11 Days Later..

11 Days Later..

Oscars fever is back. No, I'm not talking about my junior, Oscar. I'm referring to the 81st Academy Awards.

I'll be honest. The race for the Oscars is not exciting at all. When I first saw the nominations, I thought "Oh? So this film really got nominated for that category?" I'm not surprised at all. Okay, maybe the fact that Hugh Jackman's hosting the Oscars raised many eyebrows. But that's not the point.

The point is: Come on! Sean Penn VS Mickey Rourke for Best Actor? I know either of these two is going to win.

Heath Ledger is a hot favourite for Best Supporting Actor because besides he had proven he's got the chops to play a sardonic and psychotic villain, his recent death in 2008 would draw in lots of attention.

Best Motion Picture and Director: Danny Boyle. This guy is getting way too many honours and awards for his newest fruit of labour: Slumdog Millionaire. David Fincher, a favourite director of mine, is up against him with his fairytale fantasy The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and I can tell you that Fincher has no chance of whatsoever of winning. Danny Boyle is, too, a hot favourite of the Academy members.

But this doesn't mean I hate Boyle's guts. He's a real charming man with..an oddly-shaped head. And he concocted a movie plot and turned it into a sleeper hit. It still remains one of my favourite films of all time. Let me introduce you to: 28 Days Later.

An epidemic of a deadly virus spreads throughout of England when a group of animal activists opened a cage containing a chimpanzee infected with the Rage virus. It took 28 days later to bring down the spirit of mankind by stripping humans down to the basic survival instinct: Kill or be killed. By this time, a man lying in a hospital woke up and found himself to be alone in a chaotic and empty London.

This montage of Cillian Murphy, our main protagonist, walking through a deserted London in a hospital gown with cars on fire and numerous newspapers headlining the words "Evacuation!" in bold large letters flying around ain't humourous...Buses' windows smashed and a Priest of a church comes after Murphy, wanting to bite a big chunk out of him.

The thought of a deadly infection is chilling. Though there have never been any viruses as great as the Rage virus, but now we're close to making that fantasy into a reality. SARS, Bird Flu and Aedes Mosquitos...And everytime we watch the news on the television, we always hope that the cure to normality would be found but instead, we had those viruses multiplying in every city of the world and they're constantly evolving into something scarier than it already is.

Back to topic, I'm saying that Danny Boyle is an excellent director who knows his stuff well. He's a visionary director too. Not literally like Guillermo del Toro but Boyle knows what he wants and he gets it as close as his vision. His stories of horror, love and sci-fi amazes me. 28 Days Later, Millions, Sunshine...He knows what he's doing. So..I shall give him a chance to show me what he had done on Slumdog Millionaire and who knows?

I might like it.