Cheap Resident Evil (Special Edition) (DVD) (Milla Jovovich, Michelle Rodriguez) (Chris 'Flimsy' Howes, Paul W.S. Anderson) Price

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Customer Reviews of Resident Evil (Special Edition)

Weak if you're a fan of the game; pointless if you aren't
There is only one brief moment in Paul W.S. Anderson's misguided film of Resident Evil in which he actually captures the awesomely creepy atmosphere of the original games. It's when we first meet Milla Jovovich's character, dazed and amnesiac, waking up in the shower in a dark and deserted mansion. It's also the only scene that can reasonably be termed "horror." For most of the rest of the film, Anderson tries to capture a riff similar to that of James Cameron's Aliens...and fails. Sure, there are specific elements of the game introduced here and there (like the skinned-looking zombie dogs), but what on earth kind of zombie movie is it that has NO GORE!? Perhaps fearing those prudes at the MPAA, Anderson gives us close-ups of muzzle flashes in the gun-battle scenes when any REAL zombie movie would be bestowing its special make-up effects crew with the latest means of molding exploding heads. Make no mistake, this is an action movie, not a horror movie, and not a particularly tense or original one, borrowing as it does from every "bunch of folks getting picked off one by one" plot that's come down the pike. (For a movie that's almost identical to this one but actually remembers to be good cheesy fun, try John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars.) There is, now that I remember it, one other shot that reminded me of the game, and that was the final one in which Milla is gazing out upon the Raccoon City street littered with burning cars and wreckage. It's a sign that Anderson could have actually made a Resident Evil movie if he'd wanted to, but he just didn't. I told myself I'd give this DVD a rental if it proved to be an extended unrated director's cut, with excised blood-n-guts restored, but it looks like this "special edition" is going to be nothing more than the sanitized-for-your-protection theatrical edit after all. So game over, man.

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Great film
Let me say straight off that I have never played Resident Evil (I don't get the time). I found this movie to be great fun with a shocking opening. I can't believe the opening isn't listed as being scary. I mean think about it, you're just getting ready to go home and the fire alarm goes off, you try to leave but you're sealed in and about to get dosed with Halon gas. I watched the opening sequence and it chilled me, because at the time you don't know who's deliberately killing the workers. Then we meet Alice (BTW no-one names her) who suffers amnesia. From then we get into the Hive and the horror that awaits.

I enjoyed this movie and found it moderately jumpy without being a gorefest (I don't like proper gore flicks). To the reviewer who asked why Milla is running around in a red evening dress, I have to ask: Did you watch the movie? It's made quite plain that she puts the dress on because it is laid out ready on the bed and she doesn't get the chance to change.

So it didn't go everywhere like the game, well to be blunt, that works in a game but in a film, it would look patchy and disjointed. All in all I liked this film, Milla is sexy and kick..., Michelle is moody and tough and the sounndtrack rocks. Can't wait for the sequel.

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Milla Jovovich Kicks Serious Zombie Butt!
"I shot her five times,
How was she still standing?
(rapid machine gun fire) B---- Isn't standing now.""

"This is Going to slow us down."

Resident Evil: Based on the super popular video games of the same name.

Basic plot, OH Geeeze Meathead don't spoil it for the rest of us who might want to see it. Players of the Resident Evil series of video games will recognise many of the scenes and plot elements. I didn't becuase I haven't played the games except maybe the first or second one once or twice (whichever one starts outside the mansion). OK so without giving too much away, a deadly virus breaks out in a super secret experimental laboratory complex that is controled by a supercomputer Named "The Red Queen" that has gone out-of-control so the powers that be send in the marines so to speak (a special forces type paramilitary unit). Meanwhile the main character Alice played by Jovovich has amnesia, a side effect of nerve gas released by the Red Queen, and slowly regains her memory as events unfold. Yes there are intentional parralels to Louis Carols Alice In Wonderland. I enjoyed this movie although you do have to turn off your brain as with most other movies of this genre. An interesting bit of trivia is that Night of the Living Dead (1968) Director George A. Romero, was originally on board to write and direct, but left the project due to creative differences over the script. The sound is typical Sci-fi, Horror, suspense heavy metal type music scored by Marco Beltrami and get this Marilyn Manson. Oddly enough despite that bizarre match up the music works. As for the plot etc... The result is something like Demon Seed meets Night of The Living Dead, meets Lara Croft - Tomb Raider with a little Total Recall and Raiders of The Lost Ark thrown in. I liked one scene which according to Internet Movie Data Base was inspired by and is very similar to a scene in the Canadian movie The Cube. My entertainment dollar was well spent even with the slightly cheesy CGI effects and occasional cheap Zombie makeup mixed with just plain gory Zombie makeup. BTW they don't ever call the undead creatures Zombies, they usually refer to them as the monsters or creatures or things, wouldn't you?

The Quality is very good overall so out of 5 stars or discs or thumbs or whatever you wants. I give Resident Evil a 4 for the sound and the picture quality a 4.5