First up Resident Evil: Retribution, a 2012 film by Paul W S Anderson. Unlike the majority of critics out there, I remain a fan of his work. A lot of fans don't seem to like him either, they pour out their hate on the IMDb and other places. Most of his movies make good money so you know he has some fans out there. Maybe they just don't comment on his stuff much. One guy on the IMDb said "Discussing movies you like is really, really boring". What a thing to say. Boarders on idiotic. That's the internet, huh. I certainly can't understand that attitude. Is it lack of imagination? I don't know. I like telling people about stuff that I like much more than complaining about some piece of crap that I watched. Though I have to admit that I like the complaining. Sperhauk thought the fan boys were jealous because Paul married Milla Jovovich. I can believe some people get jealous, I can almost imagine why they would, I see it as a character flaw. It doesn't make me jealous and not just because she wasn't going to marry me anyway. I can't waste time thinking stupid shit like that, I got movies to watch.
This is the 5th installment of the live action adaptations. There are a couple of animated movies, of which I have only seen the first. I didn't care for it much. Joe tells me there's a second cartoon movie and it's better. Still, I'm not rushing to see it, there's no Milla Jovovich in the cartoons. She's back as Alice and she's got a mighty big fight on her hands. The movie opens with the ending of the last movie. There's a huge battle on a tanker and Alice is knocked into the water. She wakes up in bed in a suburban house with Oded Fehr as her husband and Ayrana Engineer as their little girl. Zombies attack and Oded is killed. Alice fights back and after a blackout she wakes up in the bottom of a white room with the Umbrella Corporation symbol on the floor. Turns out that was one of the Alice clones used in the test areas Umbrella has built in a secret complex under the arctic ice. The corp tested the biological weapon on the clones they manufactured. They imprint them with memories so they can have a more human like reaction when the zombies attack. The slaughter repeats as Umbrella sold the weapon to various governments. Alice is interrogated and tortured with sound. Someone helps her escape and she starts a rampage that leaves nearly everyone dead and the complex flooded. There's lots of stuff blowing up and guns blasting. There's even a boss monster in this very video game looking movie. It's the most video game looking movie of the series. Plenty of places to go in the complex. Plenty of things to shoot. While Alice is blasting the shit out of the complex a rescue party arrives. She eventually leaves with them and arriving in Washington DC she's told that they are the last stand of the human race. There is supposed to be a 6th and final film. Or maybe 2 more and then a reboot. I'm not worrying about it until it happens. I enjoyed this, it's slim on story but none of the series have had much story, there's plenty of action and lots of explosions, and at 95 minutes it's certainly less tedious than I'd find playing the video game.
The X From Outer Space is the US title of 宇宙大怪獣ギララ Uchū Daikaijū Girara (Giant Space Monster Guilala) and this 1967 Japanese film is our second feature. It's a mix of space adventure and giant monster stomping Japan. The AAB Gamma space ship is on a mission to Mars. The previous missions have disappeared, perhaps attacked by the alien space ship spotted in the area. The Earth ship encounters the alien ship, which looks like a big glowing pie, and gets something sprayed on their engine area. When the glowing blob of material is brought back to earth a giant monster grows out of it. It starts small and soon is big enough for some serious stuff wrecking. This goes on for a while. The human's finally figure out how to reduce the critter back to the glowing blob. They pack it into a chamber, put it in a spaceship and blast it off into space. Here have some trouble! It was film company Shochiku's first attempt at the giant monster genre and they didn't do that great a job. The following year the company would make Goke, The Body Snatcher From Hell, The Living Skeleton and Genocide. That's about the extent of their science fiction. The Eclipse series from Criterion collects all 4 of the films. The Eclipse dvd looks great and it's way better than all the dubbed US versions you can find places. Trouble is Shochiku is no Toho when it comes to sf and monster movies. It's an ok monster movie but nothing great. It might appeal more to the giant monster movie fan. I still find it fun to watch and I have seen it several times but you know how I skew toward the critters.
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