Loose Cannon - Halloween 2025 Week 4 - Resident Evil Movie Franchise Final Rankings - ThisWeekInGeek

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Yum yum. It's time for a tasty and refreshing snacks.
You know what I can do with that? I can

(00:22):
do without the people in the video store, which ones
all of them. They never rent quality flexed. They always
picked the most intellectually devoid movie on the racks.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
No on with the show.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
Ray's House.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
I worked for the Umbrella Corporation, the largest and most
powerful commercial entity in the world. Shut up, little good well.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
You Joe, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up,
shut up.

Speaker 4 (00:52):
Ray's House.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
I worked for the Umbrella Corporation.

Speaker 3 (00:55):
Let me tell you a little story aboutter menames even
before you start. That was a preemptive shit. Just know
I have a whole bag of shit with your name
on it.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
Hey, guys, what's going on? You are listening to this
week and geek dot Net and welcome out to Loose Cannon.
How addition, I'm your host, Mike the Bourban. But I'm
not alone. As I truck through the ruins of Raccoon City,
I'm joined by fellow stars. Department member from the Royal
City itself outam Ay Donaldson, And of course he doesn't

(01:28):
look as cool as Wesker, but from the great state
of Ohio.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
David Denier coming to you from Ohio, and of.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Course our bio organic weapons expert from the Garden.

Speaker 4 (01:40):
State of New Jersey, Ken from this anime.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
I was kind of running out of thinking, like how
much more residival bullshit can I throw onto this bile?
I tried so Anyway, guys, we have gone through seven
six for the most part, Resident Evil movies, and it
is now time rank them. This is very similar to
how we did our Halloween and the Scream rankings previously

(02:07):
we've done on this podcast, which again it's I think
is a pretty cool idea. I think maybe for next year.
Oh man, we have so many horror movie franchises that
go into like double digits at this point. We've got Chucky,
We've got We've got Phanfasm Friday the thirteenth, right now,
saw the puppet Master. If we really yeah, if we

(02:27):
really want to torture ourselves.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
I'm gonna opt out a puppet Master after Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
Yeah, see, I love see I love those movies. But
at the same time, yeah, declining returns as the series
goes on. But yeah, even the World War two ones,
I like.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
Time man, I like.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
The third one more than I realized, mostly because I
like six Gun, but at the same time, so yeah,
So we are here to talk about the entirety of
the resident Evil franchise with an honorable mention to Welcome
to Raccoon City. Do not expect it to show up
on many people's lists, but I typically trust Dave to
assemble these lists, mostly because I consider you to be

(03:15):
the most nuanced out of all of us aka OCD.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
I'm ninety sure that Ken and I both made a
letterbox list of rankings on this, I think.

Speaker 4 (03:23):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
Okay, so I I don't really have mine really assembled.
I'm gonna say it probably my number one is still
the first one. Number two. That's hard to say. I
don't know. Honestly, you guys really made a powerful case
for Extinction to be better than what it was, because

(03:45):
I remember seeing it and fucking hating it. But now
that I'm looking at it through older eyes, more nuanced
diys like you know what, it's not as bad as
I thought. So blasphemy. I'm gonna have to put Apocalypse
at number too, only because of all the game references,
and it feels like a cohesive bit of time has passed,

(04:05):
not story but time, but number three definitely sits at
my number three. Then everything else. It's like a Hodgepods,
depends on how I feel that day. I'd think my
lowest one would probably be Retribution, although that can swap
spots with final Chapter depending on how I feel after

(04:25):
life grew on me once I realized if I let
go of how ridiculous it is and realize it is,
action figures, I'm gonna have a better time. But I
could also slot and Welcome to Raccoon City at the
number four spot because it tries so hard, fails miserably,
but it tried, and you, my friend, get a gold

(04:46):
star for that. So I guess, Dave and Ken, and
I guess Adam, where do we sit on these movies
as a whole. I guess I'm gonna throw it to
Dave first.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
I think as a whole. If you asked me, you know,
about me, think about this probably about ten years ago,
maybe even should I'm trying to remember when I first
really got into these movies. It probably would have been
I would say ten to fifteen years ago. If you
would have asked me what I thought about these movies,
I would have said that they were awesome, that they
were great horror films, great action movies. And I'll be honest,

(05:22):
I think I said this on the very first episode.
I just had not revisited these in a while because
I just did not feel the desire to or the
need to, unfortunately, because A I was kind of worried
about what I was going back to, but B I
just knew that these movies were very of their time,
and I would say as a whole, looking at this series,

(05:43):
it's not a good Resident Evil series in regards of
connecting it to the game. This is a solid film
series for people that love popcorn movies and love very dumb,
outbreak zombie esque movies. Like I know, we made the
joke that these are better than like the freaking oh god, damn,

(06:03):
I'm blanking on. I'm blanking on what that fucking series was,
Dead Rising? The Dead Rising? Yeah, yeah, I always said
these are obviously better than Dead Rising. I think I
think it is easy to say if you look at
the Resident Evil films as a whole, and even and
even putting in Raccoon City with that, these are genuinely dumb,
not very well aged movies in the sense of their plot,

(06:26):
and probably never were when they came out, for that matter,
but they are absolutely of their time. They're still entertaining. Yes,
there are some bad apples in the bunch, I think
more so the back half of the series is way
more fun versus the front half. Yeah. I think we
can probably all agree that spot number six in this
ranking is the final chapter. I would hope I don't

(06:47):
agree with that.

Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yeah, there are parts of Final Chapters that I really
really like. I think because it took a weird risk
which I did not expect to like the final chapter
as much as I did, and that was a genuine
surprise to me.

Speaker 1 (07:02):
All Right, well here here's my here's my just back
I think, and me and day there we go. All right,
that's how this podcast is gonna come.

Speaker 2 (07:11):
All right, let's deal with you fuckers. I see how
it is. Go for it.

Speaker 4 (07:17):
Yeah, final final chapters dead.

Speaker 1 (07:22):
It bottom here. Yeah, like I say, I put it
dead at the bottom on my side because I think
final chapter was the one that genuinely made me happy
that we were done, that we were done with this
preparing for this podcast, because it was just like I
had so much fun with three, four, five, and then
we get the six had not seen six. It was
the only one of the series that I had not

(07:44):
seen and just everything that I'd heard about it was
absolutely true. Huh.

Speaker 5 (07:51):
I love the audaciousness though of just throwing out everything
a last chapter. It just like like I don't know
if it's a fuck you or if it it's like,
you know, we don't care because we know it's the
final one. I just love that. It like in an
era where you know, people go to Marvel movies and watch,
like watch it five times so they can scan every

(08:11):
corner of the screen to find every last Easter Egg
to know where it's going, where the series is going next.
Here we have a series that says to why why bother?

Speaker 2 (08:22):
Just you know, sit back.

Speaker 1 (08:24):
I mean does take balls. It does take balls to
set up the ending of five and then be like, well,
anyway that happened and it was a huge trap, but
you don't get to see any of that.

Speaker 5 (08:35):
So yeah, yeah, we're having a flast no fun for
Alice is the only one left alive. Like I kind
of love that. I It's it had, It's it's like
not particularly smooth, it's not particularly like artistic, just like
they're just like I've been trying to build up to
a thing for five movies, and I decided I'm just

(08:56):
gonna throw that away and do this like won Er.
And that's the final after I answering a ton of
questions you never asked because I never laid out the
bread cross.

Speaker 1 (09:06):
Okay, well, then then I have to ask what is
number six? If it's not final chapter? Both you and Mike,
what is number six? Then for me?

Speaker 2 (09:14):
It's Apocalypse for me a retribution only because I think
it disrespects a lot of the characters. Like I said,
I can appreciate that Ada sounds like Ada, Leon looks
like Leon, Barry more or less looks like Barry, but
they don't behave like they should. And there's such iconic

(09:35):
characters of the franchise, whereas Claire gets something to actually do,
Leon's there to like Hi, I'm Leon, and it just
it sucks and afterlife like but Apocalypse, I can see
Adam's point because that's the one that seems the least
consequential in the greend.

Speaker 1 (09:55):
Apocalypse is number five for me, I will say that.
So I do I do side with Adam on this
because I I think the problem with Apocalypse is that
while it did up the stakes of the first movie
and kind of give people what they wanted. It is
such a Studio Notes movie. It's just a hey, here's
here's what we thought.

Speaker 5 (10:14):
We noticed that.

Speaker 1 (10:14):
It's like forty minutes and an analysis and in what
if it thirty minutes she rides in and smashes through
a church window on a motorcycle. Didn't that sound cool?
What's I gonna do the story? Doesn't that sound cool?
Here's some money, go shoot it? Like it's so that
movie feels so much just like Studio Notes.

Speaker 2 (10:31):
Yeah, I can't disagree with that.

Speaker 4 (10:34):
I I don't know. For me, I would rather watch
Apocalypse because at least it feels more Resident Evil as
opposed to the first Resident Evil, where it's like, yeah,
we're just doing in name only shit do wonder?

Speaker 5 (10:52):
Because again, I have no truck with the video games.
I don't bring anything with the video games into this.
And if you're if that, if that's like what you're
getting out, it's like it's kind of like this is
the one that feels to most like the video games
and not like the the garbage that we get in
this film series. Maybe that's I don't like it. I mean,
it's it's very possible.

Speaker 4 (11:13):
Yeah, it's it's still at the bottom of it. It's
still near the bottom. It's it's my number four because
it I don't know. It's just like the first one
has moments where I'm like, Okay, that's a pretty cool sequence.
But it's in name only Resident and Evil.

Speaker 2 (11:34):
Kind of stuff. Resident Evil one shares a lot of
DNA with the games. I would even argue it feels
like later editions like Resident Evil seven in Village where
you're going through spooky things. Residevil one, it doesn't need
the tyrant, it doesn't need the liquors. You have the zombies,

(11:54):
you have the Ta virus, and you have just enough
set dressing to say this is happening in the Resident
Evil universe. So Resnevel one feels like a good prequel,
whereas Resident Evil Apocalypse should have been the proper start
to the series because it's the fall of Raccoon City,
the Nemesis Project is there, he's hunting stars, there's all
the ingredients are there. The problem is they're not in

(12:15):
the proper measurements. Like I said, Adam has no skin
in the game, whereas Resident Evil two has Leon Claire,
Ada and Jill Valentine, whereas we get Alice who whatever,
we do get Jill, which is again you get characters
who look like the Stars members like Crisp, but are
not And there's just like I said, the toys are

(12:39):
on the table, but they're not used properly. And that's
my biggest problem with Apocalypse is all right, cool, she's
like Trinity from the Matrix. That's awesome, but what awesome? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (12:53):
So where did you? Where'd you put Resident Evil?

Speaker 4 (12:56):
Then?

Speaker 1 (12:56):
Because I put it at four on my.

Speaker 2 (12:57):
List, Resident Evil is number one for me because it
has all the right ingredients for me to feel like
it fits in this universe. Now I am fully willing
to own. That could be nostalgia goggle speaking. But going
back and rewatching this because I did watch it three
times in preparation for this podcast, and I was like,

(13:18):
what about the first one? Do I like for me?
Atmosphere design? And it has just enough Easter eggs in
there for dorks that it feels good for me. The
thing that really sells that one for me, it's obviously
not the horrible CG Liquor, but it's the last couple

(13:39):
minutes where Matt gets taken away and the doctor's like,
I want him in the Nemesis program. Cool. I dig that.
And then when she's wandering out onto the streets and
you see the reference the Day of the Dead, the
Dead walk and she goes out and finds the RPD shotgun.
You can see the Stars logo and the RPD logo

(14:00):
one of the cabs and the and the shot pulls
out to the destruction of Raccoon City. I'm like, all right,
that's a great setup for number two, don't fuck it up,
which they did. But number but Resident Evil one fills
that need form like, okay for a residue, a movie
of its time. Okay, sure I was number two for.

Speaker 1 (14:23):
Me one I feel like it's the one I'll go
back to. Not the least I would say. But the
reason I kept it out of my top three was
it just it isn't one that I'll go back to,
Like on a whim I would be. I would not
It would not be a choice that I would pull
out of the collection to be like, oh what I
want to watch like on a Saturday morning, Like, it
wouldn't be that go to. It wouldn't be that startup
for me because it's just like I don't know, like
maybe it's because I got to it late, but I

(14:47):
think overall the movie lacks a lot of action and
is very much a kind of a mystery thriller more
than anything. I mean, when the action is there, it
is there, absolutely, but it feels like it's not that
in a point that like that movie is interesting for me.
Like I will say, I do really really enjoy the
scene where dude is gonna blow his head off and

(15:08):
here's the gun go off and she thinks that it's done,
and then here's the gun and go off again. I
do love that kind of like emotional attach to the
head of the characters. But overall, I do think there's
also a lot of characters in that first movie, in
that second movie that are kind of just chuffa, yeah.

Speaker 5 (15:23):
It's number It's number two for me because it's like
it's like the two thousand and two scrap book where
you're flipping through it and you see every like you
just remember everything you know down to like Marco Beltrami
and Marilyn Manson doing the soundtrack, that that's nothing more
that there's nothing more early two thousands than those two guys.

Speaker 1 (15:39):
To guess soundtrack for all horrors absolutely, Time Capsule was
definitely there for it, absolutely.

Speaker 5 (15:45):
And I do you like. One of the things I
like is going back and watching older movies that are
based on video games is how they try to incorporate
like video game mess into it. And that's one of
the things that amuses me a twenty semi years later
about Restdent and Evil One is how it's like, let's
go to them, but see where we are in relation

(16:06):
to the whole complex. Yeah, it just it just tickles me.

Speaker 4 (16:10):
M hm. I And again it's like the for me,
Extinction is number one, just too because it Extinction feels
like an actual movie was attempted to be made, yes,
and succeeded at doing that.

Speaker 1 (16:31):
Yes.

Speaker 4 (16:33):
The other ones, I'm like, these are these are running
on the cusp of not being actual movies and just
being action throwing shit at the wall kind of stuff.

Speaker 1 (16:51):
Well, I feel like Extinction also has a piece of
really docking in on the survival horror to an aspect
that they hadn't done in the movies yet, and that
felt a lot more.

Speaker 4 (17:01):
Like it has something to it has something to show
and say, as opposed to the other ones where it's.

Speaker 2 (17:10):
Just show.

Speaker 1 (17:13):
It's I mean, if Russell McKay he knew what he
was doing with three. Three is actually number two on
my list. I think Extinction is Extinction is probably the
one that I really took note of, and I think
that might have been that was around the time that
my uncle sent me all of them. Was Extinction or Afterlife.
I think it was Extinction though, and I just remember

(17:35):
pushing play on it, having watched probably one and two,
like in order right before it, probably like watched them
all in a single line, and I remember Extinction just
kind of grabbing me, and it was it was almost
like whatever the origin or the lore of the previous
movies was didn't matter, and that made me even more anxious,
like to latch onto these characters.

Speaker 4 (17:56):
Since yeah, I and again with After Life, I'm like, okay,
this movie. These movies have basically beat me into submission,
and I'm enjoying it in a bad movie sense, and
then retributions like okay, this is I don't like it

(18:17):
as much as After Life. I think After Life has
a lot more fun action sequences, and some of the
cast is genuinely entertaining, and I genuinely liked a lot
of the cast but Retribution is the same stupid fun
that Afterlife is, but without the cast that I'm genuinely

(18:42):
interested in.

Speaker 1 (18:44):
I put Retribution in my third Yeah.

Speaker 4 (18:49):
And then and then obviously you take those two films
back to back and you go like, Okay, these are
two fun films in a bad movie fun film kind
of sense. Apocalypse and the first one are just bad movies.

Speaker 1 (19:09):
See, I put Apocalypse. Apocalypse is my number one. I'm
just gonna go ahead, and or I'm just gonna earn Apocalypse.
After Life. After Life's my number one. Yeah, after like Apocalypse,
they go go ahead.

Speaker 4 (19:21):
Like After Life is genuinely fun to watch. I would
like what I would watch my top three over again easily,
Like if it's on, I'll watch it.

Speaker 5 (19:39):
Kind of thing.

Speaker 2 (19:40):
After Life is the one I think I need to
give more of a chance to because it's the one
i've definitely I've only seen that maybe three times now
grand total. And again trying to separate myself from more
knowledge that I know and disc can as to what

(20:01):
is this as a piece of fun popcorn. I'm trying
really hard to divorce myself from that, and I find
extremely hard when again, I have such a connection to
the property, but there are some genuinely fun moments. Plus
I do get Chris Redfield, who's like one of the
main protagonists of the game. Wentworth Miller does a really

(20:22):
fantastic job with him despite him doing the cool guy
voice for the entire movie because reasons. But again, and
one thing I will say about the Residentuel movies, which
I did not expect to come out of it, is
like I said, I've never been the biggest fan of
Ali Larder, mostly because I didn't much care for her
on Heroes, But the more I watch her in the

(20:44):
Residentievil movies, I like her more as time goes on.
Not because I think she's cute or anything like that,
is there's just something about her. I think she really
gets some of the Claire isms down, Like I feel
like I'm being the Alison Court who's the voice actress
for the majority of Claire's career in games. I'm seeing

(21:07):
some of that come through in her, and I think
that's why I connect some mont with some of the
back half of these movies. But I will say, you
guys have really sold me on four five six. As
this conversation has continued, and that was very unexpected.

Speaker 1 (21:27):
I think four is like so like my my ranking
for those for those are one, two, and three of
after Life, extinction and Retribution. Like I said, I think
I enjoyed the back of this way more so, or
I guess the midpoint. I mean you could say, but
I think four, especially for me, worked because it was

(21:48):
giving that whole sensation of, hey, you're here for Resident
Evil movie. We got some monsters, we got some guns,
and also we're trying to like, you know, solve this
mystery of where this like this like Shelters Spot went,
like where this ship has gone? And I just kind
of loved that whole adventure side of it. It's just like, well, shit, yeah,
let's find Arcadia. I'm in for this, let's go. Like

(22:08):
it just gave me that whole, you know, motion to
get in sync with the story and also kind of
pick back up on what had been situated from the
previous film. But I think also the problem I have
with this as a series as a whole, and getting
into why I like the end of it more than
the first. I think the story is shit. I think

(22:29):
the story is all over the place in these movies,
and I don't think really it is I don't think
it's focused very much on it, And that's why I
think I lean more into the aspect of the simplistic
story sides of you know, the first of the of hey,
you know, let's go find Arcadia. Second one is, hey,
we're in kind of like a time loop and seeing

(22:50):
how things went and whatnot. You know. I just I
feel like those movies especially just kind of got me
to a point that it was just like I didn't
care so much about what the movie had been trying
to set up before, and it should be a sign
that you have a lot going on. Like I said
in the previous episode two, when Alice starts the movies
as being like, Hi, my name is Alice previously on
Resident Evil, Like, it's just that's that's kind of a

(23:13):
dead giveaway that maybe you have a lot in the
movies and you're kind of worried that the audience isn't
encapsulating all of that knowledge.

Speaker 4 (23:21):
Especially well, I understand doing it in Final Chapter simply
because of how much time it passed between distribution in
Final Chapter, and to be fair, they did they did
an extensive one for Final Chapter. Obviously.

Speaker 5 (23:40):
Veers, Yeah, No, I like, I like Resident Evil when
it gets ambitious. So you know, I ranked Retribution higher
than After Life. Like After Life in many respects, to me,
feels like kind of a retread of Extinction where it's
like Alice on her own trying to find other peeps

(24:03):
and Claire. They go and they go to the prison,
they find a bunch of new survivors and they're often
find Arcadie. You know, it's something kind of repetitive about it. Meanwhile,
you get to Retribution and it's like, I'm not saying
it's successful necessarily, but it's like ideas of like multiple
alices and the testing grounds and having all the old

(24:28):
characters come back in new variations, and you know, it's again,
it's not successful. It's not necessarily like well thought through,
it's not academic. But it's like one of those times
it's like ws Anderson has some thoughts. He has some
like real like can I use this to do things

(24:50):
other than as Mike said, like the action figure stuff.

Speaker 2 (24:54):
Yeah, and it just like he's.

Speaker 5 (24:57):
Trying like an extinction I mean, is Russell'm like kay,
But it's like what if we do like a straight
up survival story and like just open up and the
earth is like dead. Forget like we're not going from
a step A to B to see we're going from
step A to b K and we're just like just

(25:17):
roll with it. We're gonna just the earth is dead,
everything's dead. There's some few people alive. Allison is out there,
you getting around, and so are these other people one
of one or two of whom you've met before. It's
just just go with it. Resident Evil and there's this
certain like this, which is why is my number two?

(25:38):
But then you know retribution because it's got a little
bit more. I mentioned final Chapter because it's a little ballsy,
little cocky just throwing the baby out with the bath
water and doing what it wants. It's like the kind
of like more. I guess the less innovative these get,
the more they go down my list.

Speaker 2 (25:58):
I could be very like her to know what Capcom
executives were saying when these movies were being shot and
as the dailies came in.

Speaker 4 (26:10):
I honestly think it was more how much money did
this make? Okay?

Speaker 2 (26:16):
Yeah, and like it's so weird because Capcom has always
been weird with their properties. But Resident Evil, they're like, okay,
just make us money. Do what you want. Yet every
time they make a Street Fighter, it shit or it
gets beloved long after it's come out of theaters and
it's like a cult classic.

Speaker 4 (26:37):
Though. I will say with like seven, you can sort
of see the the influences that the movie series had.
With like seven and eight, mm hmm, you definitely feel
like the movies kind of influenced at least the devs
that worked on those two games, and who knows, nine

(26:59):
Probables has a similar kind of vibe to it.

Speaker 5 (27:03):
I wonder if anyone at Capcunt even really cared at all,
because like these games are best sellers. Video games as
an industry makes, you know, it's ponentially more money than
my movie industry.

Speaker 4 (27:16):
I also think that as from a Japanese perspective, Japanese audience,
they're dumb popcorn flicks.

Speaker 2 (27:23):
Well, it's weird how there was never any crossover between
the movies and the games. What I mean by it
is like when these movies came out, Like Extinction was
what two thousand and seven, right, m hm, So we
had Resident Evil six was out around that time. Resident
Evil five was no way, Yeah, five and six were

(27:46):
around when these movies came out, So you could have
easily dropped in DLC, for like, here's Alice's shotgun, or
for Cheva, who was the companion character to Chris and
number five, here's Alice's red dress or her cat suit
from extinction or whatever.

Speaker 1 (28:03):
Like.

Speaker 2 (28:03):
There were options, and I'm very surprised there was.

Speaker 4 (28:06):
At the time, DLC wasn't a big thing.

Speaker 2 (28:09):
Though I would argue that mostly because that's when a
lot of people were talking about micro transactions being big now.
Promotional tie in DLC during this time was significant, but
it was always tied to retailers, like you can get
the portal gun from Mass Effect, but only if you
pre ordered from GameStop, that sort of thing. So again,

(28:31):
I found it very weird how we didn't get some
sort of cross promotion with the games. But to speak
to like Adam's point, did they even care, Like, I
don't know, it's kind of strange, cause, like I said,
Capcom they've got such a they have such a wide
catalog of properties, and for certain ones, like with Resident Evil,

(28:53):
clearly they gave them enough of they gave them enough
shit to say, hey, make us money. Yet me Ken
and uh Dave watched the Dead Rising movies, which are
fucking terrible. But the story's really fun and interesting, and
there's a lot of room for satire and you know
commentary there. And those movies are fucking atrocious. I mean

(29:16):
getting not Will Arnett, who's the guy they had play
Frank West. He's sort of like the discount Will Arnett
helped me out here.

Speaker 1 (29:25):
Oh god, I can't think.

Speaker 2 (29:27):
I can see Rob Wriggle or some shit like that.

Speaker 5 (29:30):
Rob Wriggle, Right, yeah, mcounts well.

Speaker 1 (29:37):
So I mean so I've got to ask, I mean,
so who who did anybody else revisit Raccoon City? Because
I was going to but the house fresh in my brain.

Speaker 2 (29:46):
So the thing about Welcome to Raccoon City is it
is baked in so many Easter eggs. The director, I
think he did like forty seven meters down and forty
seven meters down on CA So he didn't. So he's
so he's the shark guy. But that being said, I
could really tell he wanted to have fun. He understood

(30:08):
the assignment, but I don't think he knew the tools
that he had. What I mean by that is you
look at how the characters are portrayed. Leon is supposed
like in the in the Games again. He's it's his
first day. Is he's supposed to suck, but in this
one he's virtually incompetent until he shows up with a

(30:29):
rocket launcher in the last two minutes. Okay, fine, sure,
Claire not bad on the nose. Even having one of
the a mel play Redfield not bad. We're casting for
Wesker and he doesn't really feel like the Wesker we
know and love, So okay, fine, sure, I'm willing to

(30:49):
let that go. Having one of the guys from Letter
Kenny as Brad Vickers was a bit of a choice. Okay, sure.

Speaker 1 (30:57):
The movie just was overall fun, but it tried to
do too much in its.

Speaker 2 (31:00):
Run, yes, exactly, trying to cram the story of residente
Evil one and Resident Evil two, and then it's layering
in stuff from the Resident Evil remake, which with like
Lisa Trevor, it's trying to there's bits and pieces of
even Resident Evil zero in there. Like if you're gonna
do the homework, that's fine, but don't try to cram

(31:22):
twenty hours of game into ninety nine.

Speaker 1 (31:25):
Nemesis rips the roof off the train. Is that what
I'm remembering correctly?

Speaker 2 (31:29):
I think that's one of the leech guys from number.

Speaker 1 (31:32):
I just remember there was a reveal of a like
a Resident Evil three creature inside of that movie, and
I was like, damn, they're trying to cram as many
in here as they can and like still make this
like feasible because I remember I remember it being a
fun movie. But I do also remember being like, Okay,
I've seen that and like haven't had a desire to
go back to it, but I would be curious now,
having watched all of these, to revisit it. I just

(31:54):
remember it being again another fun movie with some decent scares,
and it was fine. It wasn't They didn't like, you know,
reinvent the wheel. It didn't save the Resident Evil name
for movies. But it was fine. It just also felt
like again it was just like do they know what
to do with this franchise when it comes to films?

Speaker 2 (32:10):
Well, it's weird because they tried to do something a
little bit different. So they talk about how when Rack
when Umbrella left town, the town was in ruins, and
you see people are slowly getting this like shadow over
in Simmouth look to them, how like their hair's falling

(32:30):
out they're slightly deformed. One of the people right's itchy tasty,
which is a reference to the first game. And I'm like, okay,
that's interesting. So and from what I understand, the budget
for this movie got reduced drastically. Yeah, so the director
had the pivot really quickly.

Speaker 4 (32:49):
But again it was also during the pandemic too, which yeah,
probably is why their budget got cut.

Speaker 2 (32:55):
So yeah likely Yeah, Like did it go to streaming, No,
it went to theater.

Speaker 5 (33:04):
Thanksgiving weekend and American Thanksgiving yea, yeah, because I remembering
in theaters.

Speaker 1 (33:09):
I just couldn't remember if this is one that got
released to streaming in the US or not.

Speaker 4 (33:14):
They sent that thing out to die basically.

Speaker 5 (33:16):
Yeah, but like opened against House of Gucci and Incanto.

Speaker 1 (33:21):
Yeah, which I I'm gonna I'm just gonna say House
of Gucci should have been called Gucci Fellas and I
will take my time back, senator.

Speaker 2 (33:28):
Yeah, Like I don't know, Like I I found the
benefit of time has been a little bit more kind
to welcome to Raccoon City. But to Dave to speak
to you, you're not wrong. Like it's like Hollywood doesn't
know what to do with this ip as a whole
I watched a review, very very in depth of the

(33:50):
Resident Evil Netflix series, and I do not know what
the fuck they're doing with that. They turned Lance redikon
the fucking Blade for some reason when he dresses up
his Wesker and it just it doesn't look right. And again,
I'm okay if you want to race swap, gender swap
people as long as it's cool, and I know that's
supposed to be who it is.

Speaker 5 (34:13):
But Blade, now that we're talking about it, yeah, I
know he's passed away.

Speaker 2 (34:17):
But you know, still even if he was the voice,
that would have been sick. But yeah, it's but it's like,
I don't know how you adapt this property unless you
either a do it as long form television and give
the time the series to breathe. Don't cram your social
commentary into it unless you know precisely what you want

(34:39):
to say, or honestly, and this is gonna sound fucked
up because we've spent literally three shows bitching about this.
When you take the game lore away and just drop
in zombies, t virus, monsters, go to town, it works
because we saw how successful these movies were When you

(34:59):
adapt to the lore, look what happens to Welcome to
Raccoon City. It doesn't work. Even the animated stuff has
been hit or missed, but only super fans are gonna
seek that out. You're not going to get butts in
the seats having a fully well adapted Resident Evil animated

(35:20):
movie that follows the games one for one or whatever,
even if you put like a major Hollywood cast behind
it as the voices, it's just not gonna happen. Mario
is one of those rare examples where it worked. But
it's Mario. It's it's the IP that automatically sells itself.
Resident Evil. I wouldn't exactly go so far as to
call it niche, but you know your audience.

Speaker 1 (35:42):
Well, and I will say those animated movies are pretty decent.
There's the Damnation Regeneration and is there another one?

Speaker 2 (35:50):
There's like a I think there's like five or seconds.

Speaker 1 (35:52):
I think, yeah, there's oh damn, okay, so this one
got But the few that I've seen those are really
fucking good. So if anybody is listening to this and
has not seen the animated films, they're fantastic. I mean,
and they're all pretty quick for the most part. I
think they're all like under ninety minutes, I'm not mistaken.

Speaker 2 (36:06):
Yeah, Like they sort of feel like the DC Animated
Book of doing movies. If they're short less than ninety minutes,
you can do really awesome adaptations of complicated material because
you're not held back by budget. You can change the
story just enough that it's recognizable. Like I think they

(36:28):
even did their own version of Code Veronica in the
animated series. Whereas Code Veronica to do that, they took
elements of that into these movies and it never quite
worked right, Like they took the Ashford name and like,
unless you played Code Veronica, that means fuck all to you.
So it's like okay, So I guess one of the

(36:51):
questions is like, when you look at this franchise as
a whole, how do you make it work or cant
is it possible to make this a major, long running
film franchise that either a gets better with each successive
entry or becomes another dumb popcorn thing. How do you
stop it from becoming Fast and the Furious again? If

(37:13):
they rebooth, I think, I.

Speaker 1 (37:17):
Mean, I think you. I think you just have to
make it a long term series. I don't know if
you can do movies at this point, I think this
might be better as a long term series, not the
Netflix one that completely crashed and burned obviously, but I
don't know, Like I just don't know if the film,
if the film side of this can actually come out anymore,
because I feel like the only thing that's left now

(37:37):
is for them to go in ahead and do like
a really dark version of it.

Speaker 4 (37:42):
And which I don't think anybody is probably going to
do well.

Speaker 1 (37:47):
And I would love that. I would love that. I
would love to see that that. I would love to
see that. That's what that is. But I mean, with
his style of humor, though I worry, I I love creature,
I love creature.

Speaker 4 (37:57):
There is there is a bit of worry that can
happen with that where it's like I think one of
one of my favorite streamers that they equate Resident Evil
to a B movie homage, Like the franchise as a
whole is just one giant B movie homage. I could

(38:17):
see that, And and these movies, yeah, they're they're very
B movie esque. Give or take some of her some
of her hit are like hit or miss, but that
B movie at element of it is there, at least

(38:40):
with this Alice.

Speaker 5 (38:41):
Saga wonder how much the Resident Evil movies color the brand,
at least in terms of like the normies.

Speaker 2 (38:52):
You know, if you're going to like.

Speaker 5 (38:53):
Welcome to Raccoon City and you're very into the video games,
I understand why you're like excited, because it's like taking
the lore seriously in terms of, like, I don't know
what Zach Kraiger has in mind. I've seen interviews with
him where he's the interview.

Speaker 4 (39:10):
Where was they were going to start filming early next year, so.

Speaker 5 (39:13):
The interviewer here was like, you know, you're doing an
ip thing now, so sorry. He's like, no, I'm like
genuinely excited about it. So perhaps he has some real
investment in that lore. He's going to do something that's
both cinematic and reverential to the video game itself. I
think number one, I think it's a struggle to do
anything fresh and new as Zombies period. Number two is

(39:37):
I think go big dark, oh horror, go gore, scale
back on the action, like went to the Survivalist stuff,
make it dark. I mean, we're living in like ideal
times like it, you know, just looking at the environment
where massive corporations are doing anything and everything to hold

(40:02):
on to whatever power they have. Is it really so
far fetched? Or be an evil corporation with an evil
virus that turns people into monsters and they just don't
care not a sink, But.

Speaker 1 (40:11):
Because I mean that, I think that's already kind of
happening sadly, right.

Speaker 4 (40:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (40:15):
So if there's like a story about like how government
and the Umbrella Corporation are like conspiring to.

Speaker 2 (40:22):
Use a bioweapon that makes.

Speaker 5 (40:23):
People into monsters and zombies, and some cops stumble onto
it and it's like a it's like a like an
al and J pecula conspiracy thing, but with like monsters
in it. I think that could work very well. But
I think it has to be low key. It has
to be has to lean into the horror and not
so much.

Speaker 2 (40:39):
Into the action. Yeah, Like, I think you're right, because, like,
if you can really make it survival horror, I think
you'd do something good. Like if I could have Resident
Evil feel a little bit like a quiet place, I'd
be kind of into that because one of my biggest
problems the Resident Evil movies as an action franchise is

(41:03):
in the games you really have to think about ammo.
I'm not saying you can't kill everything because you realistically can,
but you better not miss a shot in these movies.
I s I was just using fucking quarters in a shotgun.
It's like that's so yeah, it's badass, and it's cool badass,

(41:24):
Like no, God, you bother me, lady. But it's like that,
and that sucks because like I love action, I love
these over the top things like hell, fucking Ken's Ben
friends with me for years. You know I missed a
fucking diehard. I love ridiculous action movies. But at the
same time, I want you to go around the corner
and I want it to feel like the last of us.

(41:45):
You're like, shit, I've got three shots in my six
shot revolver and there are twelve guys ahead of me.

Speaker 4 (41:52):
You want the Survival Horror to be adapted into a
feature film.

Speaker 2 (41:57):
Yeah, Like I want tension. I want steaks, not backflipping
off of motorcycles into the church and look cool. You
know what I mean? Like that bothers me because I
think part of what killed the franchise for me initially
is it wasn't Resident Evil anymore. It was it wasn't
I'm gonna give you an example, and this will mostly

(42:19):
makes sense. For those of you that have played the games,
when the first game boots up Resident Evil and it
gives you this really intense, over the top but still
this it sells scary, it sells dread. Whereas you get
to the Resident Evil movies, it's presided sheetful and it's
fucking nineties and two thousands of shit. The only thing

(42:42):
it needs is to be All it needs is to
be double fisting monster energy drinks on the back of
a motorcycle during the X Games with Tony Hawk playing
in the background. That's all it fucking needs. And that's
not Resident Evil to me. That is something that has
zombies in it and shares a couple of familiar names

(43:03):
you know now that.

Speaker 4 (43:04):
We're talking about, like it's what Dead risen.

Speaker 2 (43:08):
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 (43:09):
I thought I thought Dead Rising would go way harder,
Like I I think, honestly, one of my questions with
the whole thing is would Resident Evil name matter to
this after the third one?

Speaker 2 (43:21):
No, honestly, they if they stopped it at Evil Extinction
and then I don't know, Like, honestly, if you just
kept the character, like you could change the names and
Resident Evil or five six would mean nothing, Like they'd
be their own separate zombie trilogy.

Speaker 1 (43:39):
They just flipped it and just called it Evil Resident.
I would, I'd be all in for it. I'd be like,
you know what, it's fine, that's great, that's creative. It's
not the same thing. That's clearly using the same character
as Evil Resident. That's cute. I'm in.

Speaker 5 (43:51):
They just hid the earnest thing, like Alice goes to
Arcadia or Alice.

Speaker 1 (44:00):
From the files of Resident and Evil.

Speaker 2 (44:02):
That's right, Like, and there is something to be said
that because like the thing is because eventually it stopped
becoming the character. It stopped becoming Chris's story, Claire's Leon's,
AIDA's barries what. It stopped becoming named characters, and it
became the Alice Show featuring Resident Evil, which again I'm

(44:25):
fine with, But stop running in the characters from the games.
Like when we go to Retribution and she runs into Eta,
There's no reason for that. There is no reason for
Wesker to want to rescue you.

Speaker 1 (44:40):
Like I keep saying it, studio notes. This is studio notes.
This is then being like, hey, we want these characters
in the game from the game in the movie, can
you please make that happen? Or actually there probably was no,
please make it happen. It was a hey make this happen.
So yeah, that's I know. I keep fine, I keep
repeating that, but like there's so much sense of studio

(45:01):
notes throughout this entire franchise, and that's I think that's
why I just lean into the hey let's have something.

Speaker 4 (45:10):
You've seen anything of Sony's output in the last like
decade and a half. That's pretty much the summation of
Sony as a studio in general is studio notes the movie.

Speaker 1 (45:23):
I mean, keep in mind, somebody made the smart decision
to be like, hey, this K Pop Demon Hunter movie,
we don't know what to do with it. Hey, Netflix,
you want this piece of shit? Ain't gonna do anything?

Speaker 2 (45:34):
Yeah, that's yeah.

Speaker 5 (45:36):
I'd love to get the Sony email weeks over that one.

Speaker 1 (45:41):
I'm I have to believe that exec is no longer
with the company. I have to believe that you you
let that movie go, you're no longer with the company.
There's no fucking way.

Speaker 5 (45:54):
But I mean it's the William Goldman thing. Like nobody
in Hollywood knows anything, Like who would have guessed Dens
would be that big and like across streaming across the
box office, across like like Spotify, merchandise merch.

Speaker 1 (46:10):
As of us recording this episode. I just watched it
over the weekend for the first time, and I'm in
I understand now, so like, no, I feel it, like
I just yeah, if I think it, I think it's
a lot of fun. And if anybody hasn't seen it
yet and it's been on the fence, you're listening to
this right now, give it a whirl. It's actually a
pretty good time, no matter if you're a tween girl

(46:31):
or whatever.

Speaker 4 (46:32):
Now will in love with that? You will fall in
love with that dirty ass tiger.

Speaker 1 (46:40):
Now, that's that's the I want so bad.

Speaker 2 (46:43):
Yeah. Now here's a question for the group before we
start to close things out here, because I know all
of you have seen stuff I never have. It's just
this is the reality that I live in. You guys
know more than me. So is there anything that's imparable
that might be a fun time for people to check out?

(47:04):
If you like Resident Evil, maybe you'll like this.

Speaker 1 (47:08):
So I don't want to say it's comparable because this
is something that a is not very easy to track down,
but it is a film. It is on record as
being inspiration for Resident Evil games, and that is Sweet
Home from nineteen eighty nine, And I just watched that
recently Japanese horror film, and it was really really just

(47:28):
like a solid haunted house romp because it kind of
goes for that whole thing of the creepy mansion. Shit
has happened in it, and now these reporters are going
inside of it. So that was served as inspiration for
the Resident Evil movies. I just watched it recently. Like
I said, it's not super easy to track down, but
it is out there. Sweet Home from nineteen eighty nine
is a really fun and like how Sue kind of

(47:50):
esque time. It's got that really balls to the wall
feeling of it. Once it gets going. It's a little
slow in the beginning, but once it takes off, man,
it takes off.

Speaker 4 (48:02):
I would say probably the later Saw films once you yeah,
once you get to some of the some of the
more later ones like uh six or seven, seven probably
the most because seven is just balls of the wall.

(48:25):
We're just throwing, we're just doing whatever. And to me,
to me, the Saw franchise actually works as a franchise
because it doesn't take it. It's whole premise is the
final act. We have one wacky ass trip twist. Don't

(48:47):
think about it because if you think about it, it
makes zero fucking sense why you would why the killer
would do what he does.

Speaker 5 (49:00):
That's a good compass the Saw movies because those are
like also like very lowre heavy. Then once you kind
of start on winding the lore, it doesn't because they
keep adding.

Speaker 4 (49:12):
As soon as you hit after the third one, it's
just we're just having fun now. We don't give a shit.

Speaker 5 (49:19):
I'm an apologist for the Saw movies, like even Sir
Chris rock one mm hmm.

Speaker 1 (49:25):
That's the only one I really am not a fan of.
I like most of the spiral is.

Speaker 4 (49:30):
Just tough spiral. I have not suffered through same here.

Speaker 1 (49:34):
I have yet I kind of kind of it's not
even I'll be honest, it's not even suffering. It's it's
just it's you can predict it a mile away. It
is very paint by numbers Saw film, and like I said,
it is, it's very predictable, and it is in the
universe as much as it can be to be included.

Speaker 2 (49:53):
It's incredibly like, yes.

Speaker 5 (49:55):
I love watching It's like every Saw movie it's shot
in Toronto. It features largely Toronto based cast, but they've
plugged in Chris Rock, Samuel Jackson, Marison Nichols, and I
can't remember the the the guy that Max Something Max
Max Mangala just like like recognizable Hollywood actors. It's like

(50:21):
three of the six main cast members of Lost Girl
shot in Toronto.

Speaker 2 (50:26):
And it's a Saw.

Speaker 5 (50:27):
Movie, Jason, But yeah, it's it's wild. This is the
obvious comparison to the the the resideval moves, but like
the Underworld movies because they're all gass woman in leather,
lowre heavy sequels tend not to care what the predecessors

(50:50):
were doing or setting up movies five, Yes, it is
five movies, that's true.

Speaker 2 (50:56):
Yeah, no, for sure.

Speaker 5 (50:59):
But I find the very enjoyable in a similar way.
It's just it's just like good like they're just good
hangover movies. You just plug them in and let them rip.
And I think it's interesting that you had these two
I don't know if they were talking to each other,
but they were definitely kind of yelling over each other.

Speaker 2 (51:20):
Yeah, they were at the same time. They were definitely
at the competing ends of the X Games arena.

Speaker 1 (51:28):
Of the two thousands, So I'm gonna I'm just gonna
throw this in here because I absolutely can. It feels perfect.
The filmography of Steven Summers, that would be the films
such as Deep Rising, The Mummy, The Mummy Returns, Van
Helsing and g I, Joe Rizacobra, along with Odd Thomas.

(51:48):
I think Stephen Summers had his finger on the pulse
for that shit.

Speaker 5 (51:52):
Deep Rising is genuinely good.

Speaker 2 (51:55):
It is.

Speaker 1 (51:55):
I love Deep Rising so much, and I love The Mummy.
I have. The Mummy is one of my watch films
according to the Letterbox, which does not surprise me.

Speaker 2 (52:03):
Yeah, honestly, that's the type of action adventure I really
hope we get more of at some point, because there's
something about like it's a very particular vibe and it
was just a good feel. I'd say for myself, I
don't have a series, but I might be able to
recommend a Return of the Living Dead one and two

(52:26):
because they're good zombie movies. They intersperse humor, and they're
not overwhelmingly well armed. The zombies are a superior threat
to them, but one of them takes like they're both
very goofy movies, but they're very fun and that's kind

(52:47):
of what I dig I mean in terms of zombies.
I mean, there's another one where it features a swat
team and I think it's called City of the Living
Dead or Hell of the Living Dead. It's one or
the other. And they go to like Brazil or some
South American there's like a chemical leak and that's what
creates I think it was one of Bruce Campbell's first movies. Dave,
you might know what I'm talking about.

Speaker 1 (53:08):
I'm blanket on that one, but I gotta save you
some hate mail, Bud, and you gotta throw a Return
of Living Dead three in there, because that is a
very love love movie. Yeah, very well loved movie and
a very well deserved loved movie. And it's a little
bit more serious than the other two. But Return Leaving
Dead three is good. I've seen all five of the
Return of Living Dead movies and I don't recommend that,

(53:29):
so I would say just stop at three.

Speaker 2 (53:31):
Yeah, honestly, three is one of my favorite sequels of
all time. I can't remember was it on this podcast
that I had a very deep discussion about this.

Speaker 1 (53:42):
It's possible it was you and me talking early on.
I can't I can't remember that that does sound familiar,
but I do not recall personally.

Speaker 2 (53:49):
Yeah, like honestly, guys, seriously, the first three Return of
the Living Dead movies are amazing. Melinda Clark in Return
of Living Dead three, Unexpect Dead Lead Deep and the
ending of that movie is fucking heartbreaking, but it's real,
but in a good way. So go check that out.
So amway, guys, that's gonna do it for this special

(54:12):
series of Halloween content. We've still got a couple more
shows we're gonna do. We're gonna definitely do one on
hocus Pocus. We're gonna do our best to squeeze in
one more. We still have more Halloween content. I'm not
sure what's going on with me, Aaron and Alex. We're
still trying to do some scheduling with that, and as
of this recording, we're literally recording on Thanksgiving, so trying

(54:35):
to make sure everybody's all lined up. So it's been
a challenge, but we got tons of stuff. I did
record the show with Enrique and James Rolf, so that'll
be coming out during the last week of the month,
and it was a very good and fun discussion on
us talking about what Halloween means to us, so it'll
be a good time. So anyway, from the great Royal

(54:57):
City of guel Fontio, Canada.

Speaker 1 (54:58):
We have been Adam Donaldson from.

Speaker 2 (55:01):
The Umbrella Laboratories in Ohio.

Speaker 1 (55:05):
David Denier telling you that if you want to watch
the Resident Evil movies, just watch three, four and five.

Speaker 2 (55:10):
That's right, And from the testing labs of the Umbrella Corporation.

Speaker 4 (55:16):
Ken from this anime and I will never watch Final
Chapter ever again.

Speaker 2 (55:21):
And I've been Mike the Birdman. We all died down here.
We'll be back, uh next time right here on this
sking geek dot net.

Speaker 5 (55:29):
My name is Alice.

Speaker 2 (55:32):
Remember everything.

Speaker 4 (55:34):
No God, no God, please, no, no, no no.

Speaker 2 (55:48):
Are either one of these any good?

Speaker 4 (55:50):
Sir?

Speaker 2 (55:51):
What are either one of these any good?

Speaker 1 (55:53):
I don't watch movies. Quick, chase the job.

Speaker 4 (55:57):
You're wasting your life making shit. Nobody cares.

Speaker 1 (56:00):
These movies are terrible.

Speaker 4 (56:03):
You're still here. It's over. Go home, Go

All Episodes

Loose Cannon - Halloween 2025 Week 4 - Resident Evil Movie Franchise Final Rankings

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Medal of Honor: Stories of Courage

Dateline NBC

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Loose Cannon - Halloween 2025 Week 4 - Resident Evil Movie Franchise Final Rankings