Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City (2021)

Despite my inherent awfulness when it comes to playing videogames, and I know I have said this before, Resident Evil has been my all-time favourite gaming series since I first started battling zombies and solving puzzles when I first got a PSOne. I have enjoyed the games on various consoles since then (mainly different Playstations, but I also had a Nintendo Gamecube for a while) and have also taken some pleasure from the main live-action movie series, most often kept in the hands of Paul W. S. Anderson. The animated movies haven't been quite as good, but I can't deny finding enough in each one to ensure I have had to own them all, at least in digital form.

This, however, is a film that finally feels like the games (well, the first 2 anyway). That's not to simply dismiss all of the other movies now, not at all, but this is arguably the definitive cinematic interpretation of so much of what players love about the Resident Evil game series. And I am happy that we can enjoy both the other movies, often full of bombastic slo-mo and CGI-laden silliness, and this movie.

Written and directed by Johannes Roberts, although most of the events depicted here were already written for the videogames, what you get here is an adventure that throws together Claire Redfield (Kaya Scodelario), Chris Redfield (Robbie Amell), Jill Valentine (Hanna John-Kamen), Leon Kennedy (Avan Jogia), a young girl named Sherry Birkin (Holly de Barros), and Dr William Birkin (Neal McDonough). Raccoon City is about to become a very dangerous place to stay, full of infected people, dangerous dogs, and other mutated dangers, and not even the Police Station can offer safety for long. That's before we even  get to the reported disturbance at the Spencer Mansion.

While none of the cast may be causing Oscar-winners to start looking over their shoulders, they all do an excellent job with the material. Scodelario, Amell, John-Kamen, and Jogia show a variety of skills, and they seem to enjoy portraying the nominal heroes, while McDonough is an enjoyably untrustworthy potential villain. Tom Hopper makes for a good Albert Wesker, and it's nice to have a small role for the likeable Donal Logue, playing a Police Chief who knows that everyone should get the hell out of the city while they can.

It's the attention to detail here that really impresses. This is not really a great movie, but it IS a great Resident Evil movie. The characters all feel very much in line with their videogame origins (okay, Leon Kennedy may be overdone slightly, but his first adventure did have him as someone pretty heartbroken and hungover who just happened to be in the right place at the wrong time when the zombie nightmare began), the creature design is on point, making me wish we could see more of the monsters that cropped up in the games (please give me a giant snake or sharks in the next movie, and definitely a Plant 42), and the environment often feels as if it has been surgically transplanted from a console directly into the movie.

There's a good score by Mark Corven, great work done by the costume and makeup department, and everyone generally works in service to a script that allows viewers to feel a sense of familiarity without the potential accompanying boredom. Changes that are made are ones that make sense, cinematically, (the main one being how a character named Lisa Trevor is used, which is very clever) and I can't imagine any fans of the series thinking that any character or element has been done a major disservice. Even the relatively small amount of screentime for Ada Wong (played by Lily Gao) feels in line with her impactful involvement in the RE 2 game.

Roberts has a varied filmography, in terms of quality, but his best horror work is well worth your time. This is up easily there with his best. I really hope that it has done well enough to kick-start a whole new movie series in this vein. I'll still revisit all of the other movies available, but I already know that this is the one I will go back to most often. At least until I need my next fix of watching Milla Jovovich kick ass.

8/10

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Noir-vember: Max Payne (2008)

All the signs were there that I wasn't going to be a big fan of Max Payne. I wasn't even very aware of the videogame when it was popular (all I knew is that "bullet time" played a part). Directed by John Moore, who has a filmography not exactly stuffed with classics. Written by Beau Thorne, someone who doesn't seem to have written any other features. And starring Mark Wahlberg, an actor who really depends on a director and cast helping him to do his best.

Wahlberg is Payne, a cop who is more dangerous than he used to be thanks to the death, a few years ago, of his wife and child. Payne likes to go out at night and take care of criminals without the hassle of arresting them and going through any paperwork. His nocturnal activities put him in the company of people who are enjoying a fun new drug. Fun until it makes the user hallucinate some scenario that leads to their sudden death. It's a great product though, apparently, and Payne will come up against a variety of enemies as he sets out to destroy the supply chain. He might also come closer to finding out just why his wife and child were killed.

I really hoped that I would be able to list SOME positives here, considering how often I can find the simplest pleasures in films that are otherwise not really worth giving time to. Unfortunately, that's not the case. There's not one thing here that actually works. The script is a messy mass of clichés, which could have worked if the design, characters, and tone of the film had been managed better. Moore directs with the approach of someone who is actually stringing together videogame scenes without any need to worry about the plotting in between. Are there moments that look pretty cool? Yes. I'd say there were about four or five. You do get the slo-mo bullets, and you also get some demons that appear to the drug addicts who are about to quickly shuffle off this mortal coil. Those moments are the only ones I am willing to acknowledge as being remotely considered highlights.

Wahlberg is very . . . Wahlbergian in the lead role. He's tough. He scowls a lot. He's a tortured soul who wants to make the world a better place. It's a horrible performance from him, despite the fact that he's a potentially great fit for the role. The supporting cast has some better faces, but none of them get good enough material to work with. Olga Kurylenko is a welcome addition to any film, as I have said on many occasions, but she's not onscreen for long enough. Mila Kunis is similarly under-used, and her character is not one that plays to her strengths. Beau Bridges pops in and out of the proceedings until an inevitably strong presence in the finale, and I guess he tries his best, but there are better small turns from Donal Logue, Amaury Nolasco, and Ludacris.

It lacks any decent writing or characters, which isn't entirely unexpected when you go into a movie based on a videogame, but it also lacks enough moments that showcase some cool FX work, doesn't have any memorable set-pieces, and seems unable to move in any way from the plodding and sombre tone that you don’t really want from a lightweight videogame movie.

3/10

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Zodiac (2007)

David Fincher hasn't made a bad movie, I'll say that right now so that people know how biased I am when it comes to his work. I'd even go so far as to say that he's made at least three modern masterpieces. One of those modern masterpieces is Seven, a movie which really reinvigorated the thriller genre after too many years of safe, but enjoyable, movies that all had a movie sheen to them. Zodiac certainly isn't Seven, but it's most definitely made by the same man who shows such attention to detail and seems to always find some new way to treat material from any genre.

Zodiac is about the Zodiac killer, and the lives that he changed. The strange thing, and the thing that many people will know before the movie begins, is that the Zodiac killer was never caught. A Jack The Ripper for the modern age, he committed his crimes, taunted the police and deliberately kept changing his M. O. to stay one step ahead of those trying to catch him. The fact that he was never caught explains why Zodiac is half a film about a serial killer and his crime spree and half a film about the obsession that he sparks in those who become involved in the investigation. The murders start to consume Inspector David Toschi (Mark Ruffalo), reporter Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr.) and even a cartoonist who starts to weigh up the evidence and begin his own amateur investigation (Robert Graysmith, who wrote the book that the screenplay was based on, played by Jake Gyllenhaal).

Closer in feel to All The President's Men than Seven, and all the better for it, this is a tour de force mix of great acting, superb attention to detail and sheer bravura (as Fincher paces the film perfectly while also jumping through the years to various pivotal points in the investigation and the life of Graysmith).

The actors already mentioned give performances that show just why they're often heaped with praise, but the supporting cast features other people effortlessly doing what they do best. People like Elias Koteas, Anthony Edwards (so good here that it makes me wish he had more good roles through the years), Brian Cox, Chloe Sevigny, Donal Logue, Philip Baker Hall, John Carroll Lynch, Candy Clark, Dermot Mulroney, Zach Grenier, Charles Fleischer, Clea Duvall and Jimmi Simpson. You may not know recognise all of the names, but you will know most of their faces.

The script by James Vanderbilt may be hampered by having to stick to Graysmith's interpretation of events, but it's pretty flawless in all other respects. Dialogue informs the viewer about both procedural events and each character is nicely rounded out, both in the usual way and also in the way that the ongoing murders begin to affect them.

Everyone deserves praise for working together and achieving such a great end result - director of photography Harris Savides, David Shire who created the score, the hundreds of people that it took to get the look and feel of everything just dead on - but it's all overseen by David Fincher, who shows, once again, just why he's a director I always support. I know that there are people who will pick at least one of his movies to highlight as a bit of a mis-step, to say the least, but I really don't feel that. He's a master of the medium, able to elevate even average material into something well worth seeing. With the story that he's handed here, it's almost another masterpiece. Almost.

To hear my gushing praise, you'd be forgiven for thinking that I view this as a perfect film, but there are a couple of minor flaws that see it falling short of perfection. First, the fantastic script also has a few too many lines that make for great soundbites as opposed to real exchanges/replies. That worked better in The Social Network, but seems a bit incongruous at times here. Second, the first half is understandably a bit rougher than the second half, with so many characters needing introduced and the whole situation being set up. The second half becomes rather more streamlined as people fall out of the big picture, leaving only those most caught up in the events to see it all through to the very end, whatever that end may be.

Despite those small flaws, I was still tempted to rate this film as perfect, but I ended up going with near-perfect instead. See the film for yourself and find out whether or not you agree with me.

9/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Zodiac-Directors-Blu-ray-Region-Free/dp/B0013BCWEW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1364751546&sr=8-2

Reindeer Games AKA Deception (2000)

Ben Affleck stars in this twisty turny action thriller directed by John Frankenheimer and written by Ehren Kruger and it's not as bad as you may have heard. It's not as good, or clever, as it thinks it is but it's a mildly entertaining way to spend two hours and benefits from the presence of the gorgeous Charlize Theron being absolutely gorgeous.

The plot is as follows: Ben Affleck plays Rudy Duncan, a man imprisoned for stealing cars who is about to get his freedom. His cellmate (Nick Cassidy, played by James Frain) is also near the end of his term, five years. Nick has been developed a relationship with a woman who has been writing to him in prison and is looking forward to getting out and meeting her. But as the day of freedom approaches, tragedy strikes. When Rudy leaves the prison he sees the lady of letters (Ashley, played by Charlize Theron) waiting. After a few moments of wrestling with his conscience, Rudy jumps off the bus and runs over to her. He then introduces himself as Nick. What follows seems too good to be true. Rudy is happy, he's in the arms of a beautiful woman who wants to look after him and the only problem is the fact that he lied about his identity. That problem soon becomes pretty major when the happiness is spoiled when Ashley's brother (Gary Sinise) and his gang crash the party. They are planning to rob a casino and they know that they now have the man who can help them. At least, that's what they think. If Rudy comes clean then he's worthless to them and will end up dead but if he tries to keep up the pretence his options aren't looking as good that way either.

Starting with a bunch of dead Santas and then moving back in time, this is a movie that you know isn't necessarily going to end well for most of the people involved. Seeing that Gary Sinise has a gang that includes Danny Trejo, Clarence Williams III and Donal Logue reaffirms that notion. Yet, strangely, it never feels that tense and that's possibly due to the main role going to Ben Affleck.

Here's the thing, I am no Affleck hater (I'm about the one guy who enjoyed Daredevil, as flawed as it was, and I am happy to see him doing so well in his directorial career) but he just doesn't make this role work. He never seems worried, he's not all that convincing and he walks through the movie with that Teflon coating of a star that won't be unexpectedly killed off. I'm not going to spoil the film by telling you if that remains true by the very end of the movie but it certainly kills off the tension for the first 3/4 anyway. Thankfully, the rest of the cast includes those already mentioned (and did I remind you of how gorgeous Charlize Theron is?) and a delightful supporting role for the great Dennis Farina.

The direction by Frankenheimer is solid although with the film running at just over two hours you can't help thinking that a little pruning here and there might have helped. A better script from Kruger would have also helped. It's not THAT bad but it just doesn't hit the sweet spot required. The surprises aren't as surprising as they should be and the lines that are supposed to be cool sound like they were written by someone pretending to be Shane Black as opposed to, y'know, Shane Black. It's a shame that Kruger appears to have peaked so early in his career and has never come close to writing something approaching his work on the superb Arlington Road.

Thankfully, the performances carry this movie along for the duration. Affleck may not be great here but he's okay, which doesn't matter when time is given over to the great supporting actors anyway. Charlize Theron once said that this was her least favourite of all her movies but I think she was too harsh. It's not essential viewing but it has some nice touches, a bunch of great actors and a chance to bask in the glow of the gorgeousness of Charlize Theron (which you might recall me mentioning just two paragraphs above).

6/10

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Silent Night (2012)

This is how you do a remake and this is how you do a Christmas slasher movie, oh yes. Silent Night is a remake of Silent Night, Deadly Night but, to be honest, it only takes loose inspiration from that movie. Both films are about killer Santas but there are some big differences. Fans, however, will be delighted to see a number of nods to the original film.

It's Christmas Eve and Officer Aubrey Bradimore (Jaime King) is called in to help out while everyone prepares for the big day. The streets are full of men dressed as Santa, all getting ready for the annual Christmas parade. That makes things awfully difficult when the police find out that they have a killer on their hands, a killer meting out justice while dressed as Santa Claus.

A lot of people will find so many elements of Silent Night just wrong, wrong, wrong. Personally, I think that screenwriter Jayson Rothwell and director Steven C. Miller get everything just right. The film doesn't waste any time in setting up the nasty premise and then barely lets up until the end credits roll (approximately 94 minutes later).

The death scenes play a big part in the entertainment factor, of course, with a variety of methods used to get rid of various folk on the naughty list. Electrocution by a set-up that involves a lot of Christmas lights, some fun with a woodchipper and an absolutely classic case of axe head meeting human head, those are just a few of the many great kills in the movie.

However, as much as a few horror fans may debate the issue, great kills alone don't make for a great movie. Thankfully, Silent Night also has a great cast to add to the entertainment value. Jaime King is a lead you can really root for so there are no problems there but the supporting cast are where things really start to shine. Malcolm McDowell clearly has a blast as the Sheriff who keeps coming up with absurd sayings to apply to every situation and Donal Logue is great fun as a cynical Santa who falls under suspicion. Ellen Wong, Brendan Fehr, Lisa Marie, Courtney-Jane White, Ali Tataryn, Curtis Moore and Tom Anniko all do well in a variety of supporting roles, some more memorable than others for reasons that will become obvious once you watch the thing.

That's the main point I want to reiterate at the end of this review, DO watch the movie. If you're a horror fan then this is a fantastic, beautifully simple, bodycount slasher movie just like they used to make. If you're a comedy fan then you might just find yourself laughing at the sheer gusto of the whole thing. If you're a fan of all things nice and sweet then you . . . . . . . . well, you may just want to ignore this entire review and rewatch A Christmas Story instead.

9/10

http://www.amazon.com/Silent-Night-Blu-ray-Malcolm-McDowell/dp/B009IV2ZCI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1354577220&sr=8-1&keywords=silent+night