'Georgia Rule,' '28 Weeks Later' share slogan: 'Live free, fear nothing'

Lukewarm flicks “Georgia Rule” and “28 Weeks Later” have a common message: “Live free, fear nothing.”

Georgia (Jane Fonda) lives by very strict rules: no cussing or a bar of soap goes in your mouth; be late for a meal and you don’t eat; and live free and fear nothing (a slogan she wears on a faded t-shirt).

In this present-day generational flick, Georgia’s fashionably skanky granddaughter, Rachel (Lindsay Lohan), comes to live with her in the quiet Mormon town of Hull, ID. Rachel turns the town upside down with her loose lips and living. She reveals that she and her stepfather have shared a “dirty little secret” since she was 12 and even has a video to blackmail him.

News travels fast in a small town. Georgia believes Rachel, but her own mother Lily (Felicity Huffman) has a lot to lose in this lucrative marriage and sides with her husband. Rachel wants to protect her mom’s “lush” lifestyle, choosing instead to look like a liar and a troublemaker.

“Georgia Rule” is freckled with small town charm and all the worrisome, depressing dialogue makes the payoff sweeter when the three women are vindicated and spiritually set free.

Within the theme “Live free, fear nothing,” “28 Weeks Later” – the sequel to the 2002 horror film “28 Days Later” – shocks the audience into not being chickens using utterly horrific images. It fits into the “shock cinema” genre of film, if one existed. The Rage Virus breaks out again on the Isle of Dogs in London, 15,000 people have been resettled after the first outbreak decimated England.

Virus survivors Tammy (Imogen Poots) and Andy (MacKintosh Muggleton) stay calm and fearless, dodging fire walls and chemical bombs – even killing their own infected father. There is no other agenda than surviving the rage of these so-called zombies. Those infected run so fast to bite pieces out of others (the shutter speed is extremely accelerated), the uninfected collapse in fear without a fight.

The film ends with a beautiful contrast of the white cliffs of Dover. Now at the water cooler, in addition to sports and weather, it is also “safe” to debate the likelihood of a third Rage Virus movie. Heaven forbid!