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.
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.
spoiler
Hell 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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Absolutely, “I promised them women”, that hit me hard.
Oh yeah Eccleston knows how to play an absolute monster.
For this though:
spoiler
The 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.
85 inch tv you could probably count all the pubes. Joking people just are not used to seeing penis running around
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.
Wait, TV or penis? Jk!
I have a 65 and I’m thinking of getting a 75 or into the 80’s.
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.
I too have a 65 and was thinking of getting a 75. I figured if I was gonna upgrade anyway (which I rarely do), I might as well get an 85 at the minimum.
What an ironic comment in a thread about a post-apoc near-future flick. 😜
If you’re used to your penis running around, you should talk to your doc.