Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11673 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-02-07
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Dubbed, PAL
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Danish, English, Finnish, Hindi, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
• Dubbed in: Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 97 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
2002's popular video-game-derived hit Resident Evil didn't inspire confidence in a sequel, but Resident Evil: Apocalypse defies odds and surpasses expectations. It's a bigger, better, action-packed zombie thriller, and this time Milla Jovovich (as the first film's no-nonsense heroine) is joined by more characters from the popular Capcom video games, including Jill Valentine (played by British hottie Sienna Guillory) and Carlos Olivera (Oded Fehr, from 1999's The Mummy). They're armed and ready for a high-caliber encounter with devil dogs, mutant "Lickers," lurching zombies, and the leather-clad monster known only as Nemesis, unleashed by the nefarious Umbrella Corporation responsible for creating the cannibalistic undead horde. Having gained valuable experience as a respected second-unit director on high-profile films like Gladiator and The Bourne Identity, director Alexander Witt elevates this junky material to the level of slick, schlocky entertainment. --Jeff Shannon

Synopsis
Milla Jovovich is back with a vengeance as amnesiac, genetically-altered zombie ass-kicker, Alice, in this sequel to the 2002 hit film, which is based on the video game. This time around the sinister Umbrella Corporation sends a team of investigators into their destroyed underground lab (the ground-zero of carnage in the previous film) and unwittingly unleash the still-staggering zombies and monsters out into the population of Raccoon City. Soon Umbrella has evacuated all of their own key employees and has shut everyone else inside to be devoured. A mastermind chemist's daughter gets left behind in the confusion, and she is the one ticket out for Alice and a handful of dwindling survivors, including the almost-as-tough lady cop, Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory). There's some nifty motorcycle riding, plenty of bullets and splattering blood, and even a new monster--the hulking, heavily-armoured, seriously ugly Nemesis. Comic actor Mike Epps is great as a pimped-out hustler who handles the whole dead-coming-back-to-life thing with cool nonchalance. In some ways, this non-stop creep show is even an improvement over the original, with a pervasive mood of nihilistic corporate dehumanisation adding extra concern about the future of civilization to the mix of shooting, dying, punching, and munching.

Customer Reviews

Decent Zombie/Apocalypse flick
Not knowing the game, I'm coming at this purely as a fan of the zombie genre. Therefore its probably not too much of a surprise that I find the 'giant sinister corporation' subplot, the sub-Matrix gymnastics and the various mutants and devil dogs a distraction from what was a fairly decent scenario, but they work well enough in context, and I guess it wouldnt be the film of the game without them. There are occasional problem with the editing, which is quite messy in places, but the action rattles along well enough. There are nods to 'Terminator', 'Escape From New York' and as mentioned, 'The Matrix' in here, perhaps betraying a more mainstream lineage but on the plus side, there is much more focus on the action in the streets as the virus takes hold. The lone survivor desperately seeking shelter and isolated pockets of cops fighting pitched battles against the rising hoarde that the 'Day of the Dead' remake (while excellent) only briefly touched on. So while this film isnt perfect, its good enough, and zombie flicks, let alone good zombie flicks arent common enough for fans of the genre to be too judgemental.

AN ENTERTAINING SEQUEL


With the outbreak of the virus spreading through-out Raccoon City and everyone is running around trying to figure out what has gone wrong, everyone tries to leave the city. The only way out is a military-controlled bridge leading out of the city. When a freak zombie accident scares Major Cain, (Thomas Kretschmann) he orders Raccoon City to be sealed off, leaving many people trapped with the zombies and causing general panic among the citizens. Alice (Milla Jovovich) wanders around and has found others trapped inside the city as well. Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory) and Terri (Sandrine Holt) are also involved in trying to escape, but Major Cain wants to leave no trace of the infection behind and orders the Nemesis program into effect. Carlos Olivera (Oded Fehr) meets up with Alice and her crew to make it out of the city alive before the sanitation occurs.

The Good News: This isn't all that bad a film, and I don't get the criticisms of this film. It does what the other one never thought of doing-being a balls-out action flick. We get a lot more action sequences in here than in the first one, and the spectacle of the scenes allows for some nifty moments. The last twenty minutes are all action spectacle, and leave no one afraid that the movie will end on a sour note as the first one did. With loads of high impact stunts and creative angles, it really never does become boring. The test scenes of the Nemesis are just as action-packed as the other scenes, featuring a trigger-happy creature that was made for blowing things up and smashing into buildings, and it's a lot more action-packed because of it. It's more of an action film with zombies than a horror film anyway, so for me this one never really disappointed. Besides the stunts, there's tons of gun-play also involved, so that also ups the action count in this one. There's also some great horror elements as well, as the church and school scenes easily show. Both use the location involved and other elements to give us some great tension building scenes. The off-screen sounds, the barely audible growling sounds, and other such techniques are used to really great effect, and several jumps are achieved from them.

The Bad News: The main thing I want to complain about is the overall lack of on-screen zombies in this movie. We get several scenes with them, but nowhere like in others of the type, and we are even told in the beginning that the zombies are loose, but there's too few scenes. A couple of illogical plot holes aside also show up, but they aren't too distracting if you're not really looking for them.

The Final Verdict: This one confuses me a little more than the first one did, but it's still an okay zombie movie. If people stop looking at it as something that was supposed to advance the genre and instead look at it with the idea that it's a popcorn action-zombie film, this may win over a few more people. Look at it with an open heart, it's not as bad as some say it is.

Her name is Alice and she remembers everything
Resident Evil: Apocalypse is an average yet entertaining action movie which succeeds in surpassing its predecessor in most aspects. Picking up immediately where the original concluded, we follow Alice in the now infected Raccoon City as she attempts to find a way to escape before the city is concealed and wiped off the map.

Although Resident Evil was not particularly good, it had several things going for it. The claustrophobic feel to the entire picture was quite appealing and the wry 'Alice in Wonderland' implications were amusing and entertaining. Unfortunately, both of these aspects are lost in the sequel, however it succeeds in having a slightly stronger plot and cooler characters.

The characters of Jill Valentine and Carlos Olivera, although quite limited, are quite entertaining and fans of the video game saga will be pleased that some of game faces have made it to the big screen. Although not entirely faithful to the games the adaptations of character from small to big screen are for the most-part well done. The fact that the film has many more options - with the entire city to roam - does it some favours making this movie perhaps more gripping than the original. The film also manages to generate some genuine chills, perhaps the children in the school being the most noticeable.

However, the film's successes are equalled by its weaknesses, unfortunately. The action scenes are at times quite shoddy with a general feeling of motion sickness. The dialogue is quite weak at times and there are some characters who you really couldn't care about if you tried. It is quite refreshing that the sequel veers away from the zombie menace for the entrance of a 'big bad' but when the villain looks like it has been in an accident in an industrial-sized vat of plasticine, you're in trouble.

In spite of its flaws, this film is for the most-part enjoyable and is solid popcorn entertainment, but nothing more. The sequel-friendly ending also means that the third movie in the saga - Resident Evil: Afterlife - is an increasing possibility. Those who weren't completely put off by the original should certainly give this a try although this definitely won't be for everybody.

(May I also point out that the reviewer who rated the film as poor due to a character's incorrect hair colour should get a slap)