Director: Francis Lawrence
Writers: Mark Protosevich, Akiva Goldsman
Staring: Will Smith, Kona the dog, Alice Braga, Salli Richardson, Emma Thompson
This movie was based on the novel by Richard Matheson. Scientists have cured cancer. Or so they think. They have taken the measles virus and reprogrammed it to destroy cancer. Unfortunately, the re-engineered virus has mutated into something that turns 10% of the human population into vampire zombies. It kills the remaining 90%.
It doesn’t kill everyone. A few people are actually immune to the virus. Most of them have been hunted down and eaten by the vampire zombies. Robert Neville — the Army research scientist superbly played by Will Smith — is immune to the virus. He is the last man alive in New York City. He also believes he is the last human on the face of the earth.
When he is not trying to shoot wild deer with his AR-15 on the streets of New York City, he is conducting experiments in his state of the art basement laboratory. He is trying to find the cure to this vampire zombie virus. Being that he was the last human left (or so he believes) I didn’t really understand his motivation.
There were a few things that never made much sense. Before Neville enters his brownstone apartment each evening, he can be seen pouring some kind of liquid from a plastic gallon dispenser. What was this liquid? Holy water? We never found out what it was. Also, flashback scenes show Neville wearing the Army insignia of a major, but other people refer to him has lieutenant-colonel.
I enjoyed the movie. In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I wanted to watch it again the next day with the audio commentary track. The problem was there was no audio commentary track. I’m getting tired of DVD’s that don’t offer at least one audio commentary track. DVD’s that don’t include an audio commentary track might as well be VHS tapes.
Movies on DVD should always be in letterbox format and they should also include audio commentary tracks.
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2 Responses
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I liked the movie a lot, but the book was truly awesome. If you haven’t read it, you NEED to. It’s bleak as hell- much more bleak than the movie. You truly get a sense of what it might be like to be the last man on Earth.
i LOVED this movie! shows the level of dedication people have when they’re trying to avenge a wrong. the death of his family prompts smith’s character to try to solve the problem.
the liquid is vinegar. this was in the book as there’s something to do with the smell that the vamps don’t like. but the book is a million-times removed from the movie. but both are spectacular! i’m happy with your review! yay! rawk! i was gonna buy the movie but with no commentary, why bother!