Resident Evil

Resident Evil, is a 1999 movie written and directed by George A. Romero, famous for his 1984 epic film, Day of the Dead. It is the third movie based on a video-game. Preceded by the Oscar winning 1992 Steven Spielberg movie, Super Mario Bros. and the less popular, but Oscar winning 1994 John Carpenter film, Doom. The movie was released on August 18, 1999, making it the highest grossing summer horror film of all time, with a record breaking thirty-million dollar opening weekend. It was received well by both critics and fans but was not nominated for an Oscar. It did, however, take home the Saturn awards for best director (George Romero) and best picture. The movie has a 94% Fresh Rating on rottentomatoes.com. It stars Jeff Anderson (of Clerks fame) as Christ Redfield, Milla Jovavich as Jill Valentine and Bruce Campbell as Albert Wesker. It is rated "R" by the MPAA. The movie is followed by two sequels, 2000's Resident Evil 2: City of the Dead, directed by Chris Carter, and 2001's Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, directed by Wes Craven. The story focuses around Chris Redfield, who becomes entangled in a Police Force mission to eliminate a threat in the woods outside of Raccoon City. However, things go horribly wrong and Chris and the S.T.A.R.S. team wind up in an abandoned mansion, which leads to a secret government laboratory. As they make their way down towards the central nervous system of this lab, called 'the hive,' they encounter several strange creatures, such as but not limited to zombies, giant snakes, mutated gorillas and a massive creature known as the 'Tyrant.' In the end, they make it out okay, but the deadly T-Virus is unleashed, resulting in Raccoon City being carpet bombed, the last scene of the movie is a zombie's head on the pavement of a street in Raccoon City, drooling hungrily. Like all of Romero's movies, it has a special and deep moral, in the case of Resident Evil, that moral is the danger of authoritarianism. Chris's speech towards the end of the movie is a fine example of such a danger. The movie is Jeff Anderson's second film, and only dramatic role. When asked about working with George Romero on the film he is quoted in saying "It was an honor to work with the zombie-master himself, but I felt like I needed to make a Clifford the Big Red Dog movie, after I finally saw the finished product. It's a dreary movie, to say the least." In January of 2008, it was named 'Best Science Fiction Movie of the Last Twenty-Five Years,' by Time Magazine. George Romero has named it the 'least favorite' of his movies, as in in an interview he stated it 'wasn't an original work on his part.' However he did mention that the project moved much swifter and came out much better when Bernd Eichinger was fired from the project, and from Constantin film. In an interview with Eichinger, right before his tragic suicide, he stated "Romero has some good ideas, but he's old fashioned. I wanted a more action-packed movie, less plot, more booty." Three days later, Eichinger jumped off the 110th floor of the Observatory of the World Trade Center in New York, New York. The movie was dedicated in memory of him.