Resident Evil / Resident Evil: Apocalypse
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DVD details
Actor: Milla JovovichBrand: Sony
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 1.85:1
Running Time: 195 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-09-04
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Model: 20961
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Product features:
- RESIDENT EVIL: Something rotten is brewing beneath the industrial mecca known as Raccoon City. Unknown to its millions of residents, a huge underground bioengineering facility known as The Hive has accidentally unleashed the deadly and mutating T-virus, killing all of its employees. To contain the leak, the governing supercomputer, Red Queen, has sealed all entrances and exits. Now a team of highl
DVD Reviews of Resident Evil / Resident Evil: Apocalypse
DVD Review: An extra star for offering buyers a first-rate bargain
Summary: 4 Stars
I have on many occasions docked a set a star for absurd pricing. For instance, most of the STAR TREK sets are subject to this -- though I must add that as I write this review all of the STAR TREK boxes have had their prices dropped down to prices that are actually affordable (if the prices were permanent instead of merely for a month or two, I would probably start collecting some of my favorite series) -- but this is the first time that I can recall giving a disc a star for bargain pricing. If you have any interest at all in RESIDENT EVIL, they've priced this as a level where you can hardly refuse buying it.
If you want to get at the heart of what keeps all three films in the RESIDENT EVIL series from being very good it is this: the assumption that surface is everything. The mark of good movies is the number of subtexts that they generate, but with the RESIDENT EVIL franchise, there is a powerful resistance to subtext. For instance, even if you want to do an analysis of the tropes that attach to the main character of Alice, you will find resistance at every point. Why? Because the film itself has lingered in every frame on surface alone, completely resisting imbuing the film with more than just a succession of glittering images. There are entire visual sequences that have no function whatsoever but to merely paint a pretty picture. As a result, human elements are left entirely aside.
This obsession with surface and spectacle is unfortunate because Alice is potentially a fascinating character. Very occasionally the films in the series almost begin to toy with character development, but always pull back immediately after toying with it for a brief second. At the hand of more gifted filmmakers, Alice could have had the potential to become a poor man or woman's Ripley or Buffy or Max Guevera. At the hands of only moderately gifted filmmakers, we get little or no sense of her character, no real idea of what makes her tick, utterly no hint of what she wants, and very, very little about how she feels about things. Milla Jovovich is so gorgeous that she manages to make us forget how poorly drawn her character is. But the weak writing and poor direction never allows the films to ascend above slick spectacle.
These first two movies tell the first two parts of Alice's descension into her own nightmare land. The Alice in Wonderland imagery is reinforced at several points, not least in the original by naming the Hive's computer The Red Queen. And in the third movie in the sequence, EXTINCTION, a version of "White Rabbit" by Collide plays over the closing credits. During these films Alice, who initially suffers from amnesia, first learns from physical memory that she is a surreally gifted martial artist and weapons user, then recalls that she was head of security at the Hive, and later learns that her blood bonds to the virus that is killing everyone else, enhancing her strength, reflexes, and senses to absurd levels. What keeps the series from being very good is that the films continually focus on what these powers mean for what she can do to the bad guys, never on how it is affecting her. Contrast this to the way that this would have been done by any of a number of men (and why is it always men -- why haven't women helmed movies or TV shows with female heroes?) like James Cameron, Joss Whedon, Luc Besson, Ridley Scott, or Ron Moore. Under any of these there would have been as much or more about what all of this was doing to Alice. But then, all of these writers/directors/producers are more (or at least as much) concerned with the inner as the outer.
In short, these are extraordinarily superficial films. All surface, no depth, no interesting characters (mainly because of no character development). Having said that, the film does present superior surface. Once you accept that the films have nothing to offer but sheer surface, you can moderate your expectations and just go with that. Once I realized that these films would not/could not be more than a succession of spectacles, I surrendered and moderately enjoyed them. Was I ever truly entertained? Of course not. Was I bored? Not really.
I will add one last observation. The three films that make up the RESIDENT EVIL trilogy (soon to be a quartet, with the addition of RESIDENT EVIL: DEGENERATION) easily comprise the most interesting films ever made based on video games. That would be a more impression achievement if there had been some really good movies based on that source, but it is unlikely for some time that another game will produce such a film franchise.
Description of Resident Evil / Resident Evil: Apocalypse
Resident Evil: Something rotten is brewing beneath the industrial mecca known as Raccoon City. Unknown to its millions of residents, a huge underground bioengineering facility known as The Hive has accidentally unleashed the deadly and mutating T-virus, killing all of its employees. To contain the leak, the governing supercomputer, Red Queen, has sealed all entrances and exits. Now a team of highly-trained super commandos including Rain (Michelle Rodriguez - The Fast and the Furious, Girlfight), Alice (Milla Jovovich - The Fifth Element) and Matt (Eric Mabius - Cruel Intentions) must race to penetrate The Hive in order to isolate the T-virus before it overwhelms humanity. To do so, they must get past the Red Queen's deadly defenses, face the flesh-eating undead employees, fight killer mutant dogs and battle The Licker, a genetically mutated savage beast whose strength increases with each of its slain victims.
Resident Evil Apocalypse : After narrowly escaping the horrors of the underground Hive facility, Alice (Milla Jovovich) is quickly thrust back into a war raging above ground between the living and the Undead. As the city is locked down under quarantine, Alice joins a small band of elite soldiers, led by Valentine (Sienna Guillory, Love, Actually) and Carlos (Oded Fehr, The Mummy Returns), enlisted to rescue the missing daughter of Dr. Ashford, the creator of the mutating T-virus. It?s a heart-pounding race against time as the group faces off against hordes of blood- thirsty zombies, stealthy Lickers, mutant canines and the most sinister foe yet. Written and produced by the visionary director of Resident Evil, Paul W. S. Anderson (Alien Vs. Predator) and directed by Alexander Witt, Resident Evil Apocalypse is a superior sci-fi suspense sequel.
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