movie review
RESIDENT EVIL
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Running time: 95 minutes. Rated R (strong bloody violence, gore, and language throughout). In theaters.
It’s easy but dangerous to make a proclamation like “No more video-game movies!”.
After the unbearable “Tomb Raider,” “Mortal Kombat,” “Borderlands,” the high-grossing “A Minecraft Movie,” the incomprehensible “Super Mario Bros.” and seven mostly atrocious “Resident Evil” trudges, stopping the trend seemed to be the only responsible course of action to spare Earth’s population any more torment.
But, I’ll be damned, leave it to “Weapons” director Zach Cregger to finally deliver a great one — the new and improved “Resident Evil.”
Not that the effort’s been painless.
For the past few months, rabid fans of the video games have whined that Cregger — who is much smarter than they are — has brazenly departed from the original Playstation property. How dare he! There’s a fresh new lead, Bryan (Austin Abrams), instead of the tired old warhorses, Leon and Claire.
The plot is parallel to the “Resident Evil 2′ game, but not identical. Lock him up!
These manchildren are very annoying and very wrong.
Cregger takes what’s winning about the franchise — its tentacled mutant zombies, the Raccoon City setting, its breakneck mission — and injects the story with appealing weirdness and humor. He makes it an actual movie, God forbid.
That’s no simple task. Remember those ashen Milla Jovovich turds from the aughts? They were like going to a Berlin dungeon club at 4 a.m., and being shouted at by a dominatrix named Inga. The Rammstein of action-horror films.
The latest is a sprint, literally and cinematically. Bryan is a courier who will often bring organs for transplant to hospitals. On the night the apocalyptic virus is unleashed on the mid-size metropolis, he has to rush an important package to Raccoon City General. Only pesky zombies keep getting in the way.
Abrams also played the tent-dwelling drug dealer in “Weapons,” and in his big scene he was chased down by a cop. “Resident Evil” is sort of the director’s cut of that fast-paced sequence.
Bryan is always being pursued or in pursuit — through the woods, a creepy barn, a city street, a sewer. There’s a kinetic energy here that makes 100 minutes speed by like 30. And he has the Abrams’ calling-card sweet-stoner comedy, where every jump-scare comes with an “aw man!” in the same irritated tone of someone who’s just stubbed their toe. It’s a lot of fun to watch this actor get spooked.
Really, there’s hardly any dialogue at all except Bryan cursing and muttering. And Cregger’s way of keeping us guessing is by introducing new characters — some played by well-known actors — that we are sure will stick around until the end of the ride. And then he kills them off a minute later. Maniac Cregger leave a long trail of blood.
The director’s serial-killer spree continues into the nutso finale, which is both a hysterical game of hot potato and a desperate grasp at survival. “Resident Evil” ends with its energy never having dipped a watt. And Cregger has the guts to finish satisfyingly while also perhaps slamming the door shut.
Look, I’m not saying that this marks a renaissance for video-game movies. There have been more than enough. But after “Barbarian,” “Weapons” and “Resident Evil,” Cregger is now three for three, and one of the most exciting forces in the horror genre — and all of Hollywood — today.
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