Though
I never caught the original RESIDENT EVIL
in the theatre, it became a big favorite
thanks to heavy rotation on our pay cable
channels. After catching it – and digging
the hell out of it – I regularly stop
in when I see it playing.
With RE director Paul Anderson
opting to direct ALIEN VS. PREDATOR instead
of this sequel, Alexander Witt stepped behind
the camera and guided Anderson's script
into theatres and, now, onto DVD. What we
get is an amped-up version of a zombie flick
by way of videogame, with non-stop action
and an almost blatant disregard for human
life.
In other words, my kinda movie.
Picking up where the first
flick left off, APOCALYPSE inserts Alice
(Milla Jovovich) into the messy aftermath
of the disaster in the Umbrella Corporation's
underground facility known as The Hive.
Alice and fellow RE survivor Matt (Matt
Taylor) have been in the corporation's secret
labs, hooked up to machines and monitored
until they're needed to come in and clean
up.
Not surprisingly, a team dispatched
to enter The Hive and see what's what becomes
nothing more than zombie fodder and succeeds
in doing little more than releasing the
deadly T1 virus (the Zombie-Causing Virus)
into the air above Raccoon City. The result?
Ooodles and oodles of brain-seeking, limb-chomping
zombies that roam the streets looking for
some fresh meat.
Pretty soon the streets are
filled with survivors banding together to
get through the night, tactical squads hoping
the zombies don't outnumber their bullets,
and Alice, who has busted out of Umbrella
and is ready to chew bubblegum and kick
zombie ass. And she's all outta bubblegum.
There's plenty to like in
this fast-paced horror actioner which clocks
in at a just-long-enough 94 minutes. Jovovich
is joined by Sienna Guillory as Jill Valentine,
a busty, long-legged Raccoon City cop who
dresses like Lara Croft, and STARS members
Carlos Olivera (Oded Fehr from the MUMMY
flicks) and Nicholai Sokolov (Zack Ward
from TV's 'Titus' and Bob Clark's A CHRISTMAS
STORY). Mike Epps provides comic relief
as the gun-toting LJ, Jared Harris is the
Steven Hawking-esque Dr. Ashford, and Sophie
Vavasseur plays Angie Ashford in the flick's
ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK-inspired third act
plotline.
Oh yeah, and who can forget
Nemesis, a hulking cross between The Terminator
and a Cenobite sent in to wipe out the members
of STARS before Umbrella nukes the city
and wipes out all traces of the virus or
the ensuing mayhem.
Zombie dogs, zombie kids,
characters who can die at anytime, an ill-advised
romp through a cemetery (which, when ya
think about it, is nothing more than a zombie
factory), bloodshed, mayhem, explosions
and a few stunts that made me go "Cooooool,"
APOCALYPSE has lots going for it as long
as you check your brain at the door and
settle back for the ride. The two-disc DVD
comes loaded with bonus features including
commentary tracks, featurettes and plenty
more.
