Resident Evil: Retribution

You got to love that tagline.  Like what were the first 4 films about then?

 

     If there is one thing any nerd has grown to know, is that you have to take film adaptations of your favorite video games with a grain of salt.  The prospect of seeing your favorite characters or story playing out on the big screen can seem like an awesome idea, but we've learned that this is mostly never the case.  There have been great video game film adaptations, but for every Silent Hill, there is at least 10 Super Mario Bros. out there.  Resident Evil: Retribution falls into the center of this spectrum as it does some things right and some things wrong.  (WARNING, to summarize the plot to Resident Evil: Retribution, I have to give away the ending to Resident Evil: Afterlife, so here is your Bruce Willis SPOILER ALERT).

Bruce Willis was SPOILER ALERT the whole time.

 

     Resident Evil: Retribution picks up right where the forth film left off.  Alice (Milla Jovovich) has just dealt a blow to the Umbrella corporation, the ones responsible for the zombie apocalypse, by defeating its head, Albert Wesker.  However, Umbrella's massive army has appeared and captures Alice.  She wakes up trapped in a large testing facility in the middle of the Arctic.  Alice escapes her cell and finds that Umbrella is now under the control of the Red Queen, a malevolent AI that she destroyed in the first film.  She soon meets up with Wesker's right hand woman, Ada Wong (Li Bingbing), who wants to help her escape and meet up the rest of her team already entering the lab.  Now the two groups have to traverse the zombie infested facility and escape if they want a chance at defeating Umbrella once and for all.

Unfortunately, "Off with their heads" isn't an option.

 

     Now the term "Jump the Shark" is a major understatement for this film and the rest of the series.  The first movie did its best to stay true to the feeling to the games with its claustrophobic laboratory setting filled with zombies and other monsters.  However, this is all thrown out the window by the forth movie where Milla Jovovich storms a fortress with an army of her super powered clones to duke it out with an even more super powered evil CEO.  Needless to say, the films aren't striving for a sense of realism or a resemblance to the games.

An artiest rendition of these movies just not giving a F***.

     While this may displease the game's fans, I find it to be a good thing in this case.  Part of the reason why video game adaptations fail is because movie studios aren't handling the stories well.  Most of the time, changes are made to the plot and the characters to give it a more "broad" appeal to increase ticket sales, but in the end it only displeases fans and still alienates newcomers.  To avoid doing this, Resident Evil creates an original storyline with an original main character.  Now the writers have more freedom with the story and can still please fans with the inclusion of their favorite characters and monsters into the film.

Then again, that might not always work either. 

 

     Milla Jovovich once again gives a great performance as Alice.  While its not the most well written character ever, it works well for this movie.  It's more focused on her ability to kick butt and make the snappy comebacks on par with any cheesy Schwarzenegger action film.  If women action stars are included as part of the next Expendables outing, Jovovich would fit that bill just nicely.

Arnold would also fit the bill just nicely.

 

     The films backdrop is also surprisingly creative.  The giant lab was used to test the effects of the zombie virus in a controlled environment.  To do this, they placed human clones in replicas of major cities inside these giant domes.  Then they introduce a zombie and see how the virus would spread.  While all that seems extremely convoluted and expensive to do, its part of the reason why Umbrella is so great as a the villains, they show real dedication to being evil.  Anyway, this allows for some great action set ups, for example one team could be fighting an army of zombies in Moscow, while the others dodge giant ax wielding monsters in New York traffic.  Its great to watch and gives us plenty to take in.

A realistic rendition of an Umbrella literally giving a F***.

 

     My one complaint about this movie is that there isn't enough time to give the new characters to develop and show us what they are all about.  They bring back series favorites like Leon Kennedy, Ada Wong, and the famous Barry Burton, known throughout the Internet for his cheesy one liners in RE1.  For example, it is implied in the film that Leon and Ada have "something" between them.  If you didn't play the games, you wouldn't have any idea what the characters are talking about.  To a new viewer, its just like it's there and comes off as forced for no real reason.

Overall:

     This may be the best entry in the series, but it isn't good enough to gain any new fans.  If you didn't like or see the other films, it be best to skip this one over.  If you are a fan however, you're sure to find plenty of over the top action and plenty of the classic monsters with this one.  And the best part yet is that there is a sequel already in the works.

A sneak peek at the Resident Evil 6 Writing process.

The Campaign (or That Movie Where Will Ferrell Punches a Baby)

 

I'd Campaign for it.

 

     When you see as many movies as I do, you tend to see the same trailers over and over again.  Most of the time, I completely forget them when the movie starts, but sometimes, there is that one special trailer that either blows me away or annoys the heck out of me.  Unfortunately, its usually the latter.  In fact, when I did weekly reviews for my college radio station, I had to sit through the Madagascar 3 trailer six weeks in a row.  In it the zebra character dresses up like a clown and sings "Afro Circus" for ten seconds.  Needless to say, it was annoying and I think it made me hate going to the movies for awhile.  But, it did make me remember the movie, so the trailer succeeded there.

I'm not afraid of clowns, but I am afraid of Chris Rock.

 

     The Campaign did something a little different to get me to remember it's trailer.  It wasn't annoying or particularly good (Actually, it was leaning towards kind of bad).  It starts out with the basic plot of the film.  Will Ferrell is a congressman up for reelection when Zach Galifianakis steps up to challenge him.  We see a montage of the two of them going at it through the political race.  Will Ferrell gets attacked by snakes, Zach offends a lot of Jewish people, and the two fight a few times.  Then at the end of the trailer, Will Ferrell punches a baby.  He literally (accidentally) punches a baby in the face.  Now that is something that you don't simply forget and even though it does cut away at the last second, a baby was just punched right in front of me.  I couldn't get over it, and after seeing that trailer five times, it became known as "that movie where Will Ferrell punches a baby" with my friends and we had no choice but to see it.  I guess the trailer did its job in getting me to go see the movie, even though it had to punch a baby to do it.

I would never punch a baby to get you to read my blog.  Just another reason why I am a better person than Will Ferrell.

 

     The movie starts out with slick Congressman Cam Brady (Will Ferrell) preparing for his next reelection.  Cam Brady has never had an opponent all five times he ran and thus, wins the seat by default.  However, all of that changes when awkward family man, Marty Huggins (Zach Galifianakis), steps up to challenge him for the spot.  Now the two set off on a campaign that gets more childish and violent by the second and no matter who wins, we all lose.

A photo of Obama/Romney with a caption "Don't they all" is just way too easy of a joke, so instead here is Kevin James and a Gorilla on a roller coaster.

 

      Will Ferrell has always been an hit or miss actor for me.  Every time he makes a movie I love, like Anchorman, he seems to make one I'll hate, such as Kicking & Screaming.  Fortunately, I like him in The Campaign.  He plays the crazy, womanizing, and generally terrible Cam Brady well and the role seems to suite him.  His serious delivery on his strange lines is topnotch and shows everything we love about Ferrell.  However, he isn't perfect in the movie, either.  One of the things I find annoying about Ferrell is when he ab libs his lines.  Many of his movies seem to be written up to allow him room to do this, for example, there is a part in the movie where he is bitten by a snake and he shouts, "Ouch, shove a throwing star up a Chinese monk's ***".  I don't see how that is funny, he is just shouting an absurd line that sounds like he made it completely up.  Ab libing is tricky, it only works when its thought out and when you actually say something funny or relevant to the scene, like Tony Stark's bantering in Iron Man.  It does not work when you shout a bunch of random words and hope you form a joke.

If it were only so, Mr Burgundy.

 

      A big surprise in this movie is Will Ferrell's co-star, Zach Galifianakis.  I wasn't sure how to feel about his character towards the start.  The trailers didn't really do much to get me excited for the character, but he easily steals the show with his portrayal of Marty.  His bubbly, upbeat, and off kilter performance made it easy to side with the pug loving southerner and it makes it all the harder for the viewer to watch when he falls to the dark side of the political game.  His southern accent he puts on is fairly convincing and its impressive to see him maintain it throughout the movie.  There wasn't much to complain about the character and it was a blast watching him.

     The Campaign is easily one of the funniest comedies I've seen in a while (Not saying much looking at my other reviews).  A lot of the jokes worked and this set up is great for a comedy.  We are able to see how the two characters respond to the same situations and its entertaining to watching them trying to one-up the other.  Its a kind of movie that really writes its self.  As I mentioned before, Will Ferrell punches a baby in the face and now here is the context.  The two are just coming out of a heated debate when they spot a baby at the same time.  Its tradition for politicians to kiss baby when campaigning, so the two race to get to the baby first.  Marty is about to make it when Brady comes from behind and raises his fist.  Here it shifts into slow motion, Marty dodges the punch and Brady hits the baby right in the face.  It didn't cut away like in the trailer, you see the fist make contact as the CGI baby's face absorbs the blow.  Now, I'll admit I laughed for  about a second, then stopped and thought, "Is this really alright to laugh at?".  It does seems to be in poor taste, but the whole theater was in stitches from laughing so hard.  I figured it was alright, whether that says something about today's movie going audience is up to you.

They probably would have liked it better in 3D.

 

     For a movie about politics, it surprisingly does not fall pray to making easy jokes or low blows.  The whole thing could have been filled with Obama references or jokes about republicans and other political stereotypes, but the writers instead chose to make the two characters unique.  Their respective parties don't seem to take a role in who the character is, and for the most part, you could switch them and it wouldn't change a thing.  What the movie instead focused on was the issues that affect politics today.  How many politicians seem to mud sling, many of the corrupt aspects in some campaigns, and the fear of big money running the country.  There is a sub-plot, where two rich brothers are funding Marty's platform because they feel like he is stupid enough to control.  The idea of big money funding elections is a relevant concern in today's political landscape and this served as a perfect plot to the film.  It isn't the main focus and this drama does not become preachy in any regard.  It merely points these things out and does not forget that its trying to make you laugh.

Just another reason why The Campaign is a better person than Will Ferrell.

 

Overall:

 

The Campaign is surprisingly better than the trailers made it out to be.  While its no Anchorman, its close.  Its funny, smart, and respectable to portraying both sides of the political spectrum.  If you are looking for something funny to watch, you can easily do worse than The Campaign.

Way worse!!!