I Am Legend (2007)

Elevator Pitch: The world has been attacked by a virus which has killed many (sounds familiar!) and has turned others into zombie like entities who attack the few people left who are immune to the virus. One, or possibly the only, survivor, is a virologist Col Robert Neville who lives with his dog, Sam, in New York, sallying forth daily for food, entertainment and to broadcast a radio message to any other survivors. He is at risk of attack by the infected, who cannot venture into sunlight and who eventually find a way of trapping him, which results in an attack by rabid virus infected dogs and the death of Sam. Neville, then out for revenge, puts himself at risk.

Content: No sex or nudity and one rather chaste kiss as Neville says goodbye to his family in flashback. In the same flashback there is a lot of activity and a couple of helicopter crashes. In the ruins of New York Neville drives about in a Shelby Mustang while chasing deer. Otherwise he drives a four wheel drive something, and carries a variety of automatic firearms. You can easily find out what they are if that is your thing. In his house he closes up the windows at night and experiments on rats, and on a female creature in his basement, looking for a cure. He is eventually joined by a female survivor.

A View: The numbers are impressive. The film was estimated to have cost $150 million and it made over $500 million. It was quite well liked by the critics but fans of the original book found fault with the premise, particularly the ending. People have also said that there is some sort of religious theme. I could not see that. My wife liked this as well as I did, a bit of an accolade for what might be billed as an action film. So if you like a bit of dystopian future give it a go.

Additional Info: The atmosphere of the film was completely changed from the earlier version where the Omega Man is going out in the day to stake the vampire like population of the city, who have remained intelligent. In this case the infected are mindless beasts thirsting for the blood of the immune.