.jpg)
Zombie Book Club
Welcome to Zombie Book Club! We're a Podcast that's also a book club! We talk about Zombie / Apocalyptic horror novels, TV and movies.
Zombie Book Club
(NO SPOILERS) Is Zoombies 2 Better than 28 Years Later? | Zombie Book Club Ep 102
In this spoiler‑free showdown, we pit the animals‑gone‑zombie campiness of Zoombies 2 against the thought‑provoking, visually audacious 28 Years Later. We break down ten key categories—cinematography, effects, innovation, cultural impact—and ask the really tough questions...
From heartfelt shout‑outs to our ZomBesties, Ollie and Megan, to surprising production notes—like “big swinging dicks”—we keep it irreverent yet insightful. Think olive vs. grape: not what you expected, but worth savoring. Want all the nitty‑gritty deets on 28 Years Later? Join our Discord spoiler lounge after the episode.
Zombie Book Club Links
Sign up for our Newsletter!!!! --- https://zombiebookclub.io/newsletter/
Join the Brain Muncher’s Zombie Collective: https://discord.gg/rn3nPDa4CB
ZBC Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zombiebookclubpodcast/
Dan's BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/danthezombiewriter.bsky.social
Zombie Book Club Voicemail: (614) 699-0006
Zombie Book Club Email: ZombieBookClubPodcast@gmail.com
Our Secret Website That Isn't Finished: https://zombiebookclub.io
Our Merchandise Store (Where you can find our Evil Magic Chicken Zombie Shirts): https://zombie-book-club.myspreadshop.com
Welcome to Zombie Book Club, the only book club where the book is two movies and they're both sequels and they both have pregnant people, but only one of them has big swingin' dicks. Which one We'll find out. Okay, I'm Dan, and when I'm not swingin' my dick, I'm writing a book about the zombie apocalypse that will have as many sequels as I can squeeze out of it.
Speaker 2:And I'm Leah and I'm going to swing my big dick during today's intellectually rigorous discussion where we tackle the existential question of our times.
Speaker 1:Oh, and what question is that?
Speaker 2:It's not whether starting a war with Iran is a good idea. It's not whether we should keep a dead woman alive to deliver a fetus. It's not even whether we should all dress up as ice agents to escort immigrants safely to their hearings, because none of that matters. None of that's important. Oh, the only thing that's important right now. The real question we should all be asking is is zombies 2 a better zombie film than 28 years later?
Speaker 1:this is the important question of our generation.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Zoombies 2. Or 28 Years Later. Yeah, a movie we watched last night.
Speaker 2:Yes, and we watched Zoombies 2 on Friday night. And if you didn't get the joke, because you're new here, I'm being extremely sarcastic.
Speaker 1:I thought we were actually going to do this.
Speaker 2:Oh no, we are. We are going to compare Zoombies 2 versus 28 years later and I would like to say this is our dissociative casual dead episode, because we had a wonderful day yesterday, one of the best I would say it was great. Then I opened my phone and learned about uh, us bombing nuclear facilities in iran and thought right, everything's fucking terrible. Let's talk about zumbies. 2 and 20 years later for this episode, we'll talk about the terrible stuff.
Speaker 1:Another time, and besides, by the time this episode comes out, this is such old news. We're already in World War 3. What new horrors have?
Speaker 3:happened.
Speaker 1:We're hiding in our bunkers from the radioactive fallout. There are Chinese forces boots on the ground in New York City, while there's Russian boots on the ground in Maine and Iranian boots on the ground in California. And that was just. That's just a week from now.
Speaker 2:I kind of rooting for the Chinese force.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:In this scenario, china, come save us. Yeah, save us China.
Speaker 1:That feels weird to say, say it does, especially after all the shitty things they did to taiwan yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2:It's a confusing time. Everybody tucker carlson had some good points. I'm confused, so that's why we're going to talk about zombies too, and 28 years later yeah, it's I mean we release episodes every Sunday, so subversive.
Speaker 1:Wow, and that word means.
Speaker 2:Subvert your expectations. Oh, okay. Do subversive things like dress up as ICE agents and help people go to their immigration hearings and not get fucking pulled away by ICE agents.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and by do do that we mean don't do that. Wink, wink, wink quotation. I already dress like an ice agent. And that I mean I just dress like a dude with a hat and sunglasses. Yeah, and I don't identify myself as a federal agent. Let's move on.
Speaker 2:Yeah because we're trying really hard to dissociate. But it's hard out here, but let's try. First of all, you can dissociate right now and do a good thing by giving us a five-star review for showing up. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:Thanks. Thank you in advance for that five-star review. I appreciate it so much.
Speaker 2:We have some groans from the horde before we dive into our existential discussion, though. Oh, isn't that nice. We've got a groaning horde so you know how, when you forget your aunt's birthday, you have to send them a belated birthday card. Yeah, but you still love your aunt sometimes. Well, two of our wonderful zom besties, ollie eats brain and megan, forgot to send us their messages on time.
Speaker 1:Oh for our 100th episode yeah, we did call out Ollie which was two episodes ago, but in reality a week you know, podcast time is confusing. We were in a relative time of peace back then, Were we?
Speaker 2:I guess, compared to now the ball, the, the, uh, what's the word I'm looking for? The thing keeps moving.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the goalpost.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:The 50-yard line.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it just.
Speaker 1:The finish line, can it?
Speaker 2:get worse? Yes, it can. It keeps getting worse.
Speaker 1:It keeps getting worse, woo.
Speaker 2:I was planning to talk this episode about how we had 3.5% of the people at the no Kings protesting that that was good news.
Speaker 1:It still is. That was a good time.
Speaker 2:Yep, yeah, yeah, yeah. This episode's already making no sense. Let's go into our groans from the horde. Yeah, some nice messages from Ollie and Megan, which, by the way, late is great.
Speaker 1:Late is great. I don't have anything else for that. I was going to make a funny and I didn't.
Speaker 2:So we have got a hundredth episode message from Ollie Eats Brains. Are you ready? I'm ready, let's play it.
Speaker 3:Hey there, Hi Ollie, I know I'm late, but I wanted to send something in anyway. Over the last few years, you two have become such a deep, integral part of my life that I don't even know if I can put into words just how much you mean to me. But I'm going to try.
Speaker 3:So here's a quick little story, something very personal and heartfelt. Hello, this is oliver with neville valley's wzmv radio, interrupting your broadcast to bring you an emergency alert from the me Amiibo Valley Public Library. The Zombie Book Club podcast has just announced their 100th episode an amazing feat in podcasting. Congratulations to them and to their dedication not only to shining a light on indie authors and the zombie genre, but also to holding that genre to meaningful standards of representation.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:I, for one, have thoroughly enjoyed their podcast. It's one of the very few things I actually have access to out here. They've become one of the strongest friendships and two very cherished individuals in my life. Thank you for existing and for making me feel like I'm still part of a group You've Hold on. Sorry, this is not the emergency notice. This is a flyer from last week's podcast. All right, hold on one sec here. Nope, here we go. I found it. A horde of fast-moving zombies has been spotted just a few miles south of the city and is en route. Uh-oh, every citizen is advised to go immediately to their shelters until the all clear sirens have sound.
Speaker 1:Shit.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I probably should have read that one first. Well, let's just pop the window open and see how things are going. Wow, these windows are really well insulated. Great craftsmanship.
Speaker 1:We need windows like that Well.
Speaker 3:Anyway, congratulations, Dan and Leah. That is an amazing milestone to reach 100 episodes, and I'm so glad that I've gotten to be a part of this and really watch you guys take off. And now I release you back to your regular scheduled broadcast. It's just amazing everything that you've done and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I'm sorry I got so emotional. Thank you and congratulations.
Speaker 2:Goodbye you know I always I'm sad that we are frequently on opposite sides of this country, but hearing the zombies outside your window at the uh WZMB dead radio location, I'm kind of grateful right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it did not sound like a good time.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:Um, oh boy, yeah, I hope everything's, okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I hope you're okay. Now I understand why you're so late.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, there's a lot going on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're so late. Yeah, you know there's a lot going on, yeah, but uh, you know we love you and for everyone here, if you have not yet listened to the podcast there's only a few episodes you should go listen to wzmb dead air radio by oliver gray. It's on everywhere you can find podcasts. There's only a few episodes. Listen, laugh, love and then go pressure all over to make more because they're fantastic, yeah yeah, put the pressure on.
Speaker 2:There needs to be more episodes yeah, I feel really grateful that we're now part of the meval valley universe officially.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm not surprised that, um, we're the only podcast or only thing that ollie has uh access to out there, because we are on every platform.
Speaker 2:It's true, you know, I just hope that this virus is slow spreading, but they are fast moving, so that doesn't make me hopeful it didn't sound very hopeful. No, no, but thank you.
Speaker 1:We'll have to keep an ear out. Yes, Hopefully Ollie will have more reports about that. That'll be helpful in the future.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let us know if it's reached Missouri yet.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And if we should be worried. Our other awesome ZomBestie who is fashionably late is Megan Megan. Megan starts her message by saying okay, yes, I am excruciatingly late, but maybe fashionably. So, yes, megan, you are always fashionable. Is that a thing I can claim? I maybe fashionably so. Yes, megan, you are always fashionable. Is that a thing I can claim? I did it for you. So, yes, I feel like I'm. I am reading your letter and then responding to you like we are the same, two different people, but in my head, which is now getting weird. Okay, continuing. Megan says I literally had this typed up in my phone but totally forgot to send it because dot, dot, dot life. Also, you had to know I was not going to leave a voicemail, I'd rather face zombies while working a 40-hour work week. Oh, that's rough, that is yeah.
Speaker 1:But I understand. Yeah, I also hate leaving voicemails.
Speaker 2:Yeah, many people at Living Dead Weekend felt that way, I think too. When we asked them to be on the podcast. They're like that's terrifying.
Speaker 1:Absolutely not. You know, when I'm at work and my truck is on fire and I call my boss to let him know that the truck's on fire and he doesn't pick up and it goes to voicemail, I'm like he'll probably call me back and then I hang up well, we keep interrupting megan.
Speaker 2:Megan says and finally, you don't have to read any of this in the podcast. Too bad, megan we are. I just figured I would share, because it's always worth giving two of your favorite podcasters the compliments and encouragements they deserve. It does help, it does. Thank you. We basically do this for the compliments. Yeah, that's what we're here for.
Speaker 1:The affirmation is what we're after.
Speaker 2:Favorite things about the podcast, in no particular order. When you called out your first few listeners in one of the early episodes and ask why we're even listening to your podcast I mean really, who starts a podcast and then asks everyone but why are you listening and what's wrong with you? Did we do that? I forgot I guess we did.
Speaker 1:It does sound on brand, it does.
Speaker 2:Number two I love the Prepping for Apocalypse episodes like the survival lists. Who remembers the $100 challenge that?
Speaker 1:was a favorite.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I want to do another episode like that we should do an updated one and the foraging slash vegan episode. Thank you for the shout out that one's controversial.
Speaker 1:Unsurprisingly, some people did not agree with us. Some people did not like it and they're wrong.
Speaker 2:Fight me. Number three Evil Magic.
Speaker 1:Chicken. Zombie oh yeah, of course. I mean, who knew that Evil, magic, chicken Zombie was going to become what it became? Yeah, there's a song. There's a movie trailer. There's a t-shirt. There's a t-shirt. On our link tree there's a sticker.
Speaker 2:There's not a sticker there is a sticker there is a zombie sticker.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there is oh yeah, there is.
Speaker 2:I forgot about that one. It wasn't at Living Dead Weekend. If you're curious, you should go back and listen to the ConPlan 888. Four eights, conplan plus four eights yeah, don't know what number it is. Just put that in the search, you'll find it. Number four from Megan Zombie Ween. Can't wait for this year's episode. No pressure, leah, but you set the bar high.
Speaker 1:Well, fuck, flack. Yeah, it's true, I'm gonna have to consult with some folks at what to do this year. Yeah, is this year's zombie ween going to?
Speaker 2:have like 30 people in it. It can't. I don't know what we're gonna do, but I do have breaking news for you, megan you don't have to wait until zombie ween because we are going to have the summer ween showdown, which dan wants to call the summer ween slam. Let us know which one you think is better which is?
Speaker 1:is better Summerween Showdown or Summerween Slam?
Speaker 2:Well, you said, one of them way more cool than the other. Summerween Slam. Summerween Showdown this Sunday.
Speaker 1:Sunday.
Speaker 2:Lori Calcaterra of Path of Pale Rider and Brandon Starocki of Avalon Comic Series fame, are going to be showing down for Lori's's crown actually from the 2023 zombie win game show, and that will be happening in august. Stay tuned for more details yeah, uh, how are how's?
Speaker 1:how's that gonna work?
Speaker 2:we're figuring it out. Yeah, it's separate from from zombie ween and also like are you worried about? About Lori losing her crown.
Speaker 1:About Lori hurting Brandon.
Speaker 2:I mean. Thankfully it's virtual, so the knives can only reach so far. Well, we'll see, I guess. Okay, last but not least, megan says number five. One of the best things of the podcast, though, turned out to be, unexpectedly, finding community when I live is very isolated politically especially, and looking at the zombie genre, you see lots of things like toxic masculinity, a lack of lgbtq plus characters and so many harmful stereotypes, which I already get enough of and don't want to participate in. This podcast helped me not only find books that better reflect myself, but also connected me to other wonderful, like-minded people. Thank you both for hosting such an amazing podcast, and here's to dot, dot, dot. However many episodes you want to produce or the zombie apocalypse comes, whichever is first, yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, we've met a lot of people, especially lately, who are zombie apocalypse fans and don't fit those criteria of, like, toxic masculinity and you know, uh, close mindedness and like all the, all the things that people normally associate with the genre.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And um, and you know we exist and people, especially, I think, especially people like us, who are like-minded in this way. We're really hungry for that connection because we're not seeing it portrayed.
Speaker 2:I agree, but I think it's time I take the genre back, Now that I am a newly minted huge George A Romero superfan. The origins of the genre are absolutely in line with the values of our podcast and the values of our community.
Speaker 1:Yeah, in line with the values of our podcast and the values of our community. Yeah, I mean, all this entire time. I'm just like, if you don't think that the zombie apocalypse genre was has a political statement, then you just weren't paying attention. Yeah, that's how it started yeah it.
Speaker 2:Uh, romero's work is feminist, it's anti-racist, um, it's pro-immigrant, it is definitely doesn't mind socialism. It critiques capitalism, obviously, and donald the dead and so forth.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I think it's time we take the genre back yeah and uh, get out in the streets and take, take it back.
Speaker 2:More importantly, megan, I really do consider you a friend. I know that that's kind of wild that we are. What do we call? What do they call that parrot paris? Parasocial yeah, maybe we'll never meet in real life, but you are someone that I um really appreciate in my community now, and I'm glad that it can be a little bit less isolating. Having lived in the south, I have a sense of what you mean and, uh, just know, vermont is always available. I know you hate winter.
Speaker 1:But you know what, when you're not surrounded by Trump flags all the time, winter feels actually pretty refreshing the cold air on your face, it can be nice.
Speaker 2:And also a lot of people with Trump flags that were around here have taken them down, oh yeah, which I think is quite interesting and hopefully means something good for the rest of us. But my point is is just thank you so much for the message and thank you for being a really integral part of our community. In fact, you are a frequent flyer of the watch parties that Ollie Eats Brains hosts that we also go to, and I have a lot of fun making fun of movies like Zoombies and Zoombies 2 with you.
Speaker 1:So we're going gonna move on to that. Yeah, um, we recorded a little bit of a prediction segment, yes, uh, before we watched 28 years later, so we're not going to spoil anything about 28 years later. In fact, we're gonna not really talk about it a whole lot because it's it out, and you deserve to experience it yourself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the only thing that I'm going to say is that it is not what you think it is. Nope, if you saw the trailers and you're like, oh okay, this looks fun, I think I know what's going on here. No, you're wrong, they misled you. They did it on purpose.
Speaker 2:I will say the biggest or the not biggest. The closest metaphor I can think of, for this just came to me today, 24 hours later after watching it. It's like when somebody does like a blindfolded food test with you, like taste test, and they tell you that you're about to eat an olive, but what you get is a grape. Now, in this scenario, I love both those things, they're both great, but I thought I was getting an olive, so I you get is a grape. Now, in this scenario, I love both those things, they're both great, but I thought I was getting an olive, so I was like what? The? Is this sweet thing in my mouth? Oh, it's a grape. Okay, I still like this.
Speaker 1:That was my experience of 28 years later in a nutshell so we're gonna play this uh that we recorded before, um and uh, let's see how many of our predictions came true so we just watched 28 weeks later and we're not going to talk about it yeah, this episode isn't about that.
Speaker 2:No, but we did need to watch it and we're prepared for 28 years later which we're going to watch later. Yes, and we wanted to take a minute to give uh, all of you are as cold and unprepared as possible predictions what we think is going to happen in 28 years later and see how right or wrong we are. Yeah, I have so far managed to not see any spoilers, except for chris whitmer telling us it was amazing that is a huge spoiler it is.
Speaker 2:Thanks, chris. Now my expectations are high, yeah, which could impact how I feel about it yeah, you should have told us it was terrible or just nothing. Yeah, um unforgivable that you told us it was a good movie, even though we're gonna tell everybody how we feel about it yeah, I mean, I, I think.
Speaker 1:I think the biggest thing that I'll be disappointed by is if it has bad writing, because alex garland, who's the writer of 28 days later and movies like civil war, is an excellent writer, and that's the reason why 28 Days Later and movies like Civil War is an excellent writer, and that's the reason why 28 Days Later was excellent. And Danny Boyle is an excellent filmmaker, which is another reason why 28 Days Later was excellent and 28 Weeks Later people had problems with I thought it was good.
Speaker 2:I liked it. Yeah, yeah, I thought it was good, I liked it, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I don't hate on 28 Weeks Later, do I think it's like the DVD box cover claims better than the original? No, no, absolutely not, definitively no, but still great. But you definitely see a difference, especially knowing that the first part of 28 weeks later is was written and directed by Danny Boyle and Alex Garland, and the rest of the movie wasn't interesting. You can definitely see that difference because the the intro to 28 weeks later is excellent.
Speaker 2:And what about 28 years later?
Speaker 1:And 28 years later, I hope is just as excellent.
Speaker 2:It's written by the same two people here's my first prediction. It will be just as excellent as the intro to 28 weeks later maybe better, according to our one spoiler from chris, yeah, uh, what would be unforgivable to you if it happens?
Speaker 1:oh boy, um just big gaping plot holes, uh things um plot happening only because people make stupid decisions. Um, I I'm really tired of of stories being driven forward only because somebody makes a horrible, stupid mistake that nobody in the world would make.
Speaker 2:But isn't it part of horror like being able to judge people for fucking everything up and dying?
Speaker 1:yeah, and I mean there's a difference between just you have a character that's kind of dumb and make some mistakes, versus the only way you can get past a point in the story is if somebody goes off and does the stupidest possible thing you can imagine there. And if they didn't do that, you wouldn't have a story.
Speaker 2:I don't have beef with what happened in 28 weeks later, like you did, which is what you're talking around, with what happened in 28 weeks later, like you did, which is what you're talking around, and I'm trying not to talk about 28 weeks later right now, but I don't agree. I'll just say that. So predictions, um, do you think the 20 iphone filming setup is going to be successful?
Speaker 1:yeah, I think so I. How do you?
Speaker 2:think they're going to use phones? Do you think it's going to be like a selfie kind of view situation? Or do you think we won't even know that it's iphones?
Speaker 1:well, I think, I think. Well, I've. I've seen some of the like the, the rig setup, so like when you're making a movie with either. I mean, back in the early youtube days, we used dslr cameras, like photography cameras, um, and we would make all kinds of like rigs and stuff out of pvc pipe to hold lights and microphones and stuff. I think we're gonna have a similar. They have a similar uh setup where it's like there's, there's probably a rig that has like a gyroscopic stabilizer, um lights, uh. They probably have mounted really expensive glass optics in front of the iPhone lens so that you get better, clearer image and zoom capability.
Speaker 2:So we are not going to be having a Blair Witch Project kind of vibe, according to you.
Speaker 1:Oh no, I don't think it's going to be a found footage movie.
Speaker 2:I mean that would make sense. Next question Will anybody with two eyes of the same color be alive as a human?
Speaker 1:yeah, I think that's something to look out for. Um, they established that in 28 weeks later that people with heterochromia um, uh, have an immunity to the virus.
Speaker 2:I think they're going to continue that into the story my childhood best friend's mom had hetero has I hope she's still alive has heterochromia and I thought it was the most beautiful thing in the world. She had blue eyes and then, well, that both eyes were blue, but then half of one of her eyes was brown super cool, um, I'm hoping that if you're born with two eyes of the same color, that that's like really bad news in some way oh, I was thinking like maybe it's really good news no, it's like people are like you're fucked.
Speaker 1:Yeah, either can you even survive.
Speaker 2:Yeah, either people worship you or um, they think you're a witch or they just sacrifice you to the zombies yeah, 300 style, they throw you off a cliff yeah, it's like there's no point even trying because I'm gonna like I mean, actually I don't even know they'd be able to survive, because they get infected in utero.
Speaker 1:Oh well, if they're maybe they're always stillborn. I mean they only carry the virus if they get bitten.
Speaker 2:OK will the In the House song be in the movie? I think so. So you think it's not just the Boots song.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the Boots, the Boots song. They used in all of the trailers. So I I don't know if that'll be in the movie, but it's definitely what they've used in absolutely every single trailer, so it has to be in the movie it has. It has some some significance.
Speaker 2:Do you remember the significance of that song?
Speaker 1:Um, I, I remember looking it up and it's a, it's a poem, um, about, I want to say, world war one.
Speaker 2:No, I think it's about a war, the Boer War.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'm not familiar with that war. It was a they were talking about like the endlessness of war and it's all about like the cadence of marching in this hopeless, endless war.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a poem. Boots by Rudyard Kipling.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the Jungle, book.
Speaker 2:An English author from 1865 to Endless War. Yeah, it's a poem. Boots by Rudyard Kipling. Yeah, the Jungle Book, an English author from 1865 to 1936, I'm just reading really quickly about British Army infantrymen marching in South Africa during the Second Boer War. So I was not 100% right, but I'm really impressed with my memory right now everybody, at least I didn't say World War II. Yeah Well, it is about the futility right of this endless march, and so I do wonder is there going to be war between factions?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 2:Futile war.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a futile war, yeah, a war between factions, but also just the living versus the infected, is also just this endless war.
Speaker 2:Yeah, maybe it's sort of the pointlessness of trying to survive in a world of the the rage virus.
Speaker 1:yeah, that's dark yeah, um, something that we saw in the first movie was the fact that all of the people who were infected eventually died of starvation. And I had a thought when we were watching 28 weeks later, because one of the things that a lot of people had a problem with is, uh, the, the, the dad character I forget his name, don um. Don gets infected, but he seems to be like running around, like he shows up and like it looks menacing at his kids but then disappears in the next scene, like, almost like he's stalking them, yeah, hunting them, instead of like the, the mindless rage virus zombie that the rest of them are, and I wonder if that is either a product of bad writing or if they intend to continue that on in this one, where it's 28 years later. They should have starved to death, and maybe the smarter ones that learned how to hunt and survive are the ones that are still around.
Speaker 2:They're coming after your babies with two blue eyes or two brown eyes. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it kind of makes sense because he gets infected by a carrier which would be different than being infected from someone else. Maybe that's the evolution of the virus in some way. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, it could have mutated.
Speaker 1:And then we know that France gets infected because of another carrier. Yeah, I mean, that virus was inside of a person that didn't turn into a zombie.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for six or seven months and then kid andy goes to france. Yeah, why are all the? You know I'm really mad at daryl dixon for going to france. I'm still upset about that. That's a sidebar, daryl dixon for going to France.
Speaker 1:I'm still upset about that. That's a sidebar. Daryl Dixon probably went to France because 28 weeks later went to France and they were like that would have been a cool idea.
Speaker 2:Well, we'll see who does it better, and it better be 28 years later. Yeah, speaking of other predictions, I think that there's a possibility of Danny could still be alive and a main character, danny the kid, but now an adult.
Speaker 1:I thought his name was something else.
Speaker 2:Andy. Sorry, andy, danny, it's almost the same thing.
Speaker 1:It's the same. Andy and Danny are the same name. What is it?
Speaker 2:called when you can make a word out of other words.
Speaker 1:Oh.
Speaker 2:I don't know Andy and Danny are one of those, except for it would be Dane and whatever. You know I see where you're going, yeah that's a possibility.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, uh, yeah, we could see that character come back as an adult. Um, I do know that. Uh, oh, I think her name is julie. Comer is one of the characters who are going to be in the movie, and while we were watching, 28 weeks later, I'm like what if the sister also survives? And she's Jodie Comer? She was in a show that we watched that turned out kind of good and then turned really bad.
Speaker 2:Oh, I don't remember. Oh, was she the main assassin? Yeah, this is going to make so little sense to anybody listening to us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then in like season, four or five or three she starts hallucinating that she's Jesus with this glue on beard, and then she crucifies herself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, actually, I'd love to see her in a different role because she's a great actor. Yeah, so Selena could come back.
Speaker 1:Selena could be coming back. It's possible.
Speaker 2:Tammy and his sister could come back.
Speaker 1:Tammy.
Speaker 2:Helicopter pilot guy. Yeah, helicopter pilot guy who helps them escape and spreads the virus to france could come back yeah uh, I forget what the girl from the first movie is, the young one whose dad gets I forget her name too killed.
Speaker 1:Um, she could come back and of course, everyone wants to know if killian murphy is there yeah, that's been the subject of a lot of debate because, um, my understanding is that he's not going to come back in the first movie, but there's going to be three movies.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I wish we'd created some sort of segment that was like breaking news. We did not hear back from Gerard's dad's dog about whether Killian Murphy was 28 years later.
Speaker 1:It's not too late.
Speaker 2:I mean it's getting close. We've got three hours till we watch the movie Get Gerard on the horn.
Speaker 1:We got to know.
Speaker 2:The other thing is, I think that the survivors I mean what we see is they've got bows and arrows, so I'm assuming that we are not living with modern technology 28 years later.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but we also see modernized soldiers in other scenes. So my prediction is that there are places that are thriving um, probably the united states or canada. Maybe canada is now the superpower of the world hilarious.
Speaker 2:Everybody says a now yeah and sorry, and they messed up everyone's bacon I'm just glaring at Dan across the what is this thing called A table? Now, retrieval is hard for me sometimes. If you don't know, you should know that what's called Canadian bacon in America is not Canadian bacon. Canadian bacon is called female bacon and it has like corn coating, like a crushed up corn coating around basically pork. Used to love it. Now the thought of it kind of makes me feel gross. Yeah, but the little little ham slices people get here in the united states to call canadian bacon. It's offensive. I'm offended by it. It's not. It's not canadian bacon. But we digress any other predictions before we go watch this thing I mean.
Speaker 1:The only other prediction that I have is that it will either be horrible and a huge disappointment, or it will be the best thing we've ever seen.
Speaker 2:I mean according to Chris Whitmer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean Chris might be trying to mislead us.
Speaker 2:Do you think so? I don't think so I'm going to just read what he wrote as our little bit of a preview, before we come back and tell you all what we think, which this episode will be spoiler free. Since we haven't said that yet, chris says, I will say I could talk for hours about the infected and the world building. After y'all see it, there is a real morality discussion about the infected to be had. Now they're dot dot dot different, so there's something there maybe about the evolved zombie.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I like the idea of a zombie being the next evolution of our species, even if it is temporarily a devolution.
Speaker 2:Like the girl with all the gifts. Yeah Well, it's only seen as a devolution if you're the prey now.
Speaker 1:It's true, yeah, well, I mean, in most, most stories, zombies typically are falling apart, um, dead, uh, not in the, not in their best forms, but like maybe, maybe something. Maybe something evolves after that point, like a like it mutates a little bit. People, uh, you know, they cope with being dead and they become something a little bit better.
Speaker 2:I mean, the girl with all the gifts had that same sort of premise. So we'll see. I also really hoping no animals are harmed in this movie.
Speaker 1:Yeah, only humans.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and harm the humans, that's fine.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's what we came to see. Yeah, I came to see the humans. I think so. My my final yeah, I came to see the humans.
Speaker 1:My final prediction is I think somebody will get their eyes gouged out.
Speaker 2:That's one of my like no go list things. I don't like watching eyes getting gouged out.
Speaker 1:Also yeah, somebody is going to get their guts spilled, probably yeah.
Speaker 2:I'll just turn away and you can tell me when it's done. My last prediction is that we are going to be one of maybe five people in this cinema while we're watching it. I, maybe five people in this cinema while we're watching it. I think it's going to be really, really quiet, which is so lame, but I'm pretty sure that's the case. Yeah.
Speaker 1:But what at?
Speaker 2:least when I booked the seats what if there was nobody else?
Speaker 1:What if the one of the other people is loudly laughing at every scene that's inappropriate to laugh at and smoking a very large cigar?
Speaker 2:I'm going to ask them what they're having and if I can have some.
Speaker 1:They don't want to share.
Speaker 2:Oh Well, I mean, it's your job to clean it up, dan, they're the dead weight.
Speaker 1:All right, well, I'll take them out back and shoot them then.
Speaker 2:Perfect Quinn would be proud.
Speaker 1:See, this is what I'm here for.
Speaker 2:All right, we'll be back.
Speaker 1:We'll be back With thoughts yeah right, we'll be back. We'll be back with thoughts.
Speaker 2:Yeah, is zoombees 2 better or worse than 28 years later zoombees 2 we watched?
Speaker 1:zoombees 2 last night. We're gonna talk about that. We're gonna that's how we're not going to spoil 28 years later is we're going to tell you how much better than zoombees 2 it is I mean you're saying if it is? If it is, is we'll find out.
Speaker 2:It's a big F. I'm going to come back and be like Zumbies 2 is better.
Speaker 1:How many giraffes do you think, 28 Years Later, has Zero?
Speaker 2:Oh, I think you're wrong, but how many carousels, I think there's going to be giraffes.
Speaker 1:What if there's the carousel horse?
Speaker 2:with the Z on it again. Oh, we got to of the same locations. Yeah, that would be fun. All right, we want to go watch it, so we're going to be back everybody. Bye-bye, bye-bye, bye-bye, bye-bye, bye. It is time. Now that you've all heard our predictions, you can evaluate. Well, we can't really tell you what we're wrong about, because that'll spoil it.
Speaker 1:We're wrong about everything. We're wrong about a lot. Not a single prediction was right.
Speaker 2:Dan claims that there were some that were right, though I don't remember. Okay, we're going to watch it again. This is definitely a movie that I'm going to want to watch multiple times. Yeah, movie that I'm gonna want to watch multiple times yeah, but this is the moment you've all been waiting for the existential question of our times, the most important one zoom bees 2 versus 28 years later yeah, first of all, they both have a 2 somewhere in their titles.
Speaker 1:That's true. Yeah, so we're off to a good start, yeah they're both sequels yeah um, one of them took 20 years to make.
Speaker 2:Well, I guess it didn't take 20 years, but it was 20 years after.
Speaker 1:We don't know how long it took them to make zoom bees too. That's true. We didn't check the wikipedia. I doubt it's been 20 years that this might have been a passion project. We don't know, maybe they would. It could have been like the person that wrote this was like I saw Jurassic Park as a kid. I started writing Zoombies 1 and Zoombies 2 in the second grade and I'm finally here. Guys, I did it.
Speaker 2:So, Dan, because we live in a capitalist hellscape, we're going to make it a competition.
Speaker 1:Okay yeah, competition makes everything better.
Speaker 2:Yes, we have 10 points that Zoombies 2 could get, or 28 years later could get One point per category that we're going to compare them on Again, no spoilers Maybe for Zombies 2, but definitely not for 28 years later. That's what I would say about it. But first we're going to start with quick summaries. Zombies 2 is when a game ranger and a team of poachers end up surrounded by zombie animals and they forge an alliance to stop the beasts before the super zombie virus spreads to the entire world yeah, the one that they, that the, the poachers released on the zombies intentionally.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're gonna stop clear why I think unclear just because they're bad because they're bad Because they were bad guys yeah.
Speaker 1:That's my take. 28 years later. Well, if you saw 28 days later, it's 28 years after that and it's you know, like in the trailers. There's a small island involved. A group leaves the island we're not going to say why and they discover secrets and wonders and horrors.
Speaker 2:This is the IMDB, this is an IMDB quote that have quote mutated not only the infected, but other survivors.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that might be a spoiler.
Speaker 2:Is it? I mean it's on the IMDB.
Speaker 1:Well, IMDb is dumb.
Speaker 2:Let's get into this Rumble Showdown moment between these two equally competitive zombie movies.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all right, number one, let's talk about cinematography. All right, who's?
Speaker 2:going to get the point which one is better cinematography.
Speaker 1:So, of the two movies, one of them was shot on a cell phone, many 20 cell phones. Well, many yeah, but specifically the camera of choice was a cell phone. I don't know about the other one, but the one that was shot on a cell phone was 28 years later and it was excellent.
Speaker 2:It was excellent, it was excellent. It looked fantastic. Yeah, would never have known.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the cinematography was top notch. We had like bullet time effects, lots of great visual effects, the depth of color and the shots were all perfect.
Speaker 2:Very immersive. Never a moment where I thought like that's kind of weird. Fully in it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:What about Zoomumbies?
Speaker 1:2? Zumbies 2, I'll give it credit that it looked better than Zumbies 1.
Speaker 2:There was an improvement, possibly a slightly bigger budget, but we don't know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we don't know anything about that. The thing that wasn't better than Zumbies 1 was like the 3D effects on the animals themselves. Somehow they got worse looking giraffes in this movie.
Speaker 2:Special effects is technically our second category, Dan Okay, so just pure cinematography.
Speaker 1:You know what it looked like a movie.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there wasn't anything glaring.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's not better than 28 Years Later.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:So it does not win the cinematography. So 28 Years later gets one point yeah, 28 years later might win this one. It's, it's out, it's out in front I think it's gonna be close we'll see, okay, special effects and gore.
Speaker 2:This is number two uh, the best part of 28 years later. Special effects were the big swinging dicks there were huge, huge swinging dicks not as big as the uh penis plushies that were for sale at living dead weekend not quite, but still impressive and I really don't believe those were anybody's actual peen at least one of them was not a real peen.
Speaker 1:I think that there were some real swinging dicks in some of those shots, for sure, but there was definitely one that's like. This is a prosthetic, right? Please tell me it's a prosthetic.
Speaker 2:The makeup for the zombies top notch. Oh yeah, really upsetting. Yes, very disturbing, Incredible kill scenes. My favorite part this is how I know I've changed as a person Thanks to this podcast and how much zombie stuff I watch now. I loved it. It was my favorite part of the movie was all of the gore. What has happened to me?
Speaker 1:I loved. I mentioned there was some bullet time effects. I really loved the blood splatter effects Like they really got, like the, the, the particleization of blood on the on on bullet hits and arrow hits. Probably probably unrealistic for an arrow to cause that much of a plume of vaporized blood escaping from the back of somebody's skull. But it was cool and I liked it Me too. So I'm I'm not going to take off any points for that, because it made me feel good.
Speaker 2:Also very original zombie visuals, which we'll get into in a little bit, but they're like in terms of zombie innovation, but the way they look is different and there's more than one kind and there's not a moment in this movie where I don't believe what's happening.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think most, if not all, of the visual effects in 28 Years Later is practical. Maybe some exceptions, but very minor and you cannot tell.
Speaker 2:Yeah, whoever were the special effects artists I don't know they're pretty cool. While I was watching, I was actually thinking about Living Dead Weekend and wondering like why isn't there an equivalent in the UK for this movie series? I think that there should be. I would absolutely fly across the pond.
Speaker 1:Yeah, to go to like the 28 Days con.
Speaker 2:Yes, I mean then maybe there is, we don't know. We should find out. If there isn't to be one, yeah, and Gerard can we stay at your house.
Speaker 1:No, we want to stay at your dad's house and hang out with your dad's dog. Yeah, that's so creepy. Maybe Gerard's dad's dog can get us some special passes for 28 Days Con.
Speaker 2:I mean, I would assume that Gerard also would want to go to 28 Days Con with us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but you know what that's up to Gerard's dad's dog.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we can have a meetup with all of our UK besties.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's a few.
Speaker 2:Yeah, elm Juniper could come from Sweden. Yeah, that'd be great.
Speaker 1:Yeah, elm Juniper's book is from the UK, so that counts.
Speaker 2:It does.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Darren and Michael from Undead Symphony Greg the Writer, jack Callahan, even Jack Callahan. Yes, will we bring you a can of beans? Naila can come down from Scotland. That would be so great, yeah, okay. Well, that's a dream, let's make that happen. Total sidebar, zoombies 2, special effects and gore. Totally different world. I laughed a lot. Yeah there was some very funny kill scenes, some very fun gore, so I will give them that it was fun the special effects, the practical special effects were the best ones they all.
Speaker 1:They always are, especially when it's a small budget, like zombies. I mean again, I don't know what their budget actually was I don't think it was 28 years later. There are three 3D effects in one, and two were pretty terrible. There's one specifically zombie hippopotamus, hippopotamus and, like the water simulation effects and the hippopotamus thrashing in the water, it was like it looked like it was straight out of a PlayStation two. It was bad. Yeah, it was. It was like that straight out of playstation 2. It was bad. Yeah, it was. It was like that.
Speaker 2:You should have just not done it, just not the one thing I will say, though, is that I thought that the hippopotamus was larger than they actually are in real life, but oliver schooled us all, I guess not you. You knew this I knew it was a picture of the ratio between human to hippopotamus and I didn't realize they were huge, like Like huge, huge hip-hop hippopotamus, huge, scary.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're massive. Yeah, they're like a dump truck that's ready to eat you.
Speaker 2:Not a spoiler. There's a meerkat that comes out from somebody's stomach through their head.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm going to take off points, because they did the same thing with a monkey in the first movie.
Speaker 2:That's true, but maybe it was like a what's the word? A callback.
Speaker 1:It is a callback.
Speaker 2:Also it was funny, though they did make a joke about somebody actually used the word zombies in the movie, about what was happening. So special effects, the CG was terrible. The practical ones were what they were intended to be. It's a totally different kind of movie, so I feel like this one's a lot closer, for those reasons, to me. Who would you give a point to, 28 years later, trying to pretend that there's any chance for zombies due here? You never know.
Speaker 2:You know, 28 years later, the underdog is showing up, this is coming out swinging maybe this is the one that zombies 2 will get zombie innovation, new takes on the genre. What's better giraffe zombies or fast virus zombies and other zombies we can't talk about because it would spoil them yeah, you know what?
Speaker 1:know? This might be a place where zombies might actually win, because they've got a zoo of zombies. Animal zombies is not commonly done.
Speaker 2:That somehow don't spread to people. That's different, yeah, but it's not believable.
Speaker 1:It's not believable at all. Any part of it is not believable. It's not believable at all. Any part of it is not believable. Yeah, and I'm going to ignore that there's a Zoombies one, because they're in the same franchise.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, so is the Rage Virus from the first two movies, right?
Speaker 1:So they're exactly as derivative of their originals, so they're equal.
Speaker 2:Well, actually I would say that that's not true. I think there's a clear evolution in 28 years later. That is really interesting. Yeah, uh, in zombies 2 we kind of get a sense of like where it starts. Yeah, which, because zombies 2, even though it's 2, is sort of like the prequel for zombies 1 yeah, we find that out at the origin, that is.
Speaker 1:That is a big spoiler, if you care about zombies yeah side, completely unclear where it's happening.
Speaker 2:Zombies too, yeah. Is it in America? Is it in Australia? Is it in Africa? The whole continent? Is it on a different planet, is it? I don't know.
Speaker 1:All we know is that some of the people are Australian but also wear American flags on their army uniforms. Yeah, and there's one person that maybe has sort of an Afrikaans accent but unclear. The subtitle said Australian accent.
Speaker 2:They did not sound Australian to me, but we'll get in there. That's our next category of acting quality Zombie innovation.
Speaker 1:I think I'm going to say 28 years later. Yeah, I agree, because this is not only the innovation of the original 28 days later, which was like the first big derivative of the zombie apocalypse genre, but it's also innovation on that as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I think I would have liked some more reverence for the early movies. That's all I'll say. But there were at least some of the evolutions that I really liked. There was one that I think was really good and fun for the movie, but did stretch my belief a little bit, and that's all I'm going to say.
Speaker 1:I wish I knew which one that was. Is it the size of the spoilers?
Speaker 2:That was what did it for me, yeah.
Speaker 1:The big. The dicks were too big, All right.
Speaker 2:So 28 years later, it's currently three for zero. Yeah, I feel like, 28 years later, winning.
Speaker 1:Zoombies, zoombies, ities. That one was a close one, though I feel like Zoombies is actually very innovative in the Should we split it? Should we give them each half a point?
Speaker 2:A point each. A point each. So we've got two right now. Wait no.
Speaker 1:Three for 28 years later and one for Zoombies yeah, I think that's fair Because they are both innovative and it's in different ways.
Speaker 2:Let's move on to number four acting quality. All right, let's go with zombies too. This time, okay, I mean the quote unquote Australian person sounded like I thought maybe they were from South Africa, so yeah, that wasn't good, but they were camp actors. I don't know how much more we could expect from them. I think they did a good job with the roles they were given yeah, yeah, uh, look, it was bad I don't think the actors were bad, minus the like the actors could have been better.
Speaker 1:Okay, sure, there was definitely room for improvement. Sure, like, maybe, maybe you can give them a few points here and there because it's like, well, the director you know could have directed you better, there could have been a better budget, there could have been better a coherent script yeah, a coherent script. But you know what if? If you took brian cranston and you put him in zoom bees too, he would fucking kill it he would be over there like I'm gonna kill that fucking meerkat it's okay, so this is a clear win.
Speaker 2:Then, yeah, 28 gets it. So we're at 28 for zoombies.
Speaker 1:2 1 yeah, yeah, we. I mean, we don't even have to bring up the acting in 28 years later, because it was all excellent no, we do.
Speaker 2:I have to talk about what a fan I am of jody comer. Yeah, uh, that's the one that was in the assassination movie that we mentioned in the predictions that. I still don't know the name of it was a show.
Speaker 1:It was a show.
Speaker 2:Was it with? Let me look it up. Yeah, I got to give them credit Jodie Comer. Jodie is an incredible actor, uh full completely different roles in this movie versus that show, which was the first time I'd ever seen her. Uh, let me see. Killing eve was the tv show ran from 2018 2022. She was incredible in it. She was the reason we watched it for as long as we did, because it did get shittier as time went on yeah, I mean it got shittier even in the first season.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, because of the writing.
Speaker 2:The writing was awful, it was awful. So this is an example.
Speaker 1:Like in zoombies 2, she would have rocked it yeah, put jody comer in zoombies 2, zoombies 3, zoombies 3. It, yeah, put Jody Comer and zoom bees to zoom bees Three, zoom bees Three and four. Yeah, cause they. I think there is a third one already.
Speaker 2:It might be too late. Aquarium of the dead or something.
Speaker 1:Uh, yeah, I we got Brian Cranston, we we get, um uh, killian Murphy Comer for Zoombies 4 and we might have a watchable movie. Honestly, I think it would be a blockbuster yeah.
Speaker 2:Give them some more budget for the CG yeah, and also an intelligible script.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know what Hire some of the kids from the Savini Tom Savini school yeah. Do it all practical effects, because it's a zombie movie. You gotta do practical. You can't do practical effects because it's a zombie movie you got to do practical.
Speaker 2:You can't do practical effects.
Speaker 1:When it's a hippopotamus or a giraffe, you can't you just, you just get the, the trainers to make the hip-hop. Hippopotamus um, look like he's eating somebody what if they did like animatronics animals?
Speaker 1:that could have been fun you know, I, I feel, I feel like gandalf um could have, could have done this type of acting with a hip-hop epitomist and forced perspective. You'd believe that Gandalf I forget the name of the actor now it's always on the roof of my tongue, the roof of your tongue. Yeah, it's on the roof of it, wow, but today I can't remember it because I don't have enough caffeine, it's okay.
Speaker 2:Everybody knows who Gandalf is, especially Jack Callahan.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Everybody knows Lord of the Rings yeah, bane. My point is is that in the show Killing Eve, jodie Comer is an assassin and she has to pretend to be many people, and every single person she pretends to be to kill someone is believable, yeah, and in 28 years later, uh, she's given a role that is, um, a pretty classical role for a woman she's a mom. Yeah, I'm not gonna tell you more than that, but she murders that role yeah, and like an assassin yeah, she assassinates it.
Speaker 1:It's so good yeah and yeah, and you know, I was worried at first. I'm like, is she even going to be in this movie? And then we find out that she, yes, she is going to be in the movie.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she does play a primary role in a really great way, yeah.
Speaker 1:And everybody else was fantastic as well.
Speaker 2:So acting quality, solidly, 28 years, absolutely.
Speaker 1:So we years, absolutely. So we're at five to one now. Yeah, uh, oh boy, let's talk about script and dialogue, do we even?
Speaker 2:I feel like I've already made this, this point, yeah, I. I think it's clear that 28 years later wins this one. What I will say and I know you don't agree with me, dan I feel like there's a part of the movie in 28 years later that feels a little bit heavy handed. Okay, yeah, I know what you're talking about, but still far and away better than. Zoombies 2. Yeah, and excellent, like it's a very believable story.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there was a scene very early in 28 years later, that I'd known that this scene was going to happen because of the trailers and I thought it was going to be a much more tense scene. And that's not to say that it wasn't tense, but I feel like it moved along really fast and I wanted to spend a little bit more time there. But again, I don't think it was bad, I just think it was.
Speaker 2:I had expectations yeah, zombies 2 barely had a plot I had no expectations for zombies, yeah, I mean it did have a plot. I knew the basics but it was not compelling and um no one was like and the the dialogue. I mean loki. We we jokingly called him loki, but his name was logan in movie. He was kind of likable.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a little bit For the little amount of time that he was alive.
Speaker 2:Well, that's a spoiler, dan. We promise no spoilers. We can't do that, but yeah, I think the script is better. I think that's an okay thing to say. I think Danny Boyle and who else wrote it. Oh my God, dan, dan, you should know these things.
Speaker 1:I I rely on you my brain is not working today okay, I'm looking it up alex garland yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2:We are so casual in our casual anyways, they clearly are better writers, like.
Speaker 1:That's just not and I, you know, and I, it's such a quick decision for me because the problem with zombies one and two is the writing. It is, yeah, it's, it's bad writing and then it's on, it's it's upsetting. You know, I know that these movies aren't made to be like blockbuster hits, and that's fine, but also, like I just, I just think that you have to have a good foundation when you decide to make a movie. You have to. Already you can read it, you can read it with your eyeballs, you can read the script and you can say, hey guys, before we spend a couple million dollars making this shitty movie that maybe nobody will want to watch because it's terrible, maybe let's take another pass at this script and get rid of all of our terrible plot holes. Let's tighten up some of the dialogue, make it less cringy, make it, make it so that when people hear words coming out of other people's mouths that they don't immediately just want to turn it off and walk out of the room.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there are smart B-movies. That's what I'm looking for. I want a B-movie that knows. It's a B-movie which I think they do.
Speaker 1:Luckily they do.
Speaker 2:But it's just not zombie-verse level or sorry to bring in a non-zombie reference, snakes on a Plane level. Yeah, unfortunately, snakes on a Plane is my favorite B movie of all time, I think, resisting the urge to do the quote because I know I won't do it. Well, but you can just let's have a moment of silence for Samuel L Jackson's quote for Snakes on a Plane.
Speaker 1:And Sam Jackson we trust.
Speaker 2:Yes, you can even put it in there if you want.
Speaker 1:I won't Special effects it, no, dang. No, it's a moment of silence, leah.
Speaker 2:Because the script and dialogue are so bad in Zumbies 2, should we take away their point?
Speaker 1:We take away their point. So now it's 6-0. They're back to zero.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that that's fair they lost a point for how bad that is.
Speaker 2:P, that is pacing and structure, all right, this one's probably a little bit closer. You think so? I think so, I don't. I was the only reason that zoom bees 2 was worth watching to me was to make fun of it with the people in the watch party. Yeah, but it moved along. Yeah, but I was looking at my phone. I was doing other things. I played a game of settlers of katan on my phone. That's. That's a you problem. That is not a me problem. We we have established on this podcast that I don't need to look at my phone if it's really good and well-paced and I would never have picked up my phone. I would never have picked up my phone in 28 years later.
Speaker 1:You were also in a movie theater.
Speaker 2:I wouldn't have done it.
Speaker 1:It's illegal to pick up your phone, is it? It is, I can go to jail for that. You can be arrested, okay, by the movie police.
Speaker 2:I'm just saying I don't. What about Zoombies 2? Do you think gives it makes it deserving of a point?
Speaker 1:I don't think it's deserving of a point, I just. I'm just saying it's like Okay, this is, this is like the one place where this movie actually knows how to be a movie is. It moves forward. Yeah, it moves forward with completely ridiculous things and stupidity and plot holes, but it does move forward, you don't. You don't sit too long on one scene and be like are they ever gonna leave this fucking office, true?
Speaker 2:okay, are they?
Speaker 1:just gonna be a jeep all afternoon.
Speaker 2:Sometimes I feel bad shitting on movies like Zumbies 2, because I'm like they do know what it is. And we need Zumbies 2 in the world so that we can have watch parties. I think a watch party for 28 years later, as the first time you're watching a movie like that, would be too much yeah.
Speaker 1:If it's like the 10th time that you're watching, you can sit around with your friends and be like look at that guy's dick yeah, your other people are quoting it as it's happening.
Speaker 2:That's fine, but we need the zombies too. So I just can we give it a point of love, just to say like we need the zombies too in the world in?
Speaker 1:in which category do they get a point for?
Speaker 2:never point of love never mind.
Speaker 1:Is there another? Is there another area for, oh, cultural legacy? How about that? No, okay, let's move on.
Speaker 2:Okay, so seven to one. Seven, 28 years later, all right, number seven character development. Do we care who lives or dies?
Speaker 1:In zombies? No, I don't Actually. I mean I do care because secretly I hope that all of them die again.
Speaker 2:I think that a dysfunction is for us to feel guilt-free about watching someone die with glee.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, and 28 years later I I did care if they lived or died. There were so many times where I was like these people are dead, these people are dead, there's no way out. And there were times when people died who I thought were going to live and I was like whoa, I thought that person was going to be in the movie a lot longer than they were saying and here they are decapitated yeah, uh that's a spoiler.
Speaker 1:That is a spoiler. Um. And then there was another time when somebody almost died and then didn't, and then didn't. And I'm like whoa, because I was like, oh no, they're killing off this character. That's, that person's definitely dead.
Speaker 2:And then they weren't yeah, and I cared about all of the characters, including some of the zombies yeah that's all I'll say about that yeah I. I cared about their well-being. Um, I'm pausing because I know that everything else out that's about to come in my mouth would be a spoiler. So I won't say it yeah uh, also, both movies had pregnant people, as you indicated in your intro yeah, it's true, there were pregnant people in each movie.
Speaker 1:Um who do we think? Which movie do you think did pregnancy better?
Speaker 2:I cared more about the pregnant person in 28 Years Later by far.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I laughed more about the pregnant person in Zoombies because we were joking, because the only indication that we had that there were two characters that were a couple was that they briefly held hands, and I joked that now she's pregnant.
Speaker 2:That's grade school rules. I mean, I really believe when I was in kindergarten that if I got a kiss I would be pregnant. Yeah, I was terrified.
Speaker 1:And then later in the movie, prompted by nothing, by the way, she just comes up and she's like I just found out I'm pregnant.
Speaker 2:Well, you have to have stakes right. They're trying to make us care about the pregnancy. They're trying to make us care about this future baby.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so going back to do we care who lives or dies? They realized that all their characters could die and nobody would care. So they're like we have to make one of them pregnant.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we got gotta manipulate the audience because these characters are unlikable. I mean, I don't know if anybody else watching cared, but I didn't care. But in 20 years later I definitely cared and when you watch it, come back to me so we can talk about that in our dms because there's so much there that I can't say right now. Also, I didn't expect that 28 years later was going to make me cry. Yeah, um, one of the author people in our circle are cuthbertson, who's got a, who's got a book coming out this summer called waves of the undead or waves of undead also said it made her cry. Um, I didn't cry a lot because I'm on prozac and I feel like that stops me from crying sometimes, but it did. I felt things, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I felt things as well. It got watery. Yeah, it was. It was uh. I wasn't expecting an emotional movie. No, um, because 28 days later, I mean it had like emotional beats. There were moments that were very upsetting in that movie, but it wasn't about like an emotional journey. Yeah, so solidly and 28 weeks later certainly wasn't an emotional journey at all no, so we're solidly at seven to one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let's move on to social commentary. I don't think we can talk about the social commentary that happens in 28 years later without spoiling everything, but I will say it made me have questions, like chris whitmer said, uh, in our discord that I didn't expect to have ethical questions, actual existential questions, not this existential question in quotation marks, about which movie is better um zombies one and two.
Speaker 1:Absolutely no clarity on what they're trying to say in that movie sometimes it's like we should care about animals and then other times they're like we need to kill all the animals before they kill each other yeah, it's.
Speaker 2:I think it was basically just like somebody wanted to make zombie animals, and that was really the entire depth of the story it could have.
Speaker 1:It could have been like zombie safari. It would have been the same movie if they were just like. We're a bunch of hunters out here killing animals for no reason.
Speaker 2:Also, now they're zombies, so let's kill them faster and harder I mean, I definitely found myself team zumbi animal pretty much across the board for both of those movies, uh, but that was just because the people suck, not because there's any kind of like commentary or the the thing about zion movies that makes me love them, which is social commentary, something that makes you think about the world that you're in and what it means. So solidly we are at eight to one. We got two more categories, do you think?
Speaker 2:zoom bees can catch up no, we are at number nine rewatchability. Would you ever watch it again, alone or at a party? I will. Will never watch Zoombees 2 again, never, never.
Speaker 1:I might watch it like once. Why, if somebody's like we're having, if it's another watch party and it's a different group and they're like we're going to watch this movie and people told us it was stupid and I'm going to go there and I'm going to bring my best jokes?
Speaker 1:Okay, okay was stupid and I'm gonna go there and I'm gonna bring my best jokes, okay, okay, I mean I guess I should never say never, as they say yeah. I'm like the scene where the, where the cool poacher guy is riding away from the, the horde of all of the zumbi animals running after him while he's riding a motorcycle, and he's like, yeah, I'm getting, I'm being the hero. That was cool.
Speaker 2:I don't even remember it. That's how little I paid attention.
Speaker 1:It happened. It's in the trailer.
Speaker 2:You can watch the trailer and see that 28 years later, I want to rewatch it like now.
Speaker 1:I want to watch it 10 times.
Speaker 2:I agree because I think there's a lot more there, yeah, and because I thought I was going to eat an olive but I got a grape. A large part of me watching it was like what is that? What? Like my expectations were so subverted.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Pulling a full circle to my subversive joke at the beginning of this episode. It is yeah when you name a joke, does it ruin it?
Speaker 1:No, it makes it better.
Speaker 2:Okay, it was so subversive that I need to, like need to. I need to see it again. Now that I understand what it is in a film, I think it will definitely be a classic. Yeah, so nine to one. We only have one more point Watch this movie get terrible reviews.
Speaker 2:I'm not saying it's an out of 10 movie. I'm just saying it's better than zombies, too Absolutely yeah. The last one is cultural legacy again, zombies, too, none, yeah, 28 years later. I think it has the potential, depending on how well people felt about the fact that they found out they had a grape in their mouth instead of an olive. You know, when I first started drinking non-dairy milk versus dairy milk or a non dairy cheese versus dairy cheese, there was the uncanny Valley where I was like this doesn't taste like what I expect and therefore it's not very good. And that's often not true. It's just because I had expectations, and so I think the biggest hurdle that this movie will have is people accepting that it's not what they thought it was going to be.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. The non-dairy milk is a perfect example, because you know, when you first start off you're like it's white, but it's not right. When you first start off, you're like it's it's, it's white, but it's not right. Um, but then you're like. Then you try oat milk and you're like this is way better.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but it takes you a minute to get there yeah, it takes a while you don't just like immediately be like I'm gonna replace dairy milk with oat milk, and this is great. There's a mourning period that happens and nobody starts with oat milk yeah, but in this case we started with dairy milk the 28 days later, 28 weeks later, then we got oat milk, which I agree is superior. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And they were like this is coconut milk, yeah. And then we were like it doesn't taste like coconut.
Speaker 2:No, they told us it's dairy. It's like better believe it's not butter, but it's not butter. Yeah, it's 28 years later this is really becoming unhinged.
Speaker 1:I don, this is 28 years later. This is really becoming unhinged.
Speaker 2:I don't know what's I don't know what the comparison is anymore. I think people, people are getting I've lost the plot.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, we're maybe a zombies 2 level podcast then you know the a great example is like when I, uh, when I take a sip of a beverage and I'm like I'm like this is definitely diet coke and I drink water and I'm like, ah, fucking gross, what is this? And I'm like, oh, it's water. This is, yeah, this is definitely Diet Coke. And I drink water and I'm like, ah, fucking gross, what is this? And I'm like, oh, it's water. This is life-giving water.
Speaker 2:But this is the first in a series, so I think it's created, it established itself as something new and different. It has a legacy, but I think that they did that on purpose and I'm very curious to see where it goes. I think it's going to be great. Do I think it's the best zombie movie I've ever seen? No, do I think it's better than Zoombies 2? Yes. So our final count is 10 to 1.
Speaker 1:Or no, yeah 10 to 1, because they both got a point for special effects, yeah, and then Zoombies lost that point, but then got it back.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I forgot, they lost the point. They got the point back because I have a bad memory.
Speaker 1:They got the point back because of love.
Speaker 1:Because it holds a special place in the kinds of movies that we need in the world. I thought, 28 Years Later, was a fantastic zombie movie. It's hard to pick one, it's hard to compare because it's such a different movie. And I guess if you're opening your mouth and you're expecting that olive and you get that grape, a perfect example is like I liked Dawn of the Dead and I'm hoping it's like dawn of the dead. If you're expecting that, then you're like, you're gonna. You're gonna be like what is this round? Not olive in my mouth yeah, that's a good.
Speaker 2:Another one. That's a good example of that. I do think that they are comparable to greg. Greg who's greg I meant to say george. George nouns are so hard greg greg, greg gregory romero. I think I was putting together greg nicotero and george romero in my head. I think it's comparable in terms of it being an important franchise in the history of zombie media.
Speaker 1:We have one more quick bonus quality, diverse character representation oh, is this where zombies is gonna come, make a huge comeback and actually win this?
Speaker 2:I mean, I don't know how, okay. So race, racial diversity okay, how do we? How do we score this? Dan zoombees has one black man, one black woman. Both are stereotypes and there is a white savior. Female lead and male lead yeah, white saviors across the board.
Speaker 1:yeah, I think even the bad guys were white saviors across the board. Yeah, I think even the bad guys were white saviors.
Speaker 2:So there's, there's racial diversity, but it's badly done, whereas 28 years later I just wrote in all caps so white no excuse, britain is not white people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, uh. 93% of Scotland's population, though, is white, but that's 7%. We should have seen some somebody somewhere in all of the zombies we saw. At very least give me a zombie. Yeah, that's not white, yeah, um, so is what's worse? Just complete racial uniformity in a place where that's not true, or having people who are black in a mostly white film but do it badly. Let's say nobody gets a point because I don't feel qualified to. Yeah, no points. Women how are women represented in both films?
Speaker 1:You know what? There are women in both films. Both films has a pregnant woman, yeah, both films, oh no. Both films have women who contribute to the plot in a non-direct way. Um, but only zoombees has women who talk to each other. That's true about something that's not a man it's very, it's very male-centered.
Speaker 2:28 years yeah.
Speaker 1:It is almost entirely men. There's Jodie Comer, of course, who is a complex character. Yeah, if not, you know, still traditional. But there's, there's some, there's some hints that maybe she's a little bit more behind the scenes, but she's got stuff going on. She's got she's. She has an illness.
Speaker 2:And there were definitely has an illness and they were definitely, again, not saying specific roles. There were definitely a couple of roles that could have been women and it would have been great and it would have taken nothing away from the story for it to be somebody of that's not a man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, the person who controls the, the gate at their, at their, where they live, that's a woman uh, yep, uh, there's.
Speaker 2:There's sex with a random, yeah woman so basically women for the most part in both movies, I think, play pretty stereotypical roles. But there is way more depth to Jodie Comer's character than there is to any of the two characters, any gender. But I'm hopeful that in the coming next two movies for 28 Years Later series that it's going to get better. Right now it's very much male-centered.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, any queer, trans representation, lgbtq plus representation I don't think that there is any in zoobies, but I don't, I don't really know yeah, it's not the function of either.
Speaker 2:Well, that's not true. That's that's heteronormativity coming through. There are relationships that are shown in both movies, all of them hetero. However, you pointed out, there is teletubbies. I not a spoiler.
Speaker 1:Teletubbies shows up in 28 years later there are teletubbies, and, while the teletubbies themselves don't really specify their genders or their sexual identities, um, tinky winky is suspected to be, to be gay. Um, even though the creators have said tinky winky is a three-year-old.
Speaker 2:Um, and three year olds can be gay, just like they can be straight but they said it's not.
Speaker 1:it's not necessarily a part of Tinky Winky's outward facing identity yet, but however, the Teletubbies have openly accepted the LGBTQ plus community and they sell Pride merch. So there you go. That's the LGBTQ representation and 28 years later is tinky winky. Yeah, the teletubby disability.
Speaker 2:Uh, unless you consider the zombies disabled, which I would actually in both, both movies I'm trying to think. I don't think so. Well, oh, you can't say that.
Speaker 2:Shh you gotta redacted, redacted, uh there is a person, there's a person with disabilities and 28 years later yeah, it's a huge part of the plot yeah, so again, I guess, at the end of the day, 28 years later, does edge out zoombees 2 for this one with a solid 11 to 1? Uh, at the end of the day, both movies left, left us asking what the fuck? But in totally different ways, in totally different ways.
Speaker 2:And I would give, without any spoilers, I would give Zoombies to one Zed out of 10. And I would give, 28 years later, eight Zeds out of 10. I sometimes I feel like I need to watch it a couple more times to make a decision, but I think I'm solidly in the. It's a good movie. I to watch it a couple more times to make a decision, but I think I'm solidly in the. It's a good movie. I'd watch it again and maybe with another watch I will maybe go and I could go back down to a seven or I could go up to a nine, I don't know I'm I I am surprised that it's not higher for you because, um, there are, there are some tells that I look for when watching a movie with you.
Speaker 1:One, do you look at your phone at any point? But, like we mentioned, we were in a movie theater and that's illegal. Um, two, um, how many times do you go to the bathroom during the movie? How many times do we have to pause?
Speaker 2:and because it was a movie theater, we couldn't pause, but also, you did not leave at any point I deliberately dehydrated myself for this two-hour movie me too, I think the thing about it when you say that is like I can't right now give it more than an eight because of the fact of the lack of diverse representation in a meaningful way, and that it was just like really deeply white, male centered, and it's hard for me to give a story like that something more than an eight but does have a lot of innovation. So I'm I'm saying it could go higher, yeah, but also upon second watch it could go lower, because I'm still in this like shocked what the fuck place with the movie. Yeah, I think it's going to be an iconic movie regardless, just like world war z is.
Speaker 1:I don't love world war z and, but it's still a good movie and you know, 28 days later, did have a representation in it, when that was not necessarily the something that was on people's minds. Yeah, um, selena was a black woman and was, like the, the, the badass of the group. Yeah, um, I I'm, I'm gonna give it a nine 9.5 just because I enjoyed it. I do recognize it's false, but I'm choosing to overlook them because I'm hopeful that the future movies because it's supposed to be a trilogy, the future movies I'm hoping will expand more and maybe fill some of these gaps in. And if they don't, then I'll have to come back to this episode and change my answer.
Speaker 2:Well, dan, I was hoping you could read my conclusion in your movie voice, to round us out, you want me to act?
Speaker 1:Yes, like do you want, 28 years later, acting or zoombees 2, acting, zoombees 2 in a world on fire thanks to a bunch of rich, mostly white male fascists? We dared to ask the question that really matters Is zombies 2 actually better than 28 years later? No, and if you're wondering, no, we're not, okay, it's fucked out there. But for now, dot dot dot.
Speaker 2:Thanks for joining the Zombie Book Club.
Speaker 1:Thanks, yeah, that's not written there, so I didn't read it.
Speaker 2:That's in our outro.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, we go to the outro. Thanks for joining the Zombie Book Club.
Speaker 2:You can support us by leaving a rating or a review.
Speaker 1:Yeah, or you can send us a voicemail up to three minutes.
Speaker 2:That's 614-699-0006. Quick sidebar I to three minutes at 614-699-0006 quick sidebar. I knew I was tired when I tried to give someone that number at living dead weekend and I could only remember 699. I say this number so much it's like one of the few numbers I remember. Now, yeah, gone. You can also sign up for our newsletter, which, uh, there's some good ones right now. We had a great one that just came out for living dead weekend episode um. Check it out and you could, if you want to enjoy a watch party with us critiquing a really bad movie or maybe a good movie, I don't know join the zombie collective.
Speaker 1:Brain munchers discord yeah, also, if you've seen 28 years later and you're dying to talk about it, please come talk to us in the discord ollie has set up a spoiler zone for 28 years later a special, a special topic that we can go to to talk about 28 years later, where nobody else will go to look at it if they haven't seen the movie, and we will talk about every dick that we saw in this movie in great detail in such great detail and all the things that we couldn't say, which were so many.
Speaker 2:This was very hard to record.
Speaker 1:It was I'm proud of us. I want to talk about this endlessly. When do we get to talk about this movie? Because I feel like anything less than a year is just like not okay.
Speaker 2:We gotta wait till it's been out and accessible to the public not not in a theater for a while, yeah, and then I think we can return to it, just out of respect for the folks who need time to get there. They deserve to have access to it before they hear more about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but thanks for joining everyone. The end is nigh.
Speaker 2:Iran may be bye-bye, oh my god. But also us, because, yeah, they could also hurt us. I don't know, other places could too.
Speaker 1:I don't who's gonna it's a bad time right now who's gonna drop bombs.
Speaker 2:You know it's bad when your friend is uh asking you what the protocol is for nuclear bombs going off, and then we're discussing our how close we are to any of the radiuses of the nuclear facilities. So yeah, the end, and I'm just feeling kind of nigh, baby, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye.
