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5
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7 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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Guest
Review by Rod
Barnett |
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Hidden
deep under Raccoon City is a secret experimental complex called
The Hive. It is owned and operated by the Umbrella Corporation,
a huge multinational that controls a major part of all commerce
on earth. The Hive is used to carry on and control dangerous
and illegal experiments of both a biological and viral nature.
As Resident Evil begins, someone
is stealing one of these experimental viruses; this unknown
person intentionally exposes the complex to the contagion as
he leaves. The Hive's controlling computer, known as The Red
Queen, detects the contamination and locks the facility down
to keep the virus from spreading outside —
killing everyone still trapped inside in the process. From here
the film cuts to a gothic mansion in which Alice (The
Fifth Element's Milla Jovavich) has just awakened in
the shower, her mind affected with amnesia. A young policeman,
followed by a black-clad commando squad from the Umbrella Corporation,
invades the house. The squad takes Alice and the cop prisoner,
explaining that she's an employee of the Corporation stationed
in the house to guard a secret entrance to The Hive. (As part
of the Hive's automated defense mechanism, she was incapacitated
by stun gas pumped into the house to knock out intruders. The
amnesia is a short-term side effect.) The squad proceeds into
the underground complex to discover the reason for the lockdown
and take back control of the facility from The Red Queen. This
turns out to be harder than they hoped. Although the virus has
now been cleaned out of the Hive's air system, the effect of
the virus on the dead bodies inside has turned them into murderous
zombies with a taste for human flesh. Couple that problem with
The Red Queen's attempts to kill off the invaders and a strict
two-hour time limit before the entire complex is sealed from
the outside —
permanently —
and the tension level skyrockets.
Resident
Evil
is a good junk-food movie. This film is never going to be anyone's
idea of a classic, but it does work on a strong entertainment
level. There's a nice central mystery and enough violent surprises
to keep your eyes off the clock. I can't comment on how fans
of the various video games it's based on will like it, but as
a horror movie fan I found it fun. The long sad cinematic history
of movies based on video games is littered with so many bad
films that a sane man turns away from thinking about them lest
he be locked away begging for death by joystick. When I learned
that Paul W. S. Anderson was writing and directing this one
I despaired for I have seen his previous movies and have disliked
them all. I know Mortal Kombat,
Event Horizon, and Soldier
have their defenders, but I can find next to nothing good to
say about them. So imagine my surprise when I found myself actually
enjoying this film! Not that there aren't problems. There is
at least one point right after the initial zombie attack where
it appears that a bit of narrative has been cut out to speed
the pacing at the expense of clear storytelling. Overall I was
happy with the film even though at times it felt like a game
of 'spot the film reference'; many scenes are homages to other
movies (if you're charitable) or outright steals (if you're
not). Often this type of thing will anger me but here it didn't.
I attribute this to the confidence and forceful momentum of
the story. Every few minutes we are introduced to a new situation
or problem that pushes the characters around like rats in a
maze. One criticism I've heard from others is that for an R-rated
zombie movie, Resident Evil is
very light on gore. I have to agree —
there should have been a good deal more graphic violence.
(A gut-munching zombie pic without even one good intestinal
pull? C'mon!) Unfortunately it looks like the producers were
afraid to go too far, knowing that, since it's based on a popular
video game, parents' groups just might have a fit should little
Billy see entrails flying about. It's too bad, really, because
the potential was there for a better movie had more daring filmmakers
been in charge. (The
film still merits a 'Blood 'n' Guts' icon, but just barely.)
Anyone who sat through
Tomb Raider knows that live action
movies based on video games are probably never going to be a
great idea, but Resident Evil avoids
most of that film's dreadful pitfalls. It's not a great movie;
it's not even one of the better zombie movies... but it is fast
and fun —
the cinematic equivalent of hot buttered popcorn that you can't
stop eating until it's gone. I just wish it had worked harder
for that R rating.
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Columbia's
single disc Special Edition DVD release is a nice set with some
solid extras, but it raises more questions than it answers about
the film. The movie looks and sounds fantastic with an enhanced
1.85:1 widescreen image and 5.1 Dolby Digital audio in both English
and French, as well as subtitles in these languages. There's an
audio commentary with stars Milla Jovovich, Michelle Rodriguez,
director Anderson and producer Jeremy Bolt that has to be counted
as one of the biggest wastes of space on a DVD in years. Neither
actress takes the track seriously with the few attempts by Anderson
to inject interesting information foiled by bad jokes, half-baked
stories and giggling fits that put me in mind of a grade school
girl's slumber party. Overall I'd say there is less than 15 minutes
of real information about the movie on the track and I recommend
skipping it. Two things that are brought up in the track that
never appear on this release is a reference by Jovovich to a different
original ending and Bolt's mention of a second commentary track
with members of the technical crew. Neither of these items is
on the disc and their absence bothers me. Is there to eventually
be an Extra Special Edition of the film to milk the fan wallets
again? Is Columbia following the Paramount path now? And how about
some deleted scenes? It's obvious from the commentary track that
many things were cut for various reasons, so why not show us some
of them?
If you're interested
in behind the scenes material, there is a 28-minute 'Making Of'
doc that gives a little insight to the production and an 11-minute
bit on the scoring process. The music was composed by Marco Beltrami
and Marilyn Manson, and it's a nice melding of Halloween
era John Carpenter movie music and hard-edged metal sounds that
works very well to provide both excitement and suspense. I've
never been a Manson fan but his contributions to Resident
Evil are welcome and appropriate.
There's also a 4-minute look at the set design, a 3-minute overview
of the costuming choices, and a quick 1-minute segment of zombie
test footage for makeup fans.
The theatrical trailer, very brief filmographies of the director/cast,
and a Slipknot music video are the slightly sour grace notes to
the set.
11/14/02 |
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