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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nThe streak is over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The last time I started a review with that phrase, it was to mean something bad \u2013 2022\u2019s \u201cLightyear\u201d was the first Pixar movie that I didn\u2019t recommend. This time, it\u2019s something good \u2013 Zach Cregger\u2019s new take on \u201cResident Evil\u201d is the first movie based on a video game that I do recommend. Not surprisingly, the man who directed Amy Madigan to an Oscar last year for \u201cWeapons\u201d brings enough good ideas to the table that I actually found the movie to be worth my time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perhaps even more impressive is that the film comes from a property that has already failed me on several occasions. This isn\u2019t based on some newer game that nobody has tried adapting before and doesn\u2019t have a history of failure. It\u2019s \u201cResident Evil,\u201d the zombie horror franchise that had an awful six film run from 2002-2016 and an unsuccessful 2021 reboot. I was perfectly okay with saying that I\u2019d seen more than enough of zombies from the Umbrella Corporation wreak havoc on Raccoon City. But Cregger, no doubt a fan of the games, thought the property deserved one more chance on the big screen, a stubbornness that has paid off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Austin Abrams stars as Bryan, a down-on-his-luck medical courier whose day is already going pretty badly. His girlfriend may be pregnant (unwelcome news to him), nobody at a hospital will sign for a delivery, and there\u2019s a snowstorm outside that his car is not equipped to handle. An opportunity comes along to make a high-priority delivery that pays double. A few lies about his car later and he\u2019s off to make some extra cash and maybe get to play hero once he reaches the destination: Raccoon City General.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bryan\u2019s day goes from bad to worse when he hits a woman who runs out in front of his car. His day goes from worse to worser when a cop pulls him over with the injured, barely-responsive woman in his passenger seat (the movie earns my respect by having Bryan tell the cop the truth, where a lesser movie would have him try to \u201ccomically\u201d B.S. his way through the situation). Things go from worser to even worser when the woman is the opposite of grateful for Bryan and the cop\u2019s assistance. Things go from even worser to\u2026 I can\u2019t keep doing this, things will keep getting worse for Bryan for the duration of this movie, which will eventually include a city-wide zombie riot. The scariest one does cartwheels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Any time poor Bryan thinks he\u2019s caught a break, there\u2019s some new obstacle to threaten both his life and his ability to make the potentially-lifesaving delivery. He has to survive by keeping his cool and thinking clearly. Just kidding, nine out of ten times he only survives through a series of desperation moves mixed with luck. Since this movie is based on a video game, most of his decisions are the equivalent of mashing all of his brain\u2019s buttons at once and hoping for the best. In fact, the movie is structured very much like a video game, with each new challenge representing a new level and a higher degree of difficulty, even though Bryan probably thinks that he can\u2019t even repeat what he did to get to that point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This version of \u201cResident Evil\u201d is the first video game movie that I recommend, and it\u2019s not a high recommendation. Bryan has few words in his vocabulary other than F-bombs, he slows down and stops at points where it doesn\u2019t make sense (except for dramatic effect), and even with necessary urgency, the ending feels rushed. Still, this is unprecedented high quality for a video game adaptation, and Cregger\u2019s stock in Hollywood is only going to rise because of it. I don\u2019t see it winning any Oscars, but it doesn\u2019t deserve to get chopped up by an Axeman either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Grade: B-<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cResident Evil\u201d is rated R for strong bloody violence, gore and language throughout. Its running time is 95 minutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Bob Garver The streak is over. The last time I started a review with that phrase, it was to mean something bad \u2013 2022\u2019s \u201cLightyear\u201d was the… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81181,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDlcL2ltYWdlLTEtMi53ZWJwP2ZpdD04MTklMkMxMDI0JnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiTW92aWUgUmV2aWV3ICYjODIxMTsgUmVzaWRlbnQgRXZpbCIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiZG9pcyIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.0Cp151sugW8hVN6zBavitSkdStg_0ib2Cv4q_xoawa8MQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDlcL2ltYWdlLTEtMi53ZWJwP2ZpdD04MTklMkMxMDI0JnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiTW92aWUgUmV2aWV3IC0gUmVzaWRlbnQgRXZpbCIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiZG9pcyIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.ozbItVpKL0_Iq4DwU3APVE6FnKVOxFlkjXryhWiqWQgMQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[13],"tags":[17362,15248,417,17365,17360,17363,17361,17364],"class_list":["post-81179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-austin-abrams","tag-bob-garver","tag-movie-review","tag-raccoon-city","tag-resident-evil","tag-video-game-adaptation","tag-zach-cregger","tag-zombie-horror"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81179"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81182,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81179\/revisions\/81182"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}