alex garland

[QUOTE=phlegmatics]he seems to be cursed by the bad movie adaptations (28 days later & the beach)

never the less i liked the idea of the the beach so i bought that and that tetraassect(sp?) book

so im wondering if anyone has read either of these?

if so what did you think?[/QUOTE]

Alex Garland is gripping and thought-provoking. I enjoyed The Beach but never intend to see the movie because we all know how that goes. The Tesseract was also enjoyable albiet a bit disjointed as he tries to meld three stories into one.
I just picked up The Coma but I need to finish my Amazing Adventures with Kavalier & Clay and get off the Island of the Sequined Love Nun before I start it.
I think you will be very pleased with his handiwork.

to be fair it's not really an adaptation when one writes the script for the movie, since there was no book to adapt, but i liked 28 days later anyway so that point is moot for me. (I'm referring to 28 days later). Anyway, i read a bit of tesseract but didn't finish it, i'll go back to it at some point probably

[QUOTE=glamhoth]to be fair it's not really an adaptation when one writes the script for the movie, since there was no book to adapt, but i liked 28 days later anyway so that point is moot for me. (I'm referring to 28 days later). Anyway, i read a bit of tesseract but didn't finish it, i'll go back to it at some point probably[/QUOTE]
when i searched his name on amazon.com to find books i seen that 28 days later was associated with him so i just assumed thier was a book first

my fook up

I just read The Coma. It's one of my favorite books. I know noone on the earth will share this opinion with me, but the novel just gripped me from the beggining. You should pick that one up for sure when it comes out in paperback as it is quite expensive and can be finished in two hours.

[QUOTE=jzk87]I just read The Coma.[/QUOTE]
Its far from being one of my favorite books, but I liked it a lot. In fact, it reminded me, for some strange reason, of one of my favorite books: House of Leaves.

ive been taking my time with this book since im going to be broke for a month or two and i dont want to be without something to read.

im only at page 45 or something and its allready held my attention better than most books.and if i actually sat down for a while it would flow incredibly well.

i cant picture the characters at all though
well ok the scottish guy and the french guy, and the "mute" but the main character i cant picture at all or the french girl.

I just finnished reading The Beach. Wow. That was great. i've also read Tesseract and The Coma but this was definitely my favorite. I don't know why. It wasn't necessarily a gripping story with lots of action but for some reason the characters just interested me so much. I loved the whole idea of the book. At first iwasn't going to read it, on account of the movie (which I never saw), but I'm glad I did.

I've read The Beach and Coma. I enjoyed both alot. And, you know, The Beach movie was a cheap adaptation, but it stands pretty good on its own. I saw the movie repeatedly before I read the book. After the book, I felt ripped off by the movie but that went away.
It leaves out some great elements of the book but its also a great movie. It always makes for good conversation afterwards, especially if you're stoned.
And 28 Days Later was tight. The end totally rocked, well the part before the very end.

i started the beach and I didnt finish it, because I cant find the book anywhere!

yeah 28 days later was awesome, lameass.

[QUOTE=big S]yeah 28 days later was awesome, lameass.[/QUOTE]
it is.
one of the best zombie movies out there....right there with (talking newer zombie flicks) shaun of the dead, which was surprisingly good.

I'm just gonna jump in real quick and say that 28 DAYS LATER is a piece of crap and a total rip off of Romero's whole trilogy. Just to balance it out, you know, so as not to have believe that everyone thinks it's a genius film. The opening was good, but Boyle couldn't keep it silent and [I]had[/I] to add rockmusic in it. Too bad.

SHAUN OF THE DEAD on the other hand, is excellent. A true homage to all that is good in the zombie genre.

Zombies shouldn't run. It's ludicrous.

Mr. Brown you really are stuck in the 70's?

I heard however that George is making another Dead film (yay) with, prepare, fast zombies. I don't know either, but I have to admit, I did like the remake Dawn of the Dead.

I thought the opening thirty mins or so of the DAWN remake were good. The rest was blah. Yeah I read about Romero's new zombie film, but trust me, they won't be running, even Romero says that zombies shouldn't run. So I'm in good company.

[QUOTE=Mr. Brown]I thought the opening thirty mins or so of the DAWN remake were good. The rest was blah. Yeah I read about Romero's new zombie film, but trust me, they won't be running, even Romero says that zombies shouldn't run. So I'm in good company.[/QUOTE]

Slow zombies piss me off, they just aren't scary. Nothing can really be that scary if you can outrun it so easily and zombie films need to be scary, really there isn't much more that they [I]can[/I] be.

[QUOTE=mikandrewz]Slow zombies piss me off, they just aren't scary. Nothing can really be that scary if you can outrun it so easily and zombie films need to be scary, really there isn't much more that they [I]can[/I] be.[/QUOTE]

I'm not talking to you anymore.

instead of running, howabout this --- flying zombies !

[QUOTE=jzk87]I just read The Coma. It's one of my favorite books. I know noone on the earth will share this opinion with me, but the novel just gripped me from the beggining. You should pick that one up for sure when it comes out in paperback as it is quite expensive and can be finished in two hours.[/QUOTE]
i really dug the coma - i read it in an hour - smooth writing there - the way the illustrations in some way gave clues to the plot was really neat-o, and i'm all for the confusion-dystopia-alienation theme. it's not, you know, faulkner, but that was a snappy good book.

also, 28 days later rocks a million times over, from scariness to a+ soundtrack to killer cinematography.

[QUOTE=karbunkle]instead of running, howabout this --- flying zombies ![/QUOTE]
duh, jeepers creepers, dude

[QUOTE=Mr. Brown]I'm just gonna jump in real quick and say that 28 DAYS LATER is a piece of crap and a total rip off of Romero's whole trilogy. Just to balance it out, you know, so as not to have believe that everyone thinks it's a genius film. The opening was good, but Boyle couldn't keep it silent and [I]had[/I] to add rockmusic in it. Too bad.

SHAUN OF THE DEAD on the other hand, is excellent. A true homage to all that is good in the zombie genre.

Zombies shouldn't run. It's ludicrous.[/QUOTE]
rip-off and homage are different - what, did you think garland didn't think anyone would notice it's the SAME EXACT OPENING? of course it's a rip-off - in a tribute kind of way - and then he advances the zombie movie genre with modified zombies, etc.

[QUOTE=vidalia]rip-off and homage are different - what, did you think garland didn't think anyone would notice it's the SAME EXACT OPENING? of course it's a rip-off - in a tribute kind of way - and then he advances the zombie movie genre with modified zombies, etc.[/QUOTE]

I just think Boyle didn't do anything special with it. Just more of a rehash of the whole original. And I don't take kindly to modified zombies. That's like giving Dracula a rocketpack. It's... you just don't do it.

[QUOTE=Mr. Brown]I just think Boyle didn't do anything special with it. Just more of a rehash of the whole original. And I don't take kindly to modified zombies. That's like giving Dracula a rocketpack. It's... you just don't do it.[/QUOTE]

It's not the first example of fast zombies though is it? There must be others, even if they're not as well known.

[QUOTE=mikandrewz]It's not the first example of fast zombies though is it? There must be others, even if they're not as well known.[/QUOTE]

And guess what, all those prolly suck donkey dick too.

Seriously, I think along with the DAWN remake and 28 DAYS LATER, there aren't any runnig zombie films. Or you wanna count Umberto Lenzi's NIGHTMARE CITY (1980), but that's an euro-exploitation like you woulnd't believe. The zombies there are running and kicking in doors and wielding knives and even picking up firearms and shooting and decapitating everyone in sight.

But there it's played for the idiocy that it actually is. Look, to each his own, I just don't like my serious scary zombies to be running around like they got Onitsuka Tigers on ok?

[QUOTE=phlegmatics]he seems to be cursed by the bad movie adaptations (28 days later & the beach)

never the less i liked the idea of the the beach so i bought that and that tetraassect(sp?) book

so im wondering if anyone has read either of these?

if so what did you think?[/QUOTE]

I have never watched 28 Days Later but...

I finished [I]The Beach [/I] a couple of weeks ago and it left a weird impression on me. I mean, the book itself was interesting enough where I kept on reading, and I pretty much flew through it, and I even liked the story. But all along I had this empty sort of feeling towards it, like it as just kind of there.

And I've found, now that I'm halfway through [I]The Coma[/I], I feel the exact same way towards this book also. I've got this feeling from other books, [I]Diary[/I], [I]Less Than Zero[/I], [I]The Great Gatsby [/I] to name a few but I've never had it happen with two books by the same author.

I don't know, it's probably just me.

okay fuckers, zombies are the living DEAD. keyword: dead. dead things cannot run, seeing as how there are no living tissues to blahblahblah.

therefore, i'm with brown. slow zombies are scary because they're fucking killers but they're taking their time so the humans are freaking out because said killer zombies are going so slow. fast zombies are lame and unscary. except for the priest at the beginning of 28 days later.

[QUOTE=big S]okay fuckers, zombies are the living DEAD. keyword: dead. dead things cannot run, seeing as how there are no living tissues to blahblahblah.

therefore, i'm with brown. slow zombies are scary because they're fucking killers but they're taking their time so the humans are freaking out because said killer zombies are going so slow. fast zombies are lame and unscary. except for the priest at the beginning of 28 days later.[/QUOTE]

That's utter, utter bullcrap, if dead tissue can walk then why can't it run? Yeah...maybe if someone had been a zombie for a long time then their tissues should be more decomposed and they shouldn't be able to run but newly made zombies would be just as fast as humans.

I'd be far more freaked out by something that moves quickly, I hate it in zombie films when the zombies are so slow moving that even when a character is cornered in a room they can just duck under it's arms and escape.

I think that 28 DAYS LATER kicks ass because it is a lot more realistic than almost any other zombie film. Now I know that sounds stupid, criticising or praising zombie films for their realism, but it's true. If something like that happened it wouldn't take over the world and there would be military outposts there it also shows the darker side of human nature in that sort of situation. This, I think, is a strong point of Garland and a direct comparison can be drawn between the attitude of the chief woman in THE BEACH and the attitude of the commander guy in 28 DAYS LATER.

Incentally, you know what I think would kick ass? A zombie film where it's actually a varient of mad cow disease, it's not passed by biting but anyone who ate beef in Europe in the '80's is at risk of succoming, that would be so funny.

Shambling, relentless zombies increase suspense, and running, crazed zombies quicken the heart.

Thats all there is to it. Do you really want to go into the whole science of it?

P.S. 28 days later isn't a zombie film, they aren't dead, they are infected

[QUOTE=mikandrewz]That's utter, utter bullcrap, if dead tissue can walk then why can't it run? Yeah...maybe if someone had been a zombie for a long time then their tissues should be more decomposed and they shouldn't be able to run but newly made zombies would be just as fast as humans.

I'd be far more freaked out by something that moves quickly, I hate it in zombie films when the zombies are so slow moving that even when a character is cornered in a room they can just duck under it's arms and escape.

I think that 28 DAYS LATER kicks ass because it is a lot more realistic than almost any other zombie film. Now I know that sounds stupid, criticising or praising zombie films for their realism, but it's true. If something like that happened it wouldn't take over the world and there would be military outposts there it also shows the darker side of human nature in that sort of situation. This, I think, is a strong point of Garland and a direct comparison can be drawn between the attitude of the chief woman in THE BEACH and the attitude of the commander guy in 28 DAYS LATER.

Incentally, you know what I think would kick ass? A zombie film where it's actually a varient of mad cow disease, it's not passed by biting but anyone who ate beef in Europe in the '80's is at risk of succoming, that would be so funny.[/QUOTE]

just cause you feel it... doesnt mean its there...

Good point on them not being zombies.
I'm surprised nobody has talked about Resident Evil! It may not be the intellectual's zombie (or [I]infected[/I]) flick but it was pretty damn cool. I don't remember if they were fast or not though, so don't slaughter me if they move too fast for you.

resident evil they are slow. Don't hate me but I enjoyed the movie, wasn't clever or anything special, entertaining enough to keep and my friends busy for 90 minutes.

I am with Brown. Zombie should be kept slow.

This reminded me of how i fed my Oscars yesterday. The comets where swimming was and kept away as long as they could, but eventually the oscars slowly got them one by one. I love my pets.

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I got Tessaract via the Secret Santa exchange. I am looking forward to finishing it by the end of this month.

[I]The Coma[/I] is out in paperback. Being such a small book and all, I suggested that people wait until the paperback release to go pick it up. You'll get your money's worth now, so go pick it up!

I got my copy of The Coma last month off the bargain section of amazon for 5.99. That's a hardcover too!

So far, I've only read The Beach. I liked it but it wasn't one of my favorite books. At the book store the other day, I saw his other book, Coma, and that looked really interesting. I think I will pick it up at the bookstore once I finish reading the other books I got at the library awhile back. Also, I haven't seen the film adaptation of the Beach, but it looked pretty bad from the previews I remember seeing about it. I've also heard that 28 Days Later sucked and I'm not really into zombie movies, except Shaun of the Dead.

i absolutely loved the book version of the beach (hens my user name). The movie version was fine, not horrible but not great. 28 days later was not a zombie movie and the version of the script that got filmed was the weakest of the versions (their is a version where the army part never happens & the focus is to do a blood tranfusion to save the father).As far as the tesseract goes, its crap. Emotionless writing and a bad expirement to create unrelated characters colliding in a horrific way. I found the rosa chapters almost unbearable to read.

by the way they made an indie film out of the tesseract & its actually better than the book, but it is equally emotionless.

absolutely spot on !!!!!!!
"the tesseract" was so bloody awful i cant believe i spent an afternoon reading it.
no interesting characters, the interweaving storys were bland and comatosing, there was no climax worthy of attention, so very poor.

the story should of been constructed mainly around the family since the ending conflict affected them directly. but i could never make a proper connection with the characters because there simply wasnt enough character development. the whole story blows.

as for 28 days, mr browns right. boyle just had to kill the opening sequence with rock music. ole london town quiet as can, desolate,no person in sight. a very impressive scene, a man stumbles around in a gown and then the bloody music starts blaring. damn you boyle and your shitty indi sountracks. average to fair movie.

if anyones read "the beach" is it lot better than "the tesseract" or about the same ?

I agree with the idea that they weren't really zombies in 28 Days Later. Its not actually defined as a zombie movie, but as a survival horror film, kind of like games. its all biological. they arent the risen dead, theyre biologically tweaked. the only notion of them being zombies was by the audience, nary any of the filmmakers.

Does anyone know anything about his new one Sunshine? Is it a screenplay or a novel?

Sunshine is a film coming out in a while. Cillian Anderson, and others are in it, and i tihnk its written by Garland. astronauts going to reignite the sun. its exciting.

Danny Boyle's directing that one as well, if I'm not mistaken.

I think Zombies should be slow, but the infected aren't zombies really. There are a lot of similarities, but I like the infected, they're good as they are really. As for Sunshine, when is it out? Indeed, Garland wrote it, Boyle's directing. I'm about to start reading The Tesseract. I want to get Coma though, it sounds like something I'd like.

I really liked The Beach and Tesseract, but I almost entirely hated The Coma. It was just pointless.