Resident Evil (2002) - S12 E91 - Shoot The Hostage

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello and welcome to Shoot a Hostage with me, Dan, and my partner, Sarah. We're a movie podcast who talks about a different film each week based on a theme. We do swear and we do spoil the featured movie. So, only ever listen if you've seen the film or you don't care too much about spoilers. If you're a regular listener, you can just skip forward until you hear the intro music cuz you've heard all of this before. But if you are new to the show and you do enjoy what you hear, there are a couple of things you can do to help support the show. Firstly, make sure that you're subscribed on on your podcast player so you get notified when new shows drop on Mondays. Uh you could rate us five stars on Spotify, which couldn't be easier. You just hit the star icon below the show's artwork. Or if you have a spare few minutes, we'd love it if you could submit a review wherever you listen. Uh make sure you come follow us at swth_pod on social media. We are active on Instagram, threads, and Tik Tok. And lastly, the biggest thing you can do to help is tell a friend about the show. So that's about it. That's enough preamble from me. Uh over to me and Sarah for this week's episode.

(00:01):
Sarah, welcome back to a brand new season.
Yeah.
And the also the listener, welcome back. back to you that you I should say that to list not. Should we start?
I was just going to say no, let's stick with this.
Let's start again.
No, let's stick with this.
f*** sake. This is the first episode of a new season and I've bed it up already.
Start as we mean to go on.
We don't want to give people false impressions, do we?
Shoot the hostage. f****** from start to finish.
There you go. That's our tagline.
That is our tagline. Yeah. So relevant. So appropriate.
I would wear merch that features that phrase.
Yeah. Yeah,
we'll get it printed.
Get it printed. We'll wear it.
Okay. But yeah, I was going to I was going to ask I was going to address the part that you were saying, "Welcome back, Sarah." Cuz it's a weird thing to say to someone you live with.
Welcome back to my room that we podcasted.
I suppose you didn't even realize you'd gone anywhere.
No.
Yeah. Uh but yeah, we are back. So, welcome back to the listener, not to you, Sarah.

(00:22):
Yeah.
Um thanks for joining us once again. A brand new season, season number 12. nuts.
Um, last season was your choice.
Mhm.
We did eight movies about drugs.
Drugs.
Drugs. And now it's my choice.
Back to you.
Back to me. I've chosen a theme. I've gone for video game movies, uh, which was suggested by listener Paul back in the day, like two years ago. So, thank you very much, and that's the reason we're doing this.
Yeah. Thanks, Paul.
Now, we'll get into we'll get into the We won't talk about the lineup because that's announced over on Patreon.
Mhm. full lineup is. We'll be over there now. Actually, if you want to become a free member,
you've got to give us all of your data in exchange. No, I'm kidding.
What are you going to do with their data?
We don't have their data. Patreon have their data,
I suppose. But if you had their data, what would you do with it?
Um, sell it to a data broker.
Would you?
No, of course.
I was going to say it doesn't sound like you.
I do you know what I would do with it?

(00:43):
What?
Nothing.
Well, yes.
Burn it.
Burn it.
Yeah. Burn it.
It's digital.
Well, I would fire. create a digital fire when I
That's
I'll get Jeff Farhei to help me out. I'm sure he'll be up for it.
Okay,
that's a deep cut, isn't it? Nor Merman Man reference.
So, Resident Evil decided to start with the that movie from 2002 directed by Paul WS Anderson.
Yes. And not Paul Thomas Anderson like you keep saying to wind me up.
Yeah, that does annoy you, doesn't it?
Yeah. I don't know why it annoys me as much as it does.
I do cuz it's incorrect.
Well, yeah. It's cuz I'm a pedant. you. Yeah, you are a pedant.
Yeah.
Um, so we've It's not our first rodeo s. We have actually done a video game movie before.
Yep, we have.

(01:04):
We sure did.
Which was also my choice
all the way back in Flops season.
Yeah. Uh, Flops. It was uh Super Mario Brothers. I think it was episode 82.
Yeah.
And it was uh the first
Yes. But I like it. Yeah,
go listen to that episode.
It's s***, but I like it. Was is basically the best way to sum up Flop season.
Yeah, I think you're right. Yeah, but that was actually the very first video game adaptation. Mortal Kombat followed a few years later, which was also directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.
No, the W guy, the W Paul WS WS Anderson.
Paul W. Bush.
Paul W. Bush for me once. So, yeah, it's like our first, not our first rodeo, but um I think B Combat was quite successful and that's probably why that Paul Anderson got the keys to the Resident Evil franchise and made them for the rest of time.
Yeah,
he made this one and then it was just like an infinity
add Infinitum.
Yeah, it's like Resident Evil. Did you know that Alice is a superhero? Yes, I did. Um it's our first Paul WS Anderson movie.
It won't be the last.
No, sadly.
No, it won't be.
But I I will be programming Event Horizon in somewhere if I get my way.

(01:25):
I'm sure. I'm sure the extended version I I'm assume.
No, it doesn't exist. I wish it did.
I know you. I know you do.
I would kill I would sell a a nonvital organ.
Yeah.
To see that cut of that film. Yeah.
Just one that I didn't need that much.
That's a lot to watch a movie. That's a lot to give up for a film.
I really like Horizon though.
Yeah, I know. It's It's all right. It's not my favorite Paul WS Anderson movie,
but it might be his best.
I looked on Letter Box actually. It's his highest rated.
Oh, good.
I tell a lie. His highest rated is House of the Dead, but that's not out yet, so you can discount that.
Oh, I for Yeah, I forgot about that. Yeah, I'm sure we'll talk about that later.
Guess what actor is attached to that.
Milovich.
Yes.
I don't Why did I have to think about that for more than a second?
I don't know. Yeah, he definitely seems to be the uh the video game adaptation guy because he
that isn't you Ball.

(01:46):
I was going to bring this up. It does feel like to me that Uve B is kind of the darkest timeline Paul WS.
Yeah. To the best of my knowledge Paul WS Anderson has never offered anybody out for a fight.
He by all all accounts he seems like a nice chap.
Yeah. Just a s*** filmmaker.
I wouldn't go that far. I would
I would Yeah. Well,
I I I wouldn't go that far. I would say that he he has his moments, but on the for the most part, I think his movies are pretty they're just disposable, aren't they?
Yeah.
And that's not always a bad thing. I I I can have me a disposable popcorn time quite happily. But it's it's funny that he seemed to he's he must be the director that's made the most video game movies. I mean, just by Resident Evil movies, he's directed four out of the six.
There are six now
with Miller Jovovich. Yeah. Well, there were six po Anderson ones. And then there are there's that reboot with um Kaio Scodelero.
That was terrible.
I didn't enjoy that. Yeah, there was a TV show on Netflix.
Oh, yeah. That got cancelled almost immediately.
Yeah. Yeah. There's a
forgot all about that.
There's a reboot coming out in the next year or two, I believe. Directed by Zack Kger.
Well, it's not really a reboot cuz he's not he's not necessarily rebooting the franchise. It's a brand new take on it as far as I understand it anyway.
So, it's a It's taking a property that already exists and has
films attached
and it's doing something new. It's redoing it but doing it differently and like booting it up again.

(02:07):
It's just a new adaptation,
right? Also known as
Stop being so facicious.
You started with the pedantry. You You got the glove. I picked it up. No,
fair enough. A
five minute conversation about what reboot means. They've already switched off. Sarah Um, why is he the video game guy? I guess I guess cuz all of that that all of them have been very successful.
I actually don't know a great deal about the man himself.
So, what was the first Paul Anderson movie you ever saw, do you think?
Um, it probably would have been this one
really. In 2000, you saw this before you saw Event Horizon.
I did.
Okay.
Yeah. Yeah. I didn't see Event Horizon till pushing 20 years ago now.
I'm really surprised about that.
It just wasn't on my radar.
Yeah. went under your radar a bit, did it? I remember it coming out of the cinema. I was very excited. I wanted to watch it, but I wasn't old enough.
Yeah.
To get in and my mom went to see it and she came back and I was like asking her everything about it. I was very excited to watch it and then I watched it when it came out I think on Sky like a year later or something and was a bit disappointed by it. It wasn't I wanted to wanted it to be more.
Yeah. I look
But it's decent. I don't The older I've gotten the more I've come to appreciate that film, I think.
Yeah. But if you put an unhinged Sam Neil in a film, I'm kind of on board. immediately.

(02:28):
Yeah.
Unless it's the Omen 3,
in which case, no. No, thank you.
Yeah. Samuel unhinged is definitely a flavor that you love.
Yeah. And unhinged Samuel in space.
Yeah.
Give it to me. Put that straight into my veins.
Inject it into your eyeballs. Direct. I think the first Paul Anderson movie I saw was probably Shopping. It's one
Oh, m maybe. Oh, hang on then. Maybe I saw that first then, too.
Oh, really? I completely forgot that was him.
Yeah.
Is that the Jude Law one?
Yes.
Oh, yeah. I probably Yeah, I would have seen that first then. Sorry.
Forget everything I said for the last 4 minutes.
Yeah. 94 that came out. I feel like I must have seen that around about 96.
Can't remember if film 4 was a thing then. Probably not because we still had four channels, I think, actually. 90 94 96, didn't we? But
yeah,
I I think I I definitely would have seen it on television. and I really liked it and it became one of those movies that I liked and remembered but forgotten what it was called and then the internet became a thing and then I sort of rediscovered it. But that was the first one I would have seen and I do like that movie. I do enjoy that.
I haven't seen it in so long I wouldn't be able to comment on the uh quality of that one.
So I'll have to take your word.

(02:49):
And then and then I did see Event Horizon when it you know roughly when it came out and then
Resident Evil I probably saw all of these movies in order. I think I've se I think I've seen how I haven't seen them all actually. I haven't seen Did you know that you made a movie called Pompei?
I did. Yeah, I've seen it.
s***. Yeah.
Average of 2.3.
It's really bad.
Yeah. Doesn't feel like a bit of me that. I'll probably skip that one. I haven't seen Did you know that he made a movie called The Free Musketeers?
Yes.
But I haven't seen that one.
No. Um, guess what actor is in that movie?
Miljovich.
Yeah.
As all Three musketeers.
Yeah. Yeah. All three musketeers. It's like Eddie Murphy.
What a chameleon.
I haven't This is called The Sight. I've never seen this. 2000 uh Monster Hunter, which let's just not even go.
Yeah, that was
not good.
And um was given the responsibility of taking over the Alien and Predator franchises with AP in 2004.
God, was it that long ago?
Yeah. Wow. Which

(03:10):
that was not good either.
I think I saw it once when it came out. Hated it.
I remember not being able to see anything in it and going, "What? What's the point in this?"
Yeah.
And this or maybe I'm thinking of the second one, actually. But the second one somehow I thought was worse.
I think they're both bad movies, but I had more fun with the second one for some reason.
Yeah. Fair. Fair enough.
It It felt more fun. But that's probably sacrilege to fans of Alien and Predator.
Yeah. It's weird. did Death Race as well, which is another reboot, or or if you would rather call it something else, that's fine. Um, so he seems to be the guy like, "We need a video game movie and we need it to be successful. Let's at least call Paul WS Anderson.
Let's give him first refusal."
Yeah. We need a reboot to to an old slime movie. Let's give it to Paul WS Anderson. Yeah. Just And just franchises franchise stuff in in general and IP. We already mentioned Pompei, you know, volcanoes are all the rage now, aren't they? Is that a movie about a volcano?
Yeah, I thought so. Um, so he seems to be a guy. He's he's like a franchise guy, isn't he? But but but like a like a low low to midbudget franchise guy.
Yeah,
it's it's a weird place that he's in. I don't think anyone's quite got the career that he has.
No, thankfully.
And it's uh I think I I respect that he keeps challenging himself to adapt these games because it is notoriously difficult to do that. I mean, just programming in this season of eight movies, I didn't want it to be exactly like Flops. I wanted some good movies in there, but I there's
that's a challenge given the theme.
I don't think I did get any objectively good movies in here.
Um, they're all movies that I enjoy to to some not all of them. They're all movies that I've seen.
I think I can think of one ing exception to that.
Yeah. Uh but it's it's really hard and it's not been until the last couple of years that some good adaptations have come out and

(03:31):
and they've all been on TV.
It's mostly been the television stuff. The Last of Us,
Fallout
Fallout was excellent.
Halo, which I quite enjoyed.
Yeah, it was okay. Um I can I can only imagine though that it's that TV show is way better than a film would have been. Although
Peter Jackson was attached to that for a long time. I think and off the back of that uh district Blum Camp. Yeah,
that would have been interesting. I think
it would um Yeah, I don't know. I think I I have a bit of an inherent bias for the Halo TV show because I quite liked the casting. I thought season 2 was much weaker than the first season,
but I'm such a Halo fan girl that just
Yeah.
you put people in the costumes and you have the sound effects of the guns loading and I'm like, h Okay, you've got my attention.
Yeah, I know. I do know exactly what you mean. Like for me, it's
Well, Gran Turismo is probably my my equivalent. Like I pretty much the only game I play on the
PlayStation is decent.
But Gran Turismo is a decent film, but it's just a bit more for me cuz they they do Oh, they they're putting the braking. He wouldn't have the braking line on though because he's a racing driver. But, you know, it's fun to see that some people have it on, but it's like having the barriers up when you go bowling. Um, so yeah, it has The last few years I think has been more successful than the previous two or three decades of adaptations cuz for the longest time it was Mario Brothers Mortal Kombat a movie that I really like but was critically panned at the time and rightly so. Yeah, it's a it's a cheesy movie that's not great but I have a lot of fun with it and I think people have come around to it a lot more now. It's one of those I know you love the term guilty pleasure. It's one of those I think for a lot of people and that soundtrack is iconic at this point but not a great movie and that trend of continued. And I think the worst offenders are the video game adaptations that are just boring and dull. And I I I think I watched about 20 minutes of Assassin's Creed.
Oh yeah.
And then switched it off. But
felt like it was going to be very dull.
Prince of Persia. I didn't see but kind of got critically
They keep trying.

(03:52):
Yeah. They But they do. They do. And it's funny that they just kept going with it
because on paper you think, well, there's a built-in audience here. It's like half the reason why book adaptations, book adaptations are so popular because there's already an audience that a certain percentage that are probably going to go and see this thing no matter what.
Mhm.
But also video game fans are probably some of the most difficult people to please, I think. And I'm not I'm not I'm not saying that in a
it's not derogatory.
It's not derogatory. Yeah. But some of them are Oh, f*** wiz.
Do you mean in the sense that if there's any sort of deviation from the thing that they love, they get angry.
Yeah. And it can be quite a toxic
um area, right?
Like a gamer gate.
That's a thing that I don't know.
Well, the whole gaming arena is is notorious for misogyny, sexism, homophobia. Like,
it's historically been quite um not great. Not great.
I think that's kind of what I'm getting at as well.
Yeah. And obviously, this is by no means me toring everybody with the same brush. I'm by I wouldn't ever classify myself as a gamer, but I've been a huge fan of video games over the years. I I dip in and out.
Yeah. You're a light game
forever. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, it's it's by no means everybody.
Of course not.
But there are some that sort of drag down the perception of gamers. For sure.
There's some really loud voices in that community.
Yeah. It's the same with any

(04:13):
that shout and that's they're the only voices that you can't kind of hear
the worst people are always the loudest.
Yeah. And and a lot of big criticism seems to be it didn't have this thing from the game or they changed the name or a character or the color was different.
Oh, they made this male character a woman. It's woke.
Yeah.
Oh, who cares?
Yeah.
It's It's the same people who were pissed off that I mean, look, Daredevil was a s*** movie by by I think most people's metrics, but it was the same people who lost their tiny minds when my Clark Duncan was cast as Kingpin
cuz they were like he's black.
Yeah,
but he's not but he's not black in the comic. Who cares?
Yeah,
it doesn't matter.
Just put a somebody who's talented in the role.
Yeah, but but do you know what? Like it's it's never something that I thought about really. Like um I suppose in a way when I the first time I saw Resident Evil, I was kind of disappointed by it because it didn't it It's it's very different to the game and I'm sure we'll get into this. Hadn't played the first Resident Evil an awful lot, but I did play Resident Evil 2 from start to finish.
Well, that let's talk about that then because I have zero experience with the games.
All right.
Um, they're never really Oh, actually, no, that's not true. I did play one of them and I can't remember which one it was. It was the racist one.
Okay.
Or the one that the one that everybody said was racist cuz Oh, was it set in Africa or something? So, like all of the zombies were black.
Um, I am reaching. I don't know the the actual details.

(04:34):
It's the racist one. We'll fact check it later.
I didn't love what I played,
but I think that game was kind of panned. I think maybe that's an outlier in the franchise.
Yeah, you probably just played a bad one.
Maybe. Yeah.
I I um Do you remember the original Resident Evil coming out? Did you have a PlayStation in 1996?
No.
When did you get the Did you have a PlayStation?
I got my first PlayStation probably in 2000.
Okay. So, PS1 still was it at that point? The gray one.
Yeah. Yeah.
Okay.
Oh, well, it might have been the the second
the slimmer one
generation. It was like rounder and softer looking.
Yeah. I'd never had one of them. Look like a keychain.
But you had Tony Tony Hawks Pro Skater.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. All of that stuff.
Yeah. So, but so you weren't you weren't playing Resident Evil in 96?
No.
I was very very lucky. Like we weren't a well-off family. Us growing up, me growing up. My parents were already grown up at that point. That's how that works.

(04:55):
Yeah.
Um I was a child, you understand?
But yeah, we didn't have a lot, but I was really getting into gaming in the mid '9s, early to mid '9s. I I think I'd spoken maybe in our Mario episode, I was gifted an NES by my friend's parents and loved playing that. Had mass systems and Mega Drives from boot sales. So, I was really getting into my game. When I heard about the PlayStation coming out, it's all I could think about. And my parents were very generous and got me a PlayStation. Christmas of 96 and it's one of the greatest moments of my life.
Top 10. Like top top five maybe. Obviously meeting me you is number one. Sarah.
Oh no it's not.
Of course it is. But but uh but yeah. So getting that PlayStation was great. And then just booting it up for the first time the PlayStation sound which interestingly it was the 30th anniversary I think about a year ago and you could set your PS5 to have the original tone when it you know Oh, like that. And I had it on. It was great. But I just remember the very first time booting it up, playing Wipeout, playing Doom. Loved it. Tomb Raider was a big game for me. Huge game.
And that was an early one for the PlayStation. I spent all of my time trying to swim, outswim crocodiles, shoot harpoon guns at otterters, and find trying to find purple crystals. So, I just didn't have time to play Resident Evil. Sarah is my point.
See, I was too busy playing stuff like Speed Freaks.
I don't even know. What that is?
It was a really dumb racing game.
Oh, racing game.
Yeah, you've got it.
I still have it.
Yeah,
I still own it. And like medieval and medieval 2. I f****** loved those.
Oh, the skeleton guy.
Yeah, like the dead knight said, "Dan forcules."
And he would just like take his skull off and pop it on a little hand to skull through tiny gaps and stuff. I loved that game. It was But
see what we did there?
But So that I was more into like the quirky s***.
Yeah. Is it more platformy as well?

(05:16):
No. No.
Okay. Something I couldn't get on with was platform games. It's it's never been one that I've been mad about.
Oh, I have a big soft spot for them.
Okay. But I Yeah. So, I was all in on Tomb Raider. A friend of mine was all in on Resident Evil. And it sort of became this I'm team Tomb Raider, you're team Resident Evil kind of scenario. And occasionally, like he would play Tomb Raider, and I occasionally I would play Resident Evil. when we went around each other's houses. So, I did play the first one,
but I was never blown away by the gameplay, like the kind of the static camera in the corner and then running down the corridor and like the the spinning on it. Like, I didn't love that. And maybe it's something I could have gotten used to. Like I said, I did play the second game a few years later and I really liked that. I played it from start to finish. So, it might have just been that I just I it was I was all about Lara Croft at that point.
I bet you were.
Yeah. Who was it? What a 13year-old boy in 1997 wasn't all about Laroft. I had a big Loft poster on my on my wall.
Um, so
that like the the character or Ronitra?
Uh, both.
Um, yes. So, I played played a little bit of it. I I don't I part of the the reason for choosing most of the movies on this lineup is that either myself or you have got some experience or some knowledge of the games.
Okay,
I think that's true for most of them
with maybe one or two exceptions, but I'm not massively familiar with the Resident Evil franchise of games, but the film is quite different to the to the games. It just creates entirely new characters.
That's something I was going to ask you actually because I don't really know much about that. I know um I know there's a character called Jill Valentine in uh future Resident Evil movies. I can't remember. and she's introduced but she's
from the game right
yes
but Alice isn't
right
um and don't correct me if I'm wrong
don't correct you

(05:37):
okay
so yeah Jill Valentine I think played by Ali L in the in the films
that rings a bell
and um yeah Leon I think is one Redfield Chris Redfield Redfield maybe there's two
Claire Redfield I remember
Cla Redfield yeah uh but I don't think any of those characters are in this movie. Are they in the
I don't believe so 2002.
No,
I think they're all new. I think there are nods to characters.
I wonder what informed that decision then.
My understanding was that so when Resident Evil was a huge success uh in 1996 when it came out,
Resident Evil 2, I think, came out two years later in 98. Huge. By like 2000, by the time the movie came out, I think there were three or four games at that point.
Wow.
Massive. Huge. M
and they'd wanted to make a movie for a while, so they enlisted uh I think it was for the game Resident Evil 2. George A. Romero wrote a um directed a TV commercial which aired only in Japan for that game.
Really happy with his work.
The company said, "Would you like to write a treatment for a movie adaptation?" Romero had his um his assistant play the games. from start to finish and kind of explain to him I think and like film film her her playing it or him playing it and so he could see what was going on. He then wrote a treatment did did five or six drafts I believe was very violent. I mean
excellent.
They in the end they decided not to go with Romero's version because they didn't want it to have an NC17 rating. They thought it was too violent. To which I say why would you f****** employ George A. Romero?
Yeah.
He you don't want Why? Why would you do that? What a waste of time.

(05:58):
I I don't know how I feel about that.
Sad that we that doesn't exist.
Well, that's my initial reaction, too. But thinking about it, maybe it's for the best because I don't know, like the the films that Romero did towards the end of his life were not the greatest.
That it's fair. Yeah.
Um Survival of the Dead made me very sad.
Um as did diary. So, I don't know. Maybe maybe I'm not too sad that he didn't get to uh bring that to fruition.
Well, I think you can I think the scripts are available to be read. I think when he passed,
a lot of his stuff was acquired by a museum. I think I read somewhere. So, I mean, we'd have to go to whatever museum that is in America, Sarah. I assume. And
would it be in America?
A micro fish
cuz he's buried in Toronto.
Oh, is he?
Yeah. It could be. Yeah, it could well be there. It's somewhere that's not in the UK.
Yeah.
Uh we'd have to get on a plane regardless, but you might be able to read it if you could fork up with the money for a plane ticket.
Um I'm sad that that doesn't exist. I There is a brand new documentary 2025 documentary directed by Brandon Ssbury called George A. Romero's Resident Evil,
which as soon as I found out about that yesterday, where can I watch this? I wanted to bang that in immediately,
but couldn't find it streaming anywhere. So, Okay,
perhaps it just hasn't been released yet. Hopefully it does get a release. It would be nice to see that. But yeah, I would love to have watched that. That would have been that would have been great. They decided not to go with it because it was too violent. They I think they wanted to open it up to a wider audience, which I think is the wrong move personally. I think it's a horror game.
Yeah. If if you're selling this film to players of this very violent video game, then surely you want to stick with that tone.
I think so. I like I don't need the adaptation to be the same as the game. It's an adaptation. That's kind of the key word. But it has to have the essence of it.

(06:19):
Yeah.
But I think that's what Paul Anderson was going for. I think what because after Romero was was let go, Paul Anderson was brought on board because I think Mortal Kombat was a moderate success and he kind of wanted to do a prequel to the game set in the same universe. But I think as time went on, they just decided not to do or not to worry too much about it. But there's lots of references, lots of n in in the film. Do you know the original title for it? Because it was a it was a prequel. They were going to call it Resident Evil Ground Zero.
I did know that. And they changed it because of 9/11.
Oh, is that why? Yeah.
Oh, right. Okay.
That's what I read anyway.
Right.
Um which was probably the right move.
Yeah. I I mean,
it's too soon.
Yeah. A year later would be too soon.
Way too soon. Yeah.
It sounds a lot like this project changed dramatically over the years then.
Yeah. And took quite a while to get going, I think. I think probably from about 97. I think 97 is when the production company acquired the rights to make the movie.
Right. Okay.
I think it was a German production company. This was shot in Germany.
Yes.
So that does stand.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Which makes sense because I did notice there were quite a few actors that were European or English.

(06:40):
Look at the crew names on the credits. Yeah. You can usually tell.
I know. Um I did read somewhere that a lot of the train stuff was filmed like in an unfinished station or something,
right?
So Yeah, in Berlin, I believe.
In it wasn't the same one as uh possession, was it?
No, I don't think so.
Sad times.
All roads lead back to unhinged Sam Neil.
Yeah. Many connections.
Yeah. Going back to the um to what you said about the the rating. I know that Sony did want it to be a PG-13 initially.
Oh, yeah.
But it's Isn't that always the way though?
They always want maximum number of bums on seats. At the end of the day, it's all about money.
Yeah.
Um but Anderson pushed really hard for an R rating.
Okay.
Which I don't know. I found myself surprised by as we were watching it because Is it a 15 or an 18 in the UK?
It's a 15.
It's a 15. Yeah. I It's not It's not a film that I wouldn't call bloodless by any stretch, but I was surprised because I'd remembered it being far gorier than it actually is. Yeah.
You don't see a huge amount.
They cut away early a lot of the time.

(07:01):
A lot of it is implied. Yeah, but like you say, I think uh they did shoot a lot a lot of the gory stuff and they had to cut it out because right I think originally it would have been a ironically I think he shot an NC17 movie and then or UK 18
and then they had to make some changes and you know cut away from just before someone's head explodes or something.
Oh, isn't that always the way?
Yeah, there apparently has has been um tease in in the past from um Paul Anson about releasing a director's extended cut.
Give us finale version.
No, give a finale version. Yeah, I agree.
So, do we know who came up with the framework for the movie then the story beats? Was anything
Well, Anderson wrote his thing as well,
but was any of Romero's stuff left over or was it all kind of recconed and they started from scratch?
I think they started from scratch,
right? Okay. So, this is this is him through and through. This is all Anderson.
Yeah. Romero doesn't have a credit on it, so I think it's just page one. Rewrite. I'm Paul WS Anderson, didn't you know? So, we're putting Ma Jovovich in the movie, who's not my wife yet.
They weren't together,
but she might be. So, I'm going to cast her and I'm going to make her want to be my wife.
I'm going to seduce her through the film.
Seduce her by making a masterpiece.
Well, it worked.
It worked great, didn't it?
It worked on her. Yeah.
Somebody watched The Fifth Element and got very excited by that movie, didn't they?
I uh Well, you know, um Yeah, but what if she was wearing even less?

(07:22):
I really like it, Mila, in movies when you wake up naked.
Yeah.
Oh, do you? And what? No, that's that's that's that's it.
That's the whole sentence.
Yeah. I like it when you you don't have any memory and you don't know who you are. Yeah.
But you just kick people in the head and it's great. And you're not wearing it much.
It's great.
Speaking of not remembering,
something that this film does that really pissed me off is like that old trope of insomnia. Insomnia. Amnesia.
Amnesia. You forgot the word.
No, god damn it. I'm so angry at myself. The the trope of amnesia leading to exposition.
Yeah.
Oh, you don't remember. So, this character is going to explain it all to you, but really it's for our benefit.
Yeah. Or maybe you remember a thing and you see a glass smash.
Yeah. And fragments come back to you. Yeah. I don't know. I find I find that technique to be a bit hokey.
Yeah. I agree. I agree. I don't love that as a as a tool. It's a bit obvious. It's a bit Yeah, it's just a device like you say to introduce
information to be presented to the viewer,
but you don't, you know, you don't have to do that. And also like I was kind of like, I haven't seen this movie in a while.
Yeah, same.
Very quickly within 5 to 10 minutes, I was like, what's going on? I don't care.
Yeah, doesn't matter.

(07:43):
It doesn't matter. And I was like, why is she why has she got and also that guy's also got amnesia? Something something the drug might might give you. IA sometimes and maybe it doesn't.
But sometimes things come back to you, sometimes they don't. Might take a while, maybe it'll be sooner. Who knows?
Maybe you'll have amnesia, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have it for 5 minutes, maybe you'll have it for 5 years. Who can say? It depends what what we need to do in the movie, really, doesn't it?
But luckily for you, when you come to the uh shower curtain that's fallen on top of you, will have done so very strategically.
Yeah.
Yeah. Just so we can't see the vital bits.
Mhm. Not until the end of the movie anyway. Do we see vital bits at the end of the movie?
Um, we see pubic hair at the very least.
Do we? Do you missed that?
I did. We should watch it again.
I've got it on Blu-ray now. It's not going to wear out, is it?
I did not really. I didn't know.
You didn't even have to rewind it like a VHS. Just skip back a chapter.
There's no lines in it when you pause it anymore.
Yeah, that was um unintentional apparently.
No s***.
She moved in such a way that um obviously stuff was revealed that shouldn't have been.
Yeah.
Um but Paul W. Anderson was like, "f*** it. I'm keeping it in."
Yeah. And that's what they said as well.
No, I knew it as soon as that came out of my mouth. I was like, "He's going to turn that into something."

(08:04):
Yeah. Yeah. But but you know what? Like Jovovich first familiar with her uh from Fifth Element, which we mentioned before, really good in that. Good action. and confused for me.
Oh, she's in that, is she? Okay. Uh, so yeah, what what year was uh Fifth Element? 97, I want to say,
I believe so.
Directed by Luke Besson, who she was married to for two years.
f***, I forgot about that.
Yeah.
Oh, wow.
Yeah. Um, um, less said about Besson the better. Yeah.
John Carpenter, you're a hero.
Um, yeah. And then she sort of became an action hero, didn't she? off the back of Resident Evil, I would say mostly for Resident Evil movies.
Yeah.
But I definitely feel like she's if you're talking about female action stars, she's definitely in the conversation, I think.
Oh, for sure.
Do you do you think that she's How do you think rate her performance in this movie? Let's Let's start with that. Park action for now.
Okay.
We'll come back to that cuz I do want to I do want to follow that thread up. But as a performance, what do you think? Cuz I think she came from a modeling career. She started as a model, right?
Yeah.
And and that can go either way. I think usually you could be a bad actor, you and I suppose the same with anyone really. You could be a bad actor, you could be a good actor.
I Oh, this is going to sound mean. I don't think she's great.
Okay.
I think she's fine. I think she's a better action star than she is an actor.

(08:25):
Yeah.
If I'm being honest, um she's not an actor where I'd be like, "Oh, there's a new Milovich movie out. I must see this."
Yeah.
She's not a draw for me.
No, because it's always a Paul W. Yeah, it's always f****** Monster Hunter these days.
Tony Jar, what were you thinking?
Tony, wasn't the premise of that movie as people wanted to eat chocolate?
Tony J. wanted chocolate.
That's That's right. Yeah. God, that was terrible. It was bad. I I do you know what? Like I was quite surprised by how much I enjoyed her performance. I thought that she at the start
she conveyed the like the amnesia attired um tour at this point,
but I thought that She displayed the vulnerability and the innocence, naivity very well,
like and not even by dialogue, just by her facial expressions. And I think it was
I'm not saying she's bad.
I just think she's fine.
Okay.
But I think I think I I really like the stuff at the beginning because that's what the character was kind of experiencing. That felt those decisions were correct for for where that character was at that point. But as the film goes on, it just she does sort of just switch It's not a slow like one minute she's like, "Oh, who am I?" and like dropping things and and and like wearing boots
trying to figure out if that's her handwriting or not. Yeah. Did you Did you notice that little kind of nod to total recall?
No. What was the nod?
When she sees the note and then she copies the um the words to see if it's her handwriting, but it's not.
Does that happen in total recall?
I think so.

(08:46):
Okay.
You're making me down myself now.
If it does, I've completely forgotten it. Um what was I saying? Ma Jovovich
her performance
performance. Yeah, I I thought what she was doing in the beginning movie was very good. I think I feel like it's more of a writing thing where she just sort of switches and just becomes this heroine, this action thing. And again, she is good at that.
Mhm.
But the the like the the change was too too dramatic for me.
Maybe that's down to the editing.
It could be the editing. It could be the writing. Yeah, it could be what was cut out, what was left on the cutting room floor. Um but I thought she was I thought she was was decent in this. And I don't know, I think outside of Resident Evil movies, there's probably not a ton of Jovich films I've seen outside of I'm just looking at our credits now. You got Zoolander. I don't remember in that.
I don't remember in that.
Um, but there's a thousand people in that. Dazed and Confused.
Yep.
Fifth Element. Uh, Hellboy apparently.
Okay. I don't remember in Hellboy.
Monster Hunter. The Fourth Kind. She was in that film.
Ultraviolet.
A lot of um a lot of action stuff. So, it does feel like off of the back of I would say the Fifth Element was just the beginning of that.
But Resident Evil is where she became an action star, I would say.
I think so.
And she's kind of continued that trend, I think, and and is part of the conversation. If we were to say who are the greatest female action stars of all time, she's in the conversation, I think.
Who else would be?

(09:07):
Well, who else would we would be in yours, do you think? If I said to you,
are we counting superhero movies? is
uh you count it however you want to count it.
Scarlett Johansson's got to be up there then
by pure box office pull alone. Yes.
But also she's done other stuff like there were there were even action elements that she did in the latest Jurassic World.
Yeah.
Um she did stuff like Lucy as well which wasn't the greatest but you know required some physicality.
Yeah.
Um who else?
I my first thought went to Beck and Sale but purely because of Underworld and she did that um Jolt. That's the film I
think. She has done some action. Yeah.
Yeah.
She Yeah. I wouldn't necessarily think of her, but I think you're probably right.
I would say Michelle Rodriguez, who's in this movie, is is in that conversation as well. Fast and Furious.
Of course. Of course.
Resident Evil. She's in a few Resident Evil movies. I think
Yeah, they brought her back as clones or something. I read everything happens in these movies. It's like a soap opera.
I'll be honest, I've only seen the first three.
Oh, good for you.
Yeah. Yeah, Michelle Rodriguez. So, like Fast and Furious. I think she did uh she's done a few other like more

(09:28):
She did a boxing movie really early on.
Did she?
I think that might have been the first thing I saw her in.
Okay. Gina Carano.
Um
she was in Haywire.
Was she
She was in Mandalorian.
Yeah.
She was Was she a wrestler or a fighter?
I think maybe women's MMA or something. I'm not sure. Don't quote me on that. It's the same kind of thing as Ronda Rousey, whatever she does.
Yeah.
I think it might be mixed martial arts. I'm not sure though.
Okay.
Um but yeah, I guess she counts.
Um
Zoe Bill, would you count Zoe Bill?
That's an interesting question because she has done stuff as an actor, but she's done shitloads as a stunt performer as well.
So
stunt performer prolific.
Oh, Uma Thurman.

(09:49):
Uma Thurman. Kill Kill Bill
because she Zoe Bell was the stunt performer for Uma Thurman in the Kill Bill movies. Michelle Yo. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Was she in Shang Chi as well?
I don't remember.
She's done a bunch of stuff. She's She's great at that.
You got your classics, you got your Sigourney, you got your your Linda Linda Hamilton.
Linda Hamilton,
who I mean, I guess mostly for or maybe only for Terminator and Terminator 2 because the other action movie she did was called Dante's Peak.
Um, Charlie Theron.
Charlie Theron is I would say that's probably the best one. Best what I mean by that is um the best example of someone that has done
she's probably
lots of different action movies but she's also like she's a proper actor. Not to disregard any of the other people we mentioned.
Yeah. Like Charlie Sarin could do a Ma Jovovich role. I don't think Mila Jovovich could do a Charlie Serin role.
Yeah. Also came from Mlin, right?
Yeah. Yeah. I believe so.
Yeah. No, I agree with what you just said there actually.
Like Charlie Sarin could do a Resident Evil.
Yeah.
But Miljovich couldn't do a monster, for example.
No. Monster Hunter, though.
So, going back to the film, let's start very much at the beginning. I was shocked isn't the right word. I was surprised at how dated it was
in what sense?

(10:10):
The opening credits, the graphics, the fonts, the the music.
Oh, I didn't know that Marilyn Manson was a attached to this.
I mean, so apparently Anderson did want, in his words, an edgy soundtrack. I don't I don't know if they succeeded. So, yeah, it was Marco Belrammy and Marilyn Manson who composed the score.
Yeah.
Awful.
I really like the score stuff, but I don't like the musical stuff. I think it's a very I think the score is very inconsistent, but the main Resident Evil theme which they reuse I think throughout the franchise. I really like
I don't know.
It feels like it's in a spirit of the game as well.
I guess so. I just didn't love it. Maybe that is probably just a matter of personal taste then.
Yeah. Well, I mean, possibly, but it does it's not to say that it doesn't feel dated though. I do agree with you that
the film as a whole does feel dated
to a to a point. I'd say there's things in it that maybe are a bit forward thinking, if I might could say such a thing, but then also there are things in it that of the CGI, man. I mean, like,
did it look even look good in 2002?
It can't have done. It can't have done.
But yeah, the soundtrack just kind of one of my notes was that it made me feel like I was at a rock club drunk and I'm just pacing back and forth between like the Goth room. Oh, I've gone this way. Now I'm in the industrial room. Oh, quick turn into the punk room. No, back in there. Back in the Goth room again.
Yeah.
Oh, man.
It was g me a headache. I really hated the the loud rock guitar action movie music that they were doing.
I think I'm just too old for it now.
I just thought it was it I thought the mix was terrible. The sound mix in not all the whole film, but some of it you just couldn't hear what that people were saying.
Yeah. Music too loud, dialogue too quiet. The mastering was awful.

(10:31):
Yeah. The the the the music was way too loud in places. And also not even just when when they're talking when when there's action happening. They did the heavy guitar music and it distracted me. I'm sure the the intention there is it, you know, this is cool and isn't this such a cool movie and intense.
It's also supposed to make you feel more immersed like you would in a video game.
It had the complete opposite effect to me. Like it it didn't make me feel immersed. It took me out of the movie cuz all I f****** awful sounds that I'm hearing and again could be a taste. I don't know. But I I imagine even if it was music that I liked,
it would be distracting. Like music is meant to enhance a scene, tell you information that the the visuals aren't telling you perhaps or just, you know, I don't know, it just enhance it in some way. But there was it's just blasting at you and it's impossible to to ignore. It's not subtle and I didn't care for it. That's probably the most biggest problem I had with this film I would say is it might be the music
cuz the rest of the movie was really sore. Not the score. I liked the score. I'll go back to that. Subtle, did you say?
Yeah.
Um I didn't say it was a subtle movie. I didn't say it was a subtle movie. Do you think there's any um it's it's dated? Yes. I think that the thing that isn't dated and was quite interesting is to look at the corporation side of things. I guess we've always done evil corporations in movies, but the fact that this is just like a regular organization that you can probably buy stocks and shares from. It just happens that they've grown so large. It could be a comment on latest stage capitalism where you have to keep growing. So, we've got all of the money, so what are we going to do now? We're going to have to threaten people's lives so we get just a little bit more money.
It wouldn't surprise me if Bezos was just like, "Well, we've been to space. I'm going to start building down now."
Yeah. Build a hive. Yeah.
Yeah.
No, I did I did like that element of it. Like I said, They've done evil corporations have always been a thing,
but usually in films there's a face of that corporation. Robocop is an example of that. The old man,
that guy's also the face of the evil corporation in Halloween 3.
I knew he was going.
He's so typ cast.
Don't you'll get that tune in your head.
Oh, too late.
Yeah. Uh, but what I liked about this is that it's the fact that there wasn't an evil face. And this might be different. in future movies. I can't remember to be honest. But the fact that there wasn't like just some evil evil bastard going, "Oh, we just want to kill everybody. I just want money, whatever." Like the goal is yes, we want money, but the it's the corporation. It's the it's the the the climate that's kind of created this thing and it feels like
inevitably this is what would happen.
I I'm not saying it's realistic that though.
Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

(10:52):
I think that's something it does quite well because I think the danger Having a human at the helm, somebody you can point to and say, "This guy's in charge." You sort of risk humanizing the evil corporation a little bit.
Well, there is that. Yeah. I You didn't really get any humanizing in things, you know, from the 80s and the early '9s. It was just an evil person doing evil things, like I say, because they wanted money or whatever. I don't mind if you humanize a a bad guy. I think that's can be interesting, but it is it is also interesting that there's not actually anyone to fight essentially at the end of this movie. And it's it's an odd one. I I do feel like future movies do change that. There are villain uh more obvious villains I think probably in all of them from from the first one, but that's sort of not really here. And I thought that was interesting.
I guess the closest is the AI, the Red Queen.
I think she's a good character.
I hate that kid.
I mean, she's a kid. I don't care. I hate her.
I do. You know what? A childlike AI would not work on me. They It would not be able to manipulate me.
No.
Cuz every time she spoke, I was just like, "Oh, shut up." And it was Now, this is cruel of me to say because yes, she is a kid. But I know or I assume that the robotic nature of the speech was because it's an AI and not a child. But every time she spoke. It just felt there like there was some six-year-old in a room reading lines.
Yeah. Well, because there was
No, I know. But do you know what I mean? Like for the first time there was just I don't know. I didn't like it.
Yeah. No, I Yeah. That's That's a fair criticism. I think I don't think that she's a villain. I think she's a good good character. I think she's a good guy.
Do you?
I think
but she's programmed by bad guys.
But she's not though, is she? Cuz she's the consciousness of the the little girl. The the doctor whatever who created a tea virus.
Well, he just modeled it after his daughter though, right?
Okay. Well, it's a reboot if you like of his daughter.
But, um I I thought that she was a good character. Like, she she wants to save the world. What? How can you get more good than that?
I mean, sure, she wants to murder some people,
but you you can't make a toilet without breaking some Gregs.

(11:13):
She's an immediate threat to our protag. s.
Yeah,
some of them.
Yeah. And it's inconsistent as well cuz it's it's like she she mentions I think at the end of the first act that there is a cure virus. There's an antidote. Yeah. And then at the end of the second act, Jovich goes, "Wait, you're telling me there's a cure?" And you're like, "She f****** told you."
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I did tell you before you should listen. But I quite I quite liked that character. I thought it was an interesting interesting take. It's
I didn't hate the whole thing. Like overall, I didn't hate the fact that it was an AI and I thought that was quite interesting.
Yeah, the AI stuff always I find interesting anyway. But
yeah, I just didn't like how they achieved it necessarily.
Yeah. But I liked the decisions that she the decisions that she made felt like they were the decision, you know, aside from some convenient plot stuff.
Logic based
logic based stuff.
Yeah.
Which is like, yeah, I can relate to that.
Yeah. You can.
Yeah,
but like you know, save sacrifice one life for a billion. Well, yeah. That's not really a calculation, is it? That's Give me the gun. I I'll do it. You know what? You want to do it? I'll do it for you.
I'll shoot myself.
Don't you'll screw it up and end up shooting me cuz I'll be standing next to you. Um, but yeah, it's interesting. I actually thought that all of the all of the female characters in this I thought were essentially good
because you've got the the AI. I know perhaps we disagree, but I think her
Yeah. All right.
Ultimately, All right. Ultimately, I thought that she was trying to do the right thing.

(11:34):
I My opinion is being clouded by my dislike of the character
children.
That too. Yeah.
Jovich, who's the hero?
I like I I kind of like what she did with that character. I know I said like I don't love her acting abilities. I don't think she was like outstanding by any stretch, but I did read that there were conversations behind the scenes because Alice was supposed to be just this damsel in distress type and she pushed to to have a bit more agency and a bit more to do. So, I do like what she did in that regard.
Yeah, they definitely enhanced that character from what I understand. Like you say, Damsel in distress situation. I think the Michelle Rodriguez character, Rain, was meant to be the main action hero of this,
right?
And then, yeah, Jovich comes on board as a little whisper in in Paul's ear. It's like like we got to we've got to make this character better. And they succeeded, I think, almost. You know, there's there's some studio notes the studio is like, look, do what you like. We've got to have her naked in the opposite, right? That's that's a non-negotiable.
And she's got to be wearing a short dress for the rest of the run time.
She's got to be wearing a short dress with tiny pants,
but she can wear a shoe. She doesn't have to wear
shoes. Yeah.
So, at least like the sort of shoes that you can believe someone could kick a dog in. If she was wearing stilettos, I would never have believe that saying.
Yeah.
Yeah. It is interesting like and that's kind of what I mean about it being a bit uh it's a bit more that like the it's not a great film but there is stuff in it to like and appreciate. I think I can see how it spawned multiple movies which are apparently not great. But like there is stuff to like about it there. There is stuff that
I'm not going to disagree with you. I really enjoyed this when it first came out.
Oh, did you watched it a lot? Did Yeah,
I did genuinely.
Um, and then I watched the second one and I really enjoyed that. And then I watched the third one and went, "Oh, no."
And I jumped ship at that point. So, I hadn't watched any of them for a good 15 years.
Wow.

(11:55):
Um, it turns out I don't love it anymore.
That's fair.
But I, you know, once upon a time, I really liked it. I owned it. You know, I
watched it a fair few times. So, I do agree. Yeah, there is definitely stuff to like here. Absolutely. But I think I don't I don't know if it's because I'm older now. I don't know if it's because we watched it with the podcast in mind, but a lot of the holes really started to bother me.
Yeah.
Like the science stuff, the inconsistencies, the like shutting down the AI was basically just resetting the buildings factory settings.
Yeah.
It's like, oh, all the doors are open now. I don't know if that's how it would work.
There was a lot of conveniences in this.
Yeah. And also destroying the AI meant destroying a computer. monitor. That's not how that works.
Yeah. Yeah, that would work. Yeah.
So, some of that stuff really started to piss me off. But I don't know how fair of a criticism that is for the type of film it is.
Well, it's your opinion. We're here to talk about our own opinions.
All right.
Right. Well, you heard it here first. We're the first people to say s***, etc. I can't believe I'm defending Resident Evil. I don't even like it very much. I just think that there's I think it's kind it's not cool. It's trying so hard to be cool and in that it fails. It's a tryh hard movie.
I absolutely agree with you there.
But there are glimmers of stuff in it that I really like and things like uh like I was just going back to like the fact that all of the women are essentially good. Even the the sister of um is it Eric
Mobius? Mobius that that guy whatever what was his character?
The guy with the dumbest face on planet Earth. He always looks so gormless every time the camera pans around to him. I love it. Yeah,
it's so good.
He was called um Matt Addison and he had a sister who was a plant in the hive.

(12:16):
And so yeah, she doesn't do too great in the movie and ends up becoming a zombie.
Mhm.
So all the all the women are good characters. All of the men are either bad or neutral
or Colin Salmon or or who's neutral in my opinion. Yeah. Who's got who's really
get cubed?
He gets meat cubed. He gets Yeah, he gets cubed. I um Is that the best scene in this movie?
It might be, but again, they cut away.
They sort of cut away. They do like a blurred closeup of it, don't they? Which is
disappointing because they did build an entire Collins salmon prosthetic body.
Did they?
Which they cut into little cubes so that when you know they called action, it would just fall to bits.
So somewhere that exists. It's probably with Stan Winston.
It's in Stan Winston's loft with the kangaroo dick. Yeah.
Yeah.
Um
I did like Is that the best scene in this movie? I think it might be. It might be the most memorable. That's the one when someone says to me, "Oh, do you remember Resident Evil 2002?" That's what I think of.
The laser hallway.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I I do quite um something that I do like is obviously this this is going to sound like the most stupid sentence that I've ever said, which is saying something This film is very video gamey.
Yeah, that is stupid. You're right. Yeah,

(12:37):
sounds like the most obvious thing, but the best way I can describe it is some video game adaptations feel like a movie because they're a movie, whereas this feels very video gamey. Like the the maps and the fonts and some of the oh, we've got to do this task and then we can move on here. Like it I'm not explaining myself very well. I think you have to explain yourself perfectly. I think it's exactly right.
Some parts of that are are strengths and some are real weaknesses. I think cuz I think for me, if I want to play a game, I'll play a game. If I want to watch a movie, I'll watch a movie. If I want to watch a movie that feels like a video game, I'll watch Sucker Punch and be disappointed.
But I don't know. Some some stuff I think that they did really well was, for example, when they walked through the the laser hallway the second in time and the bodies are gone
because in a video game the bodies would disappear.
Yeah.
So I I appreciate little touches like that.
Yeah.
That I assume were intentional.
Yeah, definitely. I mean there it does it does feel video game and you're right cuz you have got essentially if I remember correctly Resident Evil you're just trying to get through a series of rooms and which reveals the story or whatever which is the same here. So in essence it feels like a Resident Evil game which I think is you know is a good thing but it does feel very much bike. Let's get to this point, you know, let's get on the train. Well, well, first of all, we wake up with no memory. We've got to have a look about. Oh, there's some guns there, but we can't get to them. Maybe we'll come back to this later when I've got the code for this drawer.
Yeah.
Um, now I'm going to walk. Oh, there's some clothes there. That's handy. Let's put them on and go for a bit of a walk. And then we got to get on this train and go down here. And this hallway's got lasers in it. How we can get But we got to hack the system or whatever. Let's look on the map. Let's press pause. Like you say, we reveal the hive and look at it as a 3D and where? Let's zoom. into the characters who's got very large breasts in that render for some reason. Did you notice that?
No. Oh my god.
Yeah.
So, it does it does feel very video gamey. You are 100% right. And I didn't I didn't dislike that about this. I just noticed it. But I kind of feel like a lot of modern movies are doing that now anyway. May intentionally or not, I don't know. But in in the certainly in In the blockbusters, you've always got to get a thing which is going to allow you to do another thing. You go to this place and meet this person who's going to give you information to do this next thing that you need to do. That's all these movies are now. And I wonder if that's as a result of video games or
maybe
what's what came first, the the chicken or the egg?
It's an interesting thing to ponder for sure.
I don't have an answer sadly.
No. Well, we'll just sit here and wait until you do.
You've been waiting a while. You
You've played the racist Resident Evil game. You said

(12:58):
briefly.
Do you remember much about the gameplay? And
not really. I didn't love it.
Yeah,
I do remember that I gave up on it very quickly because I just didn't get on with the mechanics of it.
No, I think I had a similar experience with the first one, but I think I did get into it with two. Like I say, there were a lot of nods to the game in this film. There were
there were Yeah, there some of the there was overhead shots of characters and kind of mock CCTV kind of angles in in certain situations. There was some subtle set decorating going on. I think there was a statue in the mansion, which I think was in the first game. Uh certain non-negotiables. You got to put dogs in there. Got to put zombie dogs in there, which they covered in makeup. They had real real dogs.
Okay. Yeah. I I assumed it was real dogs because all of the CGI looked terrible and the dogs looked okay.
Yeah.
Oh, they're real dogs.
Yeah,
I could tell cuz they look real dogs.
Yeah.
Yeah. They had um they had makeup all over them, but they kept licking it all off. So they had to reapply digitally.
Oh, they're good boys.
Yeah, such good boys.
Apparently the the trainer was very insistent that the dogs will not come to any harm and any pain. Yeah, obviously like it's kind of a basic thing.
Yeah. Or should be.
It should be. Uh so what the trainer did is they put their own head through a sheet of sugar glass to see if they experienced any pain. Oh,
and when they put their head through it and they found out, oh, that doesn't hurt. They were happy for the dog to jump through the glass, which was which was cool.
Oh, that makes me so happy.

(13:19):
Yeah. So, no dogs were harmed during the making of Resident Evil, except from the rubber one, which Ma Jovovich kicked in the head.
Apparently, she had like months of training to do that scene.
Yeah.
Which I can only assume she flew. It took 3 months for her to learn how to fly.
Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Cuz she got a good 7 seconds of air. Sarah, Resident Evil 2002 is a really grounded movie.
I know
in comparison,
which is why that was so glaringly out of place,
but in comparison to what what comes in other movies, she's just flipping and doing jumps all over the place and hitting bullets out the air with swords and like it just it gets
ridiculous, which is not, you know, necessarily a bad thing. It isn't it stupid entertaining movie, but yeah. I think they get further away from the games if I if I if I remember correctly. But anyway, there there was also a tongue monster in this.
I hated that thing.
Really good piece of CGI.
It looked the the best thing I can liken it to is the the CGI in Alien 3.
Oh yeah, the dog. Alien dog.
Just awful. Truly awful. And I know it's sort of become the benchmark and a thing that we always talk about, but to think that it was 9 years, almost a decade after Jurassic Park,
yeah,
is unforgivable in my opinion. Do we know what the budget was, by the way?
It was 33 million.
Okay. And the the actors, none of whom were really stars at the time, can't have commanded that much, right?
Yeah, I think you're right. Yeah. 101 million it grossed worldwide. So, success. It was a success, but was

(13:40):
not the biggest success in in the franchise.
Oh, which was
it was actually the last one.
Six,
enough. Yeah.
Really?
Which is interesting because usually if the last It's never the case that the last movie is the most successful cuz usually they run it into the ground like Police Academy. We're looking at you.
You were going to bring that up.
It's very rare that the last movie is the most successful. That one was made for 40 million and gross 312 million.
Wow. Okay.
Second place is Afterlife, which is the fourth one and also my favorite uh but might be s***.
Uh it budget was 60 million, box office 300. Third place, Retribution, budget 65, gross 240. Fourth is Apocalypse, budget 45, box office 130. This one, 2002, is in fifth place, 30 million, box office, 100 million. Last place, Resident Evil Extinction, which is the last one that you saw, 45 million budget, and 148 million box office.
So, none of them really bombed.
None of them. They all did really well.
Wow.
And and like I say, that kind of mid-range, you know, 30 30 to 60 million. Let's look at this. Last one was 2016.4 million in 2016 is cheap.
Yeah.
For that. I mean I did I watched that movie and it's not good.
Right. Okay.
And if I al I think it looks like s***.
So you can see that maybe they probably should have spent a bit more on it. But even so, like that's crazy. And I'm very surprised that they didn't continue making them because I'm sure that Anderson would have been under pressure to to continue with them in some way.

(14:01):
Yeah. But he was like, "No. I have to make Monster Hunter. I've just got to move on, guys.
He was like, "Look, I think we've done everything that we can do with the Resident Evil franchise. Let's leave on a high.
We've given everyone all of the good stuff. There's no way we can possibly improve."
Yeah. I need to go and work with Ron Pearlman now.
You didn't like um Welcome to Raccoon City?
No.
Did you do you think that it's better than this movie?
No. No, I don't think it is.
You don't? That's interesting.
I think I probably would still rather watch this one.
Yeah.
But I don't know if that's if there's like an element of nostalgia there.
Do you think so? Do you think there might be a bit of nostalgia there because you you used to like this?
I think so. Yeah.
I definitely still have a modicum of affection for it.
Did you remember much about it going into it this time?
Mhm.
Okay.
Yeah. Almost everything. Yeah.
Yeah. But it just hit differently.
Mhm.

(14:22):
Yeah. It's interesting. definitely become become more critical as I've gotten older.
Yeah, of course.
But I think we've talked about it before. I think that's just the case. When you when you consume as much media as we do, your catalog for comparison becomes huge. So yeah, the more films I see, the more good films I see. So the less than good ones look worse by comparison, I guess.
Yeah.
Um but I still think it's fun. I I do still think it's a fun time, but I do not think it's a good movie.
Yeah, that's fair. Did you hear much about the marketing of the film?
I didn't know.
From 2002?
No.
So, apparently in late 2001, Sony launched a competition for someone to create a poster
for the film. The poster.
So, they didn't want to pay anybody.
Yeah, that's right. Yeah. The poster would be used. They would get paid an amount of undisclosed amount of money and they would get a free screening of the movie.
Okay.
And somebody won it. Yeah. In February 2002, a winner was announced and they won some money.
Oh, good for whoever that was. Yeah.
Something I did want to bring up which is a really curious connection to our last show from Drugs Season.
I I Should I guess what you're going to say or should I let you say?
Let's go for it.
Alice in Wonderland.
Yeah. You knew I was going to bring that up, right?

(14:43):
I did. Yeah.
There are some massive obvious parallels. I think the um I think the parallels were a little bit more subtle in Fear and Loa in Las Vegas.
Yeah.
And there were fewer of them.
Fear and Loa, the subtle movie.
It's full of nuance. and also Deb Maguire. No, I think I think the parallels between Alice in Wonderland and Resident Evil are pretty pretty obvious, right? I mean, we have a protagonist called Alice.
She is called Alice
straight out of the gate.
Did you see that giant rabbit? Is there a rabbit in Alice in Wonderland or am I thinking the white rabbit? Right. Is there a talking teapot?
No.
Okay.
I don't I don't remember a talking teapot. Certainly. Yeah, there's a bunch of stuff. So, we've got um obviously the main character being Alice, as you've said, the They were like testing the T- virus on white rabbits, I think, at the start.
Oh, okay.
Yeah. Um,
she was rabbits in it. You're right.
Yep. The red queen.
Is that a character?
Direct.
Yeah. Direct reference particularly in that the the queen in Alice in Wonderland was famous for the phrase off with their heads. And the red queen in this wants somebody's head.
Does she?
Yeah.

(15:04):
Whose head does she want?
Um, Rain, isn't it?
Does she? Well, she wants she wants them to kill her.
Yeah.
But she she also wants somebody's head for reasons,
right? Okay.
Um but yeah, and there's a point at which they go through a mirrored door which is literally sort of you could interpret as literally going through the looking glass like Alice did. So yeah, there's a bunch of stuff. There's a bunch of stuff. I was quite surprised that I don't think I'd necessarily
picked up on that before or I hadn't paid much attention to it anyway.
I I'd never thought about it before,
but You're not as you're not exactly attached to Alice in Wonderland like I am.
No, I I I read it.
Yeah.
I seen a Tim Burton movie and it was not good.
Oh, no. Toilet.
Yeah. It's funny how we've got two movies on a bounce with nods to Alice in Wonderland,
but I bet every other movie probably has an Alice in Wonderland reference.
I mean, it's a killer story
apparently. So,
it's great. So, I did want to sort of revisit a question that you asked me as we were watching this. And that was, do you actually consider this to be a zombie movie?
I think yes.
Okay.

(15:25):
I think this is definitely a zombie movie, but you weren't so sure.
Are you still in that camp?
I guess I guess technically yes. I mean, there are zombies in it. There's an element of Stuck in a Place, which I associate with zombie movies. I guess probably more because of the Romero thing.
I don't think the zombies are they just look like people in this. Do you know what I mean? Love the zombie makeup.
No,
I'll be honest.
So, it's they feel less zombie to me and more just reanimated corpse.
That's what a zombie is.
No, you know what I mean. They don't like visually they don't they don't quite look zombie to me. And there is there's way more zombie stuff in it than I remember.
Okay.
I remember being quite big fan of zombie films. Teenager, loved Dawn of the Dead. Greatest movie ever made. So, I was quite I suppose probably another the reason why I was excited to watch this at the time and was sort of somewhat disappointed, but there was more zombie stuff in it than I remembered there being.
Yeah,
it's okay. Like
I mean, that's the biggest threat, right?
Yeah. I I mean, and you got the the obvious the lizard monster and stuff at the end of the movie and the dogs, which I like less.
Yeah.
But I just I just wish that there a bit more maybe had gone on into the the effects, the makeup for the zombies. Maybe like when uh Addison sees his sister, she just looks like his sister. That's true. Yeah. She just looks a bit tired.
Yeah. She just look like she hasn't she's only had two hours sleep that night or whatever. But is it a zombie movie? I guess technically it is. Yeah. I just didn't I didn't ever really look at it that way.
That's where we differ, you and I.
But where does it stack up? It's I mean zombie movies are like shark movies, aren't they? Like there's
there are so few excellent

(15:46):
one or two that are masterpieces.
Yeah.
And then you've got the rest of them.
You got like a few sort of three star. Yeah, that's all right. But most of them are probably not great.
Yeah. But where's this if if you do consider this a zombie movie, where do you think is it sort of in the middle or is it on in the lower end of zombie films?
Um, it's not at the lower end, but it's below the middle. It's below the midway part.
Yeah,
for me.
Yeah.
What about you?
Um, it's Yeah, probably the same. Probably the same. There's some light zombie movies that are just completely untouchable. There's a lot that I that are not great, but I enjoy cuz they just sort of nail the tone or the mention. And then you've got things like World War Z,
which claim they're a zombie film.
I was so excited for that to come out cuz I'd read the book
and I was like, "How the hell are they going to manage this? How the hell are they going to pull this off?" And then it turned out it was nothing to do with the book.
Yeah. The way that they pulled it off is they didn't
Yeah.
They just went, "No."
Yeah.
But I was quite excited for that project coming out actually because I haven't read the book, but I I I'd heard about the premise of it and thought that's really interesting.
Can't wait to see this. This Oh, it's Brad Pit cycling on a children's bicycle drinking Pepsi or whatever.
Um, yeah, that's a funny one. But, but yeah, I suppose I suppose Resident Evil is a zombie movie and probably out of the six has the most. I imagine they just get more about the monsters and stuff in the other ones. I was hoping to watch a few more of them to be honest before we recorded, but one's enough I guess. I do remember Nemesis from the second one.

(16:07):
Yeah, the second one. Resident Evil Nemesis.
Is that actually what it's called?
Yeah. Oh,
yeah.
I think it right. Resident Evil Nemesis.
Extinction.
Yeah.
Afterlife.
Mhm.
Retribution. The final chapter. That's what That's what they're called,
right?
Yeah. How do I know that?
I don't know.
But now I own the first We
Oh, good.
Yeah. So, we at least get to watch up up to the first four. And I hope the The four is still my favorite. Although I was watching clips for it from it earlier on YouTube and it did not look good.
Oh no.
So I'm like, "Oh, I don't know if I my memory of it might be more enjoyable than actually going through with it and watching it again. I don't know."
Oh dear.
But do you know what? I probably watch this again.
Yeah.

(16:28):
Resident Evil. I It's definitely I can't figure out what to watch tonight. It's Saturday. I've had a couple of whisies. f*** it. Let's put Resident Evil on and take the piss out of it a bit.
Yeah.
And And you know what? There is stuff to like in this.
I don't think it I think we're kind of on the same page.
It's not all bad.
Yeah,
it's this is objectively this is probably the best one.
I don't know. I don't really I know that this one was critically bad, but from what my I understand is that they just kind of got worse.
Critics hated him more and more. I think I know Roger Eert was like, "Yeah, those first two movies are like the worst movies ever made."
Oh, he said he must have said that so many times about different movies over the years.
Yeah, but they're horrors, so of course they are. Well, are they not Are they horror?
Yeah. Yeah.
A horror action sci-fi. Uh, is this the best horror adaptation of a video game or is that Silent Hill?
I'm not a big fan of Silent Hill.
No, I know you're not. I liked that. That surprised me cuz I thought that that was quite decent.
I It really missed the mark for me,
but then I I didn't really play the Silent Hill games either. So,
again, no real attachment.
Uh, maybe we should not go into too much detail about Silent Hill cuz it might be on the lineup. It's not
okay.
It could have been.

(16:49):
Could have been.
What's next, Dan?
What's next? So, we are moving on to episode two, video game movies. Theme suggested by listener Paul. He also suggested that we cover Warcraft. So, we're not doing that. I'm joking. We're doing Warcraft. We're doing Warcraft. Um, I did see that it was streaming, I think, on Netflix or Prime over here.
Oh, good. I'm not buying it.
I don't want to own that movie.
I've seen it. I saw it once and I didn't love it. I don't think I hated it, but I This is one I I said earlier in the show that I wanted to get adaptations of games that one of us are familiar with. I've never even looked at a Warcraft game.
This is where you out me as a massive nerd. Yeah. All right.
I don't think I need to out you as a massive nerd to the person that has a movie podcast. They know. They know.
Yes. I used to quite enjoy playing Warcraft.
You've played Warcraft? Yeah.
Which is good because I've never even seen it. I've never played it.
Okay.
Uh so I'll be relying on you for the how does this stack up to Warcraft situation.
Okay.
You know, interesting experiment.
Yeah.
Get to watch another Ben Foster movie.
Well, I'm I'm intrigued.
Yeah. We'll have fun regardless, I'm sure.
Yeah.

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Resident Evil (2002) - S12 E91

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Resident Evil (2002) - S12 E91