Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3800 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-04-14
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 100 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Given that Resident Evil is 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 Eaters and Zombie Creeping Flesh tried 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 Evil on 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

Special Features
Cast and Crew Commentary
The making of Resident Evil featurette
Costumes Featurette
Set Design Featurette
Zombie Camera Test
My Plague: Slipknot video Easter Egg
Theatrical Trailer
Teaser Trailer
Sound: 5.1
Aspect Ratio: 1/85:1 (16x9)
Subtitles: English for the hard of hearing

Synopsis
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.

Customer Reviews

best of the worst
The trilogy is crap and as bad as this film is, it's the best of the bunch. I still wouldn't advise anyone to watch this as it is cliche ridden and fails to capitalize on great source material from the game itself. And why did someone think that covering dogs in tomato sauce would look remotely scary. Dumb and very stupid and i usually like this kind of thing! Please make this rubbish stop. Acting - wooden, story - unoriginal...what more is there to say? RUBBISH

stylish and action packed with great special effects
I've never seen the computer game on which this film was based.All I can say is that this was a highly entertaining thriller/horror movie that moved quickly and stylishly from beginning to end.Packed with surprises,great special effects,well-placed humour and fine acting.

another bad videogame adaption
ever since he made the excellent event horizon paul anderson has wasted his talent on drivil like this which is a shame