Ray Mendoza who served as an adviser on the battle sequences in the previous film.
Mendoza is a former Navy SEAL who served in Iraq and thought there was a good screenplay to be written about the experiences he and his comrades had during the Battle of Ramadi in 2006.
Writing and co directing the movie alongside London born Garland, he has built a story around Will Poulter's Erik and his troops deep in enemy territory.
Erik is the officer in charge of a platoon known as Alpha One who take control of a residence in complete darkness at the start of the film.
Smashing their way through a wall to an adjoining department, the platoon comprising of Joseph Quinn's leading petty officer Sam, Cosmo Jarvis' lead sniper Elliott Miller, Kit Connor's gunner Tommy, Taylor John Smith's fellow sniper Frank, Finn Bennett's communicator John and D'Pharoah Woon-,Ta-Wi's fellow communicator Mendoza evict a family from their home.
The soldiers of Alpha One bed in and observe the comings and goings of the community as they await the arrival of US Marines.
However the film is instilled with a sense of foreboding, as the platoon observes increased activity in the area by Iraqi militants.
Realising they are also being watched, all hell breaks loose when a grenade is tossed in to the apartment that Alpha One has seized.
As the chaos unfolds, the results are inevitably not pretty.
What emerges is a tale of soldiers acting and reacting under extreme pressure and it oozes authenticity.
Garland and Mendiza's movie is a nervy, confusing, bloody, messy and terrifying movie that, at times, is oddly detached.
Events spiral as Erik's platoon are left dealing with what can only be described as a shit show.
Garland and Mendoza plunge their audience right into the maelstrom of war, so you're never quite sure where the bullets and explosions are coming from.
The film is thrillingly shot by David J Thompson and it's dazzlingly edited by Fin Oates.
But what's missing from Mendoza and Garland's tale - bar a moment at the start where the soldiers are leering while watching the raunchy video for Erik Prydz's dance track 'Call On Me' - is moments of humanity.
While the film feels like a visceral documentary about the Battle of Ramadi, you never quite get the time to invest in the characters the way you do in Oliver Stone's powerful 1986 Oscar garlanded Vietnam War movie 'Platoon'.
The loss of life and maiming of soldiers in 'Warfare' is unquestionably tragic but you wish you got to know them more.
Aerial footage of troop movements and snatches of radio conversations feel authentic but they are also strangely detaching, giving the viewer the sense they are watching a video game.
Distorted audio following major explosions in the film leaves a real impression on the viewer.
The prolonged agony of Erik and his wounded comrades under fire also recalls the climactic battle sequence in Stanley Kubrick's epic Vietnam movje 'Full Metal Jacket'.
But as impressive as it all is technically, you feel the film doesn't quite have the emotional punch it should.
No-one will dispute 'Warfare' is impressively acted - Michael Gandolfini also memorably appears as an airborne fire officer.
But it lacks sufficient heart
Watching 'Warfare' in a cinema is probably the best amphitheatre to view it.
But it needs the heart that made 'Civil War' much more powerful.
('Warfare' was released in UK and Irish cinemas on April 18, 2025 and made available for streaming on Amazon Prime in the UK and Ireland on June 16,2025)
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