Boyle and Garland have, in their dotage, outdone themselves. The first film was good, the second almost entirely forgettable, but this third act, wow, fucking fantastic. “28 Swinging Cocks”, “28 Inch Cock” or "28 Dicks Later", any could have been apt titles, but that’s too easy. This is the movie in which the anatomy is riotous, the intellect unashamed, the heart unexpectedly exposed.

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[–] 19 points 1 year ago (17 children)

Look I kinda agree with most of what's said here, the tonal whiplash of the final act left me a bit lost for words. The thing I find so weird about the reviews I have read is the obsession with penises. Have these people not seen one before, is it that upsetting to them. There are also nude infected women, you can see some "zombie" titties but this seems completely unremarkable.

spoilerHell there is a zombie birthing scene, admittedly without any necrotized vulva, but still...

Am I just too old and rational to express adequate shock about seeing naked men in a group of naked people for whom nudity isn't an absolutely unreasonable state of being?

Or was it just the size of one particular member that made the experience noteworthy for them?

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    Do you live in North America?

    In general, I think full male nudity is still jarring to US audiences because historically speaking, it's not super common in movies and tv shows outside of pornographic settings. Though it does seem like it's becoming a lot more common in recent history.

    Also, as is the case with that one particular penis you're asking about, a lot of times when full frontal male nudity is shown in a movie or tv show, it's done for "shock value".

    Full frontal male nudity is something that most viewers will notice no matter what because at the end of the day it's genitals and we're mostly all just wired that way. However, aside from that one penis, the rest of the male nudity in the movie was not prominently featured and was otherwise pretty unremarkable. Definitely wouldn't have garnered much of any discussion, relative to some of the other shocking stuff in the movie.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    No, I'm from Australia, which I always considered to be a pretty conservative country with regards to nudity. I think we have been more inconsistent with that than the USA though.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    When Watchmen came out in theaters I recommend it to someone at work. I know people shit on it for changing the ending but I think it was good for the general public. I liked that the Watchmen series on HBO kept the psychic squid attack, but that's not the point of this comment. Sorry I got sidetracked.

    The point is after he came back from seeing it he complained (jokingly) about I should have warned him about the giant blue penis. He would go the next few weeks saying 'blue penis' to me randomly. I think it left a mark on him. I didn't really think much of it but I read the comic before. Idk why people are so scared of penises. I'm sure being in the US and the view of violence good but sex bad is a big part.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    Yeah that movie was something. Having not read the comics first I quite enjoyed the vibe of it. I think the penis in question glowing in Watchmen made it fairly hard to disregard. I really liked the HBO series and as much as I hated it at the time I respect that they had a single season show and they just did a single season.

    Yeah the puritanical thing is weird right. I took my kids to a beach here in Australia and they literally staked out a spot 5 metres from a lovely Canadian backpacker, who just so happened to be topless. We had a chat for a bit and I gave her some tips about local sightseeing as well as directions to the nearest unofficial nude beach. Both my boys (6 & 8 at the time) didn't glance at her once, kids just aren't super concerned about boobs in my experience. On the other hand you better believe I heard ALL about the first fight they ever saw in person.

    My kids are now teenagers and have gotten a bit more concerned with their own privacy, but still don't seem to be exhibiting any hang ups about casual or contextual nudity.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 1 year ago (10 children)

    The zombie “titties” and naked women are there too, absolutely, but there’s something uniquely ludicrous about the film’s focus on swinging, sprinting masculinity, a kind of visual punchline to apocalypse. And we don't see this in movies very often. I actually thought the Alpha was Jason Mamoa for some reason, had to pause to Google it as I was pretty sure he wasn't in this movie.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (9 children)

    I guess I just saw it as fairly naturalistic, the whole naked infected kinda made sense to me and after a moment or two it stopped registering with me. I guess I watched the movie on an 85 inch TV, maybe it was more evident watching it on the big screen at a cinema.

    Also the series has been fairly judicious with its use of femininity throughout I think the way that the female characters were put in jeopardy in the first film made it clear that the apocalypse held additional threat and danger for the girls and women after society had collapsed. I can see how given that framework this primal embodiment of masculine power and virility might hit some people hard.

    I'd be curious how it landed with Europeans as opposed to Americans/English/Australians I wonder if the more puritanical views on nudity would show differences in audience reactions.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Absolutely, "I promised them women", that hit me hard.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    Oh yeah Eccleston knows how to play an absolute monster.

    For this though:

    spoilerThe Jimmy Saville Power Rangers were a bit of a trip, I am almost nervous about The Bone Temple, I hope it doesn't derail the atmosphere they have built up over the existing 3 movies. Not without a bloody good narrative reason anyway.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (6 children)

    85 inch tv you could probably count all the pubes. Joking people just are not used to seeing penis running around

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    You know what its like, it seems big at first. I remember right after I first mounted it I wasn't sure I would be able to take it all in. After a while though you get used to it, it doesnt seem so unmanagable. Hell I could probably handle something a bit bigger when the time comes to upgrade.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 1 year ago* (3 children)

    Wait, TV or penis? Jk!

    I have a 65 and I'm thinking of getting a 75 or into the 80's.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    I read my comment out to my wife after I posted it. She gave me a smirk and asked if I had any good responses yet.

    As far as the TV is concerned, it has been a bit of a nuisance in terms of finding the right space for it, but it does make going back to smaller TVs super noticeable. It was actually my wife who demanded we get the 85 over the 75, pricing was good on both. Can recommend getting the best tech you can afford though, our blacks are not super uniform and that shows up quite a bit on better quality Dolby Vision content.

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  • [–] 38 points 1 year ago (6 children)

    I loved the second movie. I will not apologize. That opening scene is insane.

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  • [–] [S] 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    No apologies needed, I absolutely agree with you, loved the first 10 minutes, middle was a bit meh for me, then the subway scene was really good to me too. I actually asked my wife if I did that what would she do, she said definitely not a kiss lol.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    The only problem I really had with the movie was how often the father kept appearing everywhere. Like, just make it a random zombie and it would be way less ridiculous.

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  • [–] [S] 5 points 1 year ago

    Had the same feeling. Every time I thought he was dead he pops up again out of nowhere. I don't know I'm hallucinating but did they try to humanize him a little bit? Like there were parts I felt like he knew those were his kids.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago

    28 Weeks Later was a solid zombie movie, but in and of itself it was not a genre defining (or redefining) film. Also, I think zombie movie fatigue was already in play by the time it came out.

    Looking back, you might think that there were only a handful of decent and recent-ish zombie movies at that time (and you'd be mostly correct), however, it was also an era where the new releases wall at the local video store would have been peppered with d-grade, knock-off, cgi zombie movies (a few of which even showed up in the theaters).

    So, while I don't entirely agree that it was mostly forgettable, I certainly understand and think that's a valid opinion.

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  • [–] 18 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    I have an unpopular take. I liked the first, loved the second, and thought this was a trainwreck. The marketing was misleading. The movie was tonally all over the place. Jodie Comer was used as a prop. I thought the new zombie archetypes were cringey, e.g. "We call these ones the Alphas." (Are they developing a video game?) The editing of the action scenes was sloppy - an Alpha is sprinting at you, but you have time to stop and talk about who's going to shoot the arrow? I don't want semi-sentient zombies with nicknames, I don't want anyone holding hands with mommy zombies.

    I may give it another watch at some point, but on first watch I was confused and disappointed.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago

    The first one is my all-time favourite, the second one is alright/watchable and I absolutely detested 28 years later. The first act seemed interesting enough and I liked the "Junji Ito" slug zombies, but it was all downhill from there and I just felt weird watching it. What a mess.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago* (1 child)

    I agree with you on all points. It felt like they had turned what was actually a serious, scary franchise into a goofy caricature of what it was before. Also the final ending scenes made my eyes roll.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

    Everything after the first act felt largely pointless. It started off well and then just shifted into a different movie. The final scene is stupid.

    Both the new movies are just cash grabs. Garland should be writing original sci fi's. Not a zombie trilogy.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)
  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 child)

    I don't care if I'm late to the discussion. I'm here now. Obvious spoilers.

    spoilerI just saw it. The individual elements didn't bother me, dicks and babies and whatever. The premise was solid, the island with the tides was cool, the little society was neat and believable, the bone temple and the orange doctor were solid, and the slug zombies were horrifying, thank you.

    Danny boyle made three of my favorite films. I don't even care if everything makes sense. I like weird shit, I just want a good story.

    But damn. The sporadic cuts at the beginning were forcing an obvious metaphor, over and over. The pacing was all over the place. The soundtrack was distracting, dilluting the vibe rather than providing a fun contrast. Even with those complaints, the first half was a solid survival horror. The second felt disjointed. And yet, it would still be a 7/10 for me if not for the velvet zombie fighting ninjas at the end.

    Jimmy was obviously going to come back, but there could have been more of a lead up to it. Sprinkle a few velvet ninjas in here and there, even just one, so it's not another tonal change in a film that already gave me narrative whiplash like four times. I get it was setting up for the next in the series, still. I want to enjoy -this- story.

    I didn't really care about Spike, though I understood his motives. His dad lied about their adventure and cheated on his mom, a great way to show his trust was broken and he needed to figure things out for himself. And when he did find out they were wrong, it made sense he'd want to keep exploring on his own. I just didn't give a shit what happened to him. Not sure why.

    I know the baby will come back in the next one, probably. In this one, it was an unsatisfying loose end. 28 Days Later is still one of my favorite films, and I'm going to see the next one despite this movie, and not because of it.

    And you know what? 28 Years Later would have been a great mini series. The way it was plotted out felt more episodic than cohesive. I might have liked it better that way.

    Still hated the ninjas. I tried to find reasons to like the ninjas, even as a reason to have a weird, fun scene because they can and it's important to try things in art, but I just can't.

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  • 8 comments in c/movies@piefed.social view that post
    [–] 6 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    I wasn't sure of 28 Years Later at first but by the end I thought it was one of the best films I've seen this year.

    Creating something so horrific and hilarious but at the same time so tender and poignant is quite special.

    I think the finale will be lost on most people and I think was probably lost on the author of this review. However, British millennials will recognise that the gang of men who appear at the end are dressed as someone far more insidious than a power ranger and, for me, took the film from a solid 7 to 9/10 in the space of 5 minute. Utterly bonkers and hilarious.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    If you can point me in the right direction of this insidious person, that would be very much appreciated!

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)
  • [–] [S] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    Thank you, that blew my mind. I'll need to think how to correct the review with this new information.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    No problem at all. What you have to consider is that Sir Jimmy was a cult figure in the UK before his crimes were revealed. A household name and widely celebrated for his charity work. In the 28 years later timeline, his crimes would never have been discovered, so he would still be revered by the little boy watching tellytubbys at the start of the movie.

    It's pretty sick but also pretty fucking funny.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 child)

    I watched 28 Years Later at home a few days ago.

    I can’t seem to make up my mind about 28 Years Later. It wasn’t bad by any means, but there were definitely issues with the movie.

    I will start with the undeniably good things. Excellent cinematography. So many beautiful shots. I also liked that they tried to do something different. It’s good that they didn’t just make a predictable sequel (even if it would’ve been fun).

    I found many of the plot elements to be distracting. The alpha concept seemed tacked on. I didn’t like the “young adult” concept, seemed unbelievable for a 12 year old to act in this way.

    Not sure what to make of the humourous elements, they were clearly there by design (satire?). I laughed when the kid put his mother’s skull on the skull pile.

    For some reason I get the feeling 28 Years Later will get more appreciation with time. I might be wrong though.

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  • I absolutely loved this film! I thought it was brilliant. The bit with the mum is one of the greatest cinematic sequences I've ever seen. I understand why people didn't like the film but I thought it was brilliant and I'll definitely rewatch it many times

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