28 Days Later : Worst Film Evah!

Nick, I was suckered in by genuinely quite good reviews, a liking for good horror movies and genre tweeking. I did - of course - get everything I deserved.

Probably. Haven't seen 28

I remember vividly Alex Cox decrying aspects of 13 on Moviedrome - "The female characters have identical sweaters and identical shapes" or something like that.

things i like in starship trooper: it is based on the premise that the entire human race = utterly dim but underwear-model gorgeous gay men, some of them by chance in girl's bodies

28 days vs 28 Days Later...

Starship Troopers is ABSOLUTELY more than just a stupid action film. There's quite a lot (for an action film) of stuff that the viewer has to work out between the scenes. It manages to combine both sledgehammer-blunt and "you do the math" subtle messages.

(what mark said about pi. i can't bear to watch pretty woman.)

28 Days Later is probably not the Worst Film Evah - but it certainly seems to be trying.

other poor films: jeepers creepers, cecil b demented

'Flesh and Blood' is my contender for WFE. http://us.imdb.com/Title?0089153
ha, ha, Paul Verhoeven again! i didn't realise. just saw this at film soc one week and it was laughable. not helped by the audience who'd all been drinking but...

http://uk.imdb.com/Title?0280665

http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/femme_fatale/

Will Brian DePalma never fuck off?

Sophie and I secretly heart Titantic - shuddupyaartphags.....

HOWEVER the funnist thing about 28 days is the tagline - by the creators of the beach, which surely is the shittiest movie which i couldnt sit though.

ABTRACT THOUGHT ALERT - i think kate boom could be good in a play based on hilary swank's performance in boys don't cry

Nowhere near as good as Threads or Survivors (its possibly on a par with the astonishingly racist Omega Man but less exciting). And completely drops the ball with its Apocalypse in as much as its a local apocalypse for local people.

Don't go in the transport cafe, don't go in the transport cafe. He goes in the cafe, there is a zombie. SHOCK!!!!

The year's most unusual hit. I'm not sure how much of the film sticks but what's there impressed me.

I enjoyed this too. I watched "28 Days Later" first, since I'd never seen it, but that wasn't really necessary since the premise is clear enough. I still haven't seen "28 Weeks Later" but that one is supposed to be the least essential of the three. The acting and directing definitely seemed to be better than one would expect in a zombie movie, so I guess credit to Boyle. There's plenty of fantasy world-building, gross-out violence and suspense, but the moments of punctum in the Barthesian sense were the moments of mundane domestic life.

astonishingly beautiful images in nearly every second of this movie. danny boyle!

i kinda hated the framing device, and it was one of the rare times i wish a movie were longer just so we could live in the world a little longer. but otherwise really phenomenal

Some of those decisions I blame -- credit? -- on editing. In many ways, though, this one's the best of the bunch. Ralph Fiennes, like every aging UK acting ham, is in his own fantasyland and is most welcome.

the scene with Ralph Fiennes made me openly sob in the theatre...

this is almost two hours???? felt like 90 mins

I never thought I'd reach a point in my movie watching where I look forward to Ralph Fiennes.

loved his character and his transformation of Spike's worldview, that the infected, the non-infected, we're all the same species, we all deserve to die with dignity. but the mom stuff, a little close to home atm

I liked it — possibly better than the first one, tho I haven't seen that since it came out so can't say for sure. Never bothered with the second one. I like the world-building, trying to think concretely about what would have happened over the course of decades. I also like the realization right at the end that for most of the movie we've been isolated on the small island and of course the mainland has all kinds of crazy shit also happening on it. (Which will obviously be fleshed out — or flayed out — in the next films.)

Boyle's editing tricks are mostly effective, it reminded me what an entertainingly kinetic director he can be. Also agree that Fiennes took an actually difficult role and imbued it with real feeling.

xpost the shots of the Alpha lying in wait as the sun set were incredible

The best in the series imo

so where do you go from here

28 decades later? jump to 2315?

28 Centuries Later.

"Remember humans?"

"no"

FIN

I still haven't seen "28 Weeks Later" but that one is supposed to be the least essential of the three.

Correct. I had never seen it before but watched it after seeing Years. It's vaguely interesting as an Iraq War allegory, but is much less effective than the other two from a dramatic standpoint.

One thing I didn't care for: Doyle intercutting bits from Hollywood versions of British history (Ivanhoe, Agincourt).

it was ok once, a bit odd to do multiple times

Also: is this the best and the hottest that Aaron Taylor-Johnson's been on film?

certainly wasn't Nocturnal Animals

I wanted him to be my papi.

One thing I didn't care for: Doyle intercutting bits from Hollywood versions of British history (Ivanhoe, Agincourt).

I've been thinking about that, in some ways it felt like the most personal part of the film for Boyle. I don't know how well it works within the context of the film, but my guess is it reflects Boyle's own absorption of British history as a postwar kid, which would have been full of stories of British conflict from William the Conqueror to World War II. The idea of England itself as a battleground, which is outside his own direct experience but no doubt ever-present in the movies and books of his childhood. (The use of "Boots" fits there too, obviously.) So I read it as a connection between this story and those stories, the sense that this has been violently contested land for most of its history.

As my wife remarked, "It's a very British film!"

I understood his intent but it came across as hamhanded.

Kudos to Alfie Williams, a quite unaffected child actor.

My sister hated this film!

so where do you go from here

28 decades later? jump to 2315?

icydk the next one is out in January and will have more of the Jimmy Savilles and Ralph Fiennes. Nia DaCosta directing, shot b2b so that Boyle could move onto post.

there is a third Years script (all three by Garland) for Boyle to shoot asap if this first one did well enough.

Williams is astounding for a debut.

Agree with everyone, this is surprisingly great with some astonishing filmmaking, and the bookends are some of the dumbest shit you’ve ever seen

Scotch kid from the beginning nick furies into the picture in a jimmy savile cosplay outfit does some xxxtreme to the max poochie moves turns to the camera and says “that’s right folks, the next movie is gonna be so fuckin stupid”

Spoiler alert, but the thing that most puzzled me is why does the orange doctor guy off the Mom as soon as he diagnoses the cancer? Is it because he wants the skull for his collection? It was weird how fast that happened.

well he told her she had mere months to live, she was in extremely agonizing pain and severe cognitive impairment since it had metastasized to her brain. the trip was Spike's idea, and not hers, and she was probably mostly just hanging around for his sake and because she didn't have anybody to give her a way to die painlessly and with dignity back at home, and the doctor was giving her exactly that.

also, it's likely that nobody ever told Spike what cancer is, obviously his parents would remember as they grew up before the outbreak and also y'know, books still exist, but once he understands what's happening, the mother probably realizes this is as good a time as any to say goodbye

It's what I loved mist about the film. Ruthless yet filled to surfeit with feeling.

the bookends are some of the dumbest shit you’ve ever seen

i liked the stupid ending. wouldn’t have been right to end it on a sappy wistful spike walking away from home scene imo

Just seen this and enjoyed myself a lot. Typical Garland in that it's pretty incoherent: he seems to enjoy world-building and moving pieces around but it's hit and miss as to what sticks, and you get the sense there are just-as-interesting things happening off screen somewhere. Felt like a graphic novel adaptation?

It was generally pretty savage about England. Slaughter of the innocents while Father prays and Tellytubbies plays; closing with a Saville cargo cult. Plus the whole loose Brexit commentary. Nice.

Also, was um Fiennes shagging Samson the alpha? No idea why he wouldn't just kill him if he's that much trouble. All that iodine to wash away the guilt.

feel like Fiennes believes that the humans who are infected are so by bad luck and not of their own free will, and if one has to be killed in self-defense, so be it, but if they can be treated humanely and tranquilized, that's preferable.

he talks of Samson as if he has tremendous respect for him as a being

I was being facetious (mostly) and yeah, he'd gone full Treadwell about Samson.

i missed 2 minutes of the beginning of the movie and am also fairly ignorant about Saville so was thankful to get that part explained to me

I liked that the Swedish guy who initially appears as a savior is basically just an asshole. Which is more likely than not in that situation.

he was a good and needed addition to demonstrate how the people in the quarantined British Isles are dismissively seen by the rest of the globe, plus an opportunity for a very on-the-nose "what's that?" when he pulls out a smart phone.

Yep!

I figured we were off spoiler tags, sorry!

Good that the doomed migrant was white European. Honestly, no idea what to make of the Saville thing. Tending towards the edgelordy.

Felt like a graphic novel adaptation?

of what?

spoiler tagging it then...

very confused by any filmmaker who would decide to follow a genuinely well earned emotional payoff with the mum, with that "lol jimmy was a paedo" edgey dickhead ending. just extremely strange, and having lost my mother in law to cancer last year - left me feeling even a little angry with the incredible dumbness of that decision making. in a sane world, the film cuts to credits the second he puts the skull at the top of the pile.

up until that ending; i was actually thinking its by far the best film in the series - it grew on me throughout but i think its only on the strength of the performances, as the world building is fairly weak and often nonsensical. one of those films where when you're watching, the editing and pace keeps you held, but within 5 minutes of leaving the cinema and your brain kicks in, you realise very little of it made sense

OK, so ... even before the ending this movie was far stranger and more visually striking than I expected it to be, which I suppose partly compensates for it being pretty uneven, with parts that were stupid and parts that were ... I was going to say smart, but none of it was particularly smart, and I'm not even taking into account the ending, which makes me think the next one will be akin to something like Sam Raimi or George Miller, (even more) stylized and goofy.

Kid was good, Fiennes a fine update on Kurtz. I barely remember Romero's "Survival of the Dead," but something in my brain recognized some similarities. Strange that a film as quirky as this one, with a setup so odd, and themes so distinctly British, is being handed off to Nia DaCosta to continue the story.

Okay, so we have Bone Temple trailer here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOwTdTZA8D8

Mad Max vibes, but tbh that trailer kinda gave me a headache.

yeah the first couple films in the franchise had a 'here & now' freakiness (like the original Mad Max) but this looks more like Game of Thrones or something fantastical

This one gave me Thunderdome vibes. Tbf, I like Thunderdome, but this doesn't look like an expansion of this world that I want to see.

Watched 28 Years this weekend. I’d seen some spoilers here and there, but wasn’t prepared for the Fiennes character being that affecting. Great standout performance as a character that has a perpendicular take to the main character’s group, and it changes the shape of the plot