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A Trifecta of Today’s Best Films on the Box

28 Days Later… (Danny Boyle/ 2002/ UK/ Horror-Sci-Fi-Zombie/ 113 mins/ R for stong violence and gore, language and nudity) 5.20pm Fox Action. Watch this if you liked George A Romero’s Diary of the Dead, 30 Days of Night or The Cabin in the Woods. Even its implosion two-thirds of the way through into a still-strong-but-now-formulaic film can’t ruin completely this otherwise excellent, genuinely scary and seriously disturbing horror fantasy based on the too-real risk of viral pandemic. It’s hard to say whether the Halloween-type scares outnumber the The Shining-type ones or the The Vanishing-type ones. Though not as good as those three movies, 28 Days Later… enters, and holds its own in, all their leagues. For those who’ve lived there, the footage of an empty London West End (achieved by filming right after summertime daybreak on weekends) is particularly creepy. The DVD features alternative endings even more chilling but the cinematic release cut finale is still pretty good. The Walking Dead probably would not have existed without this film.

JUST NOSED OUT:

**Boyhood BEST FILM OF THE DAY, 7.25am Max; **Big (Family-Drama), 2.05pm FoxClas; American Hustle (Crime-Drama), 6.45pm MaxP; Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince (Horror-Fantasy), 4.53pm HBOF; Foxcatcher (Bio-Drama), 9.10pm HBOS; Dracula Untold (Horror), 4.45pm HBO; The Matrix (Sci-fi), 2.25pm HBO; Rango (Animated), 5.45pm FoxFam; The Polar Express (Family-Fantasy), 11.10am MaxU; Watchmen (Superhero), 2.40pm FoxAct

ALSO RAN:

Action/Adventure: Pacific Rim, 1pm HBOP; Avengers: Age of Ultron, 8.20am & 9pm HBOP

Art House/Independent: Edward Scissorshands (Family), 7.10pm FoxClas; **2 Days in New York (Drama), 12 midday FoxCin

Biography: A Mighty Heart, 9.05am ISat

Children/Family: Holes, 11.13am HBOF; Night at the Museum, 1pm CnCl

Classic: Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom (Action-Adventure-Thriller), 9pm FoxClas

Comedy: Billy Crystal 700 Sundays (Standup), 7.28am HBOP; 27 Dresses (Rom-Com), 4pm FoxCom

Drama: Marie Antoinette (Period), 12.05 midday

Foreign: Little White Lies (French comedy), 1.35pm FoxCin

Horror: Van Helsing (Vampire), 12.10 middahy HBO

Sci-Fi/Fantasy: *Terminator 2, 10.29am Spac; Lucy, 7.25pm HBOP; Star Trek, 9pm FoxAct

Thriller: Mission Impossible, 7.10pm FoxAct; Ocean’s Eleven (Caper), 9.30am MaxP

War: Patton (Biography), 7.30am FoxClas

Western: The Culpepper Cattle Company, 10.25am, FoxClas

*Starred films have been chosen in the last two years. ** Double-starred films have been chosen in the last two months. Particularly strong Also Ran choices are bolded.

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