Stars: Milla Jovovich, Michelle Rodriguez, James Purefoy, Eric Mabius, Martin Crewes, Colin Salmon

Director: Paul W.S. Anderson

Summary: When a research laboratory is invaded by a bio-engineered virus, Alice and Rain must put a stop to the spread of the deadly bug.

In RESIDENT EVIL, the Umbrella Corporation's Vault, a secret facility located deep below Raccoon City, is sabotaged and a deadly virus is stolen. In the mansion that conceals another entrance to the Vault, Alice (Milla Jovovich) lies on the shower floor, naked except for the shower curtain. She can't remember anything but, as she dresses, she recalls memory fragments. Then, masked intruders burst through the windows. They tell Alice she is a Corporation agent living undercover in the mansion. She goes with them into the Vault to discover who sabotaged it. As they penetrate the Vault, trying to get to the Red Queen, the computer system at the heart of the facility, Alice and her confederates face many horrors--blood-red flayed dogs, flesh-eating zombies, and "the Licker," a dynamically mutating monster.
Basing RESIDENT EVIL on the popular video game, writer-director Paul W.S. Anderson delivers a tense, exciting science-fiction/horror film. Anderson and director of photography David Johnson shot the movie in rich silver-and-black, so that its few bursts of color are striking--like the image of the blonde Milla Jovovich in a very short crimson dress, with a trailing veil, and black boots dragging a silver axe behind her.

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Given that Resident Evilis a Paul Anderson movie based on a computer game which was itself highly derivative (especially of George A Romero and James Cameron films), it's probably unfair to complain that it hasn't got an original idea or moment in its entire running time. In the early 1980s, Italian schlock films such as Zombie Flesh Eatersand Zombie Creeping Fleshtried to cram in as many moments restaged from American originals as possible, strung together by silly characters wandering between monster attacks. This is a much-improved, edited, photographed and directed version of the same gambit.

As amnesiac Milla Jovovich remembers amazing kung fu skills and anti-globalist Eric Mabius mutters about evil corporations, a gang of clichéd soldiers with nary a distinguishing feature between them (except for Michelle Rodriguez as a secondary tough chick) are trapped in an underground scientific compound at the mercy of a tyrannical computer--which manifests as a smug little-girl-o-gram--fending off flesh-eating zombies (though gore fans will be disappointed by the film's need to stay within the limits of the 15 certificate) and CGI mutants, not to mention the ever-popular zombie dogs. It's tolerably action-packed, but zips past its borrowings (Aliens, Cube, Deep Blue Sea) without adding anything that future schlock pictures will want to imitate.

On the DVD: Resident Evilon disc has the expected trailers, both teaser and theatrical; a half-hour making-of; zombie make-up tests; featurettes on music (with Marilyn Manson), production design and costume. A lively commentary track features Anderson, Jovovich, Rodriguez and producer/zombie Jeremy Bolt--Jovovich upbraids Anderson for talking about different gradings of film stock over her nude scene and everyone else talks about how much she hurt them by punching them out during action sequences. Anderson mentions an alternate commentary track with visual effects designer Richard Yuricich, but it isn't included. --Kim Newman

Aspect Ratio:	16:9 Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Commentary, Making Of, 4 Featurettes, Teaser Trailer, Theatrical Trailer, Easter Egg Slipknot Music Video, Scene Access, Interactive Menus
Year:	2002
Release Date:	June 21, 2004
Runtime:	96 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	P 9048 D V D
Keywords:	Evil, General, Wide, Screen, Horror, Occult, Sci, Fi, Resident
Genre:	Horror/Occult