***Offical "RESIDENT EVIL" Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[Robin Warren]

http://www.suntimes.com/output/ebert...s-evil15f.html
Roger Eberts review had me cracking up several times. Lasers with a sense of humour indeed.

 

[Brett Jason]

Resident Evil offers a more entertaining sci-fi/horror thrill ride than 13 Ghosts, Pitch Black, The Haunting, Ghosts of Mars and both Urban Legend flicks combined.

Wow, lumping Pitch Black in with those other movies is quite a statement. IMO, PB is miles above those others and one of my favorites in its genre.

 

[Julie K]

but as far as zombie movie lovers, most will HATE IT.

That's just what I was afraid of. There's a big difference between a zombie movie and an action/game movie with zombies.

After reading Ebert's review, and the positive, yet totally off-putting, review in the LA Times, I'm sitting this one out until it hits rental.

 

[Todd H]

What's the point of a zombie movie if there's no good zombie-related gore? I think I'm with Julie....I'll pass.

 

[Scott Weinberg]

I just read Ebert's inevitably smug one-star review. Generally when I give a movie 1 star, I give reasons - not a series of limp jokes. (OK, I also include limp jokes, but I also take the time to mention things like pacing, acting, direction and tone.) Sounds to me like Rog had his mind mide up before he saw this one. Horror's never really been his bag anyway.
The overall message that I got from Ebert's review was that it's a somewhat mindless horror movie that displays some lapses in logic... Talk about going out on a limb... :rolleyes
Or maybe it's just sour grapes because I'm hoping to see some more critics give this one a break.

 

[MickeS]

AScott, I thought Ebert's review was in the same style he usually reviews this kind of movies, like "Mortal Kombat", "House on Haunted Hill", "13 Ghosts" etc. He doesn't like them much, and the reviews are normally more about observational humor than anything else. I really enjoyed the review for RE.
/Mike

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Just saw this today and really liked it. The action was pretty good, and while it didn't follow any classic formula for horror/action movies, it went at a nice pace. It did seem to move faster than I would have thought, but I still liked it. The ending REALLY left it open for a sequel, and they are actually in preproduction right now (I think), so I can't wait!

Overall, probably the best videogame movie. Though the licker could have looked better.

 

[Alex Spindler]

Wasn't too bad. However, there is so much gore missing from this film that I have to hope the DVD contains a restored version. If they never shot a gory version, then I think they wasted quite the opportunity.

But there are some nice scenes in the movie, and it isn't completely insulting to players of the game series. The same cannot be said of other video game movies.

 

[Timothy Alexander]

Wow, I went into Resident Evil with VERY low expectations and came out pretty entertained by everything that went on. It was alot better than I expected. Very action packed, okay plot, didn't overstay it's welcome and something I would definitely buy when it appears on DVD.

And god...Milla Jovavich is so hot it isn't even funny.

 

[Jay W]

Tim: very well said pretty much my feeling having seen it tonight.

 

[JohnS]

A NC-17 version was shot.
I would love it if some of that was restored back into the DVD

 

[Josh_Hill]

Can someone tell me how long this movie is? I looked on IMDB, but it doesnt have it.

 

[Robert Zawacki]

I timed it when I watched it, 1hr and 36 min. Hopefully when it is restored on DVD it will be quite a bit longer.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

If anyone has played the games before, then you know how violent they can be. I was hoping they would blow a zombie's head off with a shotgun, or kick ones head off, or do some stuff like that, but they didn't.

If there is another cut out there, then it will almost undoubtedly be on the DVD.

 

[Andrew Schwarz]

I saw it last night. I wanted to like it so badly, but I just couldn't. As most people who went to see it, I wasn't expecting good story or good acting; just a fun movie where I could turn my brain off and waste an hour and a half. It wasn't any fun, had barely any gore, and everything got tired after the first 30 minutes. To me it felt like there was a whole lot cut out of the movie, and the only reason that it was rated R was for Milla Jovovich's brief nudity. Everytime someone got killed, the camera either cut away or just moved away so that you could only see a little bit. The only saving graces for me were the set design, Milla Jovovich, and the scene with the laser defense system. In the first post, felix_suwarno wrote that his definition of a bad movie is one where he had his brain turned off and still didn't like the movie. That basically sums up my feelings for Resident Evil .

 

[Dave_P.]

Being a fan of the game, but having had to sit through the torture of the Tomb Raider movie, I had low expectations. Thankfully that may have made me appreciate the flick even more, since I ended up enjoying it very much. I think the R-rating definitely helped keep it in tune with the game and the excellent production values captured the whole "feel" of it as well. I especially loved the final crane shot of the movie, though I don't think Raccoon City was as big a metropolis as the shot suggested.
Oh yeah, Leeloo was pretty damn hot, too!

 

[todd stone]

wow this movie was GREAT! very surprised. the audience cheered in my theater

 

[Morgan Jolley]

I seem to remember that in the two direct sequels, Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3: NEMESIS, the Nemesis character (he's in a little bit of 2, all of 3) is a bad guy who stalks the main character, trying to kill him or her because of what they know about Umbrella and such. The sequel is going to be based on this, and I remember Nemesis gets beat up a lot. He gets blown up, lit on fire, cut apart, and has all kinds of things shot at him, but still lives through the games, so if they are able to bring all that to the next movie, then we're in for a good show.

Also, the Nemesis character was very violent (ripping heads off, cutting people in half) and looked pretty badass (tall, wore a black overcoat-type thing that covers his whole body, weird looking face).

 

[Andy Sheets]

Well, I went and saw it this afternoon and I have to come down on the negative side toward this movie. I wasn't really planning on seeing it but I had a morbid curiousity about it since I like zombies and was hoping it would at least be a fun B movie. Didn't work out that way
There were a few things I liked - the undead doggies looked better in the film than they do in the trailers, even if they don't do much more in the film than what you see in the trailers. They were good while they lasted. And there were a couple of fun "zombies swarm on hapless victim" moments, even if as many people have said there's virtually no gore involved. The Red Queen wasn't as cheesy as it could have been.
But mostly the movie just went badly to me. It's been a long time since I've seen a horror movie that abused its soundtrack and editing as much as this one in the form of TONS of those cheap "shock" moments that always appear in horror movies, especially bad ones. I was downright amazed at how often they went back to that well, usually for no particular reason. Didn't care for the music in the film. Wasn't expecting much from the acting but still managed to be disappointed anyway. Although it's probably not their fault since I can barely even remember the characters' names. Mostly they just ran around kicking and shooting stuff. Thinking about all my criticisms, I believe the overall problem is that the movie tried to be both a horror film and an action film and ended up doing well at neither. Kind of like Dracula 2000 *shudder*
Anyway, if I had to rank it within the genre of videogame adaptations, I'd say it's better than most (Final Fantasy being the best IMO) but that doesn't necessarily make it good. I think it's probably easier to watch if you accept it as an unintentional camp comedy

 

[JohnS]

in the form of TONS of those cheap "shock" moments that always appear in horror movies, especially bad ones. I was downright amazed at how often they went back to that

anybody who played the game(sequels) knows that the game had numerous scare moments, where things leaped out and surprised you.
I thought the movie stayed true to that factor.
Very well done!