The original 300.
And probably more closely related to the actual Battle of Thermopylae than its modern rival.
The 300 Spartans is based on the the Battle of Termopylae, which saw one of the greatest last stands in military history. In 480BC, King Leonidas of Sparta led a rearguard action with 300 Spartans, 700 Thespians and 400 Thebans as they held out an invading Persian army ranging in number from 100,000 to 150,000 (depending on where you get your information). They managed to repel the invading force by plocking a small coastal road, and were only defeated when Ephialtes, a local resident, betrayed the Greeks by revealing a path that led behind their defensive line.
The 1962 film attempts to depict this infamous battle, with Richard Egan taking on the lead role of King Leonidas.
For the action-savvy viewer, you have to cool your heels for quite some time as the film dedicates quite a bit of time to the build-up. This includes a few diplomatic meetings, and Xerxes of Persia (David Farrar) announcing his intention to defeat the city-states of Greece.
Keeping in mind it was made/released in 1962, the film isn't too bad. Being the fan of action that I am it took a while for me to get into it, but it is very much worth a viewing. An old school classic.
The 300 Spartans: 109 minutes (1962)
Sunday, June 30, 2013
Resident Evil: Retribution
The best part of this film is the final scene.
Resident Evil: Retribution kicks off directly where the previous film left off, with Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory) leading an attack on Arcadia, a ship housing survivors from the T-virus, and the same place where Alice, Chris and Claire Redfield happen to be.
Alice (Milla Jovovich) is captured after an intense battle scene we see in slow motion rewind during the title credits and in real time after it. She is taken to an(other) Umbrella Corporation base, where she is interrogated by Valentine. But not before we get a flashback to pre-T-virus Alice is living a normal life just before the zombies attack.
During this interrogation the power goes, allowing Alice to fight her way out of a simulation which brings her face to face with Albert Wesker's (Shawn Roberts) top agent, Ada Wong (Li Bingbing).
What follows is an excuse to bring Michelle Rodriguez back to the series through several simulations of which Alice and Jill have to fight to survive. In fact, several characters from the previous films make their comebacks in these simulations as Valentine and the Red Queen attempt to recapture Alice.
There are quite a few action sequences which, again, aren't too bad, but the extreme level of CGI takes away from the film quite dramatically. In fact, I severely disliked the smiulations. When you need to find excuses to bring several "dead' characters back to life, or you have to clone the central character umpteen times to get a job done, it's a surefire sign that the series is running low on gas.
That aside, the final scene which show US Marines, S.T.A.R.S and Umbrella Corporation personnel working together to defend the White House in humanity's final stand against hordes of undead/infected actually has me a little keen for the next, and final, entry to the series. I love a good climactic battle, and I sincerely hope I'm not left disappointed.
Resident Evil: Retribution: 95 minutes (2012)
Resident Evil: Retribution kicks off directly where the previous film left off, with Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory) leading an attack on Arcadia, a ship housing survivors from the T-virus, and the same place where Alice, Chris and Claire Redfield happen to be.
Alice (Milla Jovovich) is captured after an intense battle scene we see in slow motion rewind during the title credits and in real time after it. She is taken to an(other) Umbrella Corporation base, where she is interrogated by Valentine. But not before we get a flashback to pre-T-virus Alice is living a normal life just before the zombies attack.
During this interrogation the power goes, allowing Alice to fight her way out of a simulation which brings her face to face with Albert Wesker's (Shawn Roberts) top agent, Ada Wong (Li Bingbing).
What follows is an excuse to bring Michelle Rodriguez back to the series through several simulations of which Alice and Jill have to fight to survive. In fact, several characters from the previous films make their comebacks in these simulations as Valentine and the Red Queen attempt to recapture Alice.
There are quite a few action sequences which, again, aren't too bad, but the extreme level of CGI takes away from the film quite dramatically. In fact, I severely disliked the smiulations. When you need to find excuses to bring several "dead' characters back to life, or you have to clone the central character umpteen times to get a job done, it's a surefire sign that the series is running low on gas.
That aside, the final scene which show US Marines, S.T.A.R.S and Umbrella Corporation personnel working together to defend the White House in humanity's final stand against hordes of undead/infected actually has me a little keen for the next, and final, entry to the series. I love a good climactic battle, and I sincerely hope I'm not left disappointed.
Resident Evil: Retribution: 95 minutes (2012)
Resident Evil: Afterlife
The quality of the Resident Evil series takes a serious nose dive with this film.
The beauty of the first three films in the series was that they were realistic. They had a simple plot they followed through, and at least a tiny bit of believable story development.This film, while it does advance the story, goes a completely different direction to what I expected, and a direction that isn't too great.
But it does keep the Resident Evil tradition of awesome action scenes well and truly alive.
Our heroine Alice (Milla Jovovich) kicks this film by infiltrating an Umbrella Corporation with no less than four clones in an effort to kill Albert Wesker (Shawn Roberts). A few kickass and completely unrealistic action sequences later all Umbrella employees are dead except for Wesker, who escapes in a helicopter and activates a bomb that destroys the base, killing everyone (and all Alice clones) inside.
The real Alice managed to get onboard the helicopter, and engages Wesker in a fight until he injects her with a serum, removing her powers.
She travels to Alaska where she bumps into Claire Redfield (Ali Larter) who is being controlled by a device and attempts to kill her. The device's destruction frees Claire of mind control and they shoot off to LA to find her brother Chris (Wentworth Miller) who, like Miller's most famous role, is imprisoned and knows an escape route.
The story doesn't sound too bad and the action scenes are fantastic, but there is so much CGI in this film it makes it hard to keep interest. The acting is substandard and the ridiculousness of some of the situations takes away from the enjoyment level.
The final scene features a cameo from Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory) which sets up Resident Evil: Retribution, and that is defnitely not a good thing.
Resident Evil: Afterlife: 96 minutes (2010)
The beauty of the first three films in the series was that they were realistic. They had a simple plot they followed through, and at least a tiny bit of believable story development.This film, while it does advance the story, goes a completely different direction to what I expected, and a direction that isn't too great.
But it does keep the Resident Evil tradition of awesome action scenes well and truly alive.
Our heroine Alice (Milla Jovovich) kicks this film by infiltrating an Umbrella Corporation with no less than four clones in an effort to kill Albert Wesker (Shawn Roberts). A few kickass and completely unrealistic action sequences later all Umbrella employees are dead except for Wesker, who escapes in a helicopter and activates a bomb that destroys the base, killing everyone (and all Alice clones) inside.
The real Alice managed to get onboard the helicopter, and engages Wesker in a fight until he injects her with a serum, removing her powers.
She travels to Alaska where she bumps into Claire Redfield (Ali Larter) who is being controlled by a device and attempts to kill her. The device's destruction frees Claire of mind control and they shoot off to LA to find her brother Chris (Wentworth Miller) who, like Miller's most famous role, is imprisoned and knows an escape route.
The story doesn't sound too bad and the action scenes are fantastic, but there is so much CGI in this film it makes it hard to keep interest. The acting is substandard and the ridiculousness of some of the situations takes away from the enjoyment level.
The final scene features a cameo from Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory) which sets up Resident Evil: Retribution, and that is defnitely not a good thing.
Resident Evil: Afterlife: 96 minutes (2010)
Friday, June 28, 2013
Resident Evil: Extinction
The third entry in the Resident Evil franchise and the last that was any good at all.
Resident Evil: Extinction begins with another pre-title recap of the previous films, something that is not as bad as I probably make it sound. It comes in handy if you've spaced the viewing out a bit, and it helps prepare you for the hell in which you are inevitably launched.
We follow Alice (Milla Jovovich) and a group of survivors from Racoon City as they try and cross the desert to the escape the zombie apocalypse. That's after we find out the Umbrella Corporation is making clones of Alice.
The rest of the film is exactly what you would expect - group travel, zombie attack, friends die, group travel, zombie attack and so on.
It is probably a touch better than Apocalypse, but viewers have to accept it will never get better than the first one.
Resident Evil: Extinction: 94 minutes (2007).
Resident Evil: Extinction begins with another pre-title recap of the previous films, something that is not as bad as I probably make it sound. It comes in handy if you've spaced the viewing out a bit, and it helps prepare you for the hell in which you are inevitably launched.
We follow Alice (Milla Jovovich) and a group of survivors from Racoon City as they try and cross the desert to the escape the zombie apocalypse. That's after we find out the Umbrella Corporation is making clones of Alice.
The rest of the film is exactly what you would expect - group travel, zombie attack, friends die, group travel, zombie attack and so on.
It is probably a touch better than Apocalypse, but viewers have to accept it will never get better than the first one.
Resident Evil: Extinction: 94 minutes (2007).
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Resident Evil: Apocalypse
The second in the series and we get a convenient recap of what happened in the first film before we start, and the answer to one of the most pivotal questions from the first film in the opening few minutes. If you blink you miss it. Seriously.
It seemed to gloss over the whole "how did the virus get out of The Hive?" question everyone had at the end of Resident Evil when Alice (Milla Jovovich) was walking around a deserted Racoon City. It is pretty simple to understand what happened, but there was something in the presentation that seemed to leave it a bit out of place.
This film seems to re-establish its link with the video game series by including Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory), a major character from the games. Valentine is a police officer in Racoon City, and ends up being trapped in the city when the Umbrella Corporation seals the population inside.
The two major plotlines of this film is the Nemesis project, and the rescue of Angela. Angela is the daughter of T-virus creator Dr Charles Ashford, and also happens to be trapped in the city. Dr Ashford hacks into the city's CCTV to make contact with Valentine, Alice and several other protagonists to enlist their help in finding her.
Nemesis is the result of experiments on the only other survivor from Resident Evil, Matt Addison. He is programmed and controlled by the Umbrella Corporation, and boasts Terminator-like ability to track his opponents down, and an array of weaponry including rocket launchers and rail guns.
Resident Evil:Apocalypse isn't that great a film, but the action scenes are very well done. An entertaining ride through a post-apocalyptic city is always one I'm up for, and this entry satisfies that need despite the poor story.
Resident Evil: Apocalypse : 96 minutes (2004)
It seemed to gloss over the whole "how did the virus get out of The Hive?" question everyone had at the end of Resident Evil when Alice (Milla Jovovich) was walking around a deserted Racoon City. It is pretty simple to understand what happened, but there was something in the presentation that seemed to leave it a bit out of place.
This film seems to re-establish its link with the video game series by including Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory), a major character from the games. Valentine is a police officer in Racoon City, and ends up being trapped in the city when the Umbrella Corporation seals the population inside.
The two major plotlines of this film is the Nemesis project, and the rescue of Angela. Angela is the daughter of T-virus creator Dr Charles Ashford, and also happens to be trapped in the city. Dr Ashford hacks into the city's CCTV to make contact with Valentine, Alice and several other protagonists to enlist their help in finding her.
Nemesis is the result of experiments on the only other survivor from Resident Evil, Matt Addison. He is programmed and controlled by the Umbrella Corporation, and boasts Terminator-like ability to track his opponents down, and an array of weaponry including rocket launchers and rail guns.
Resident Evil:Apocalypse isn't that great a film, but the action scenes are very well done. An entertaining ride through a post-apocalyptic city is always one I'm up for, and this entry satisfies that need despite the poor story.
Resident Evil: Apocalypse : 96 minutes (2004)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
