Evil lurks not just in the minds of men, but in the circuits of computers.
Resident Evil is an old-fashioned, sci-fi horror flick.
It's based on a popular video game franchise, but it takes even more of its inspiration from the George Romero Night of the Living Dead zombie films, the Alien movies and their imitators and even Alice in Wonderland.
Deep in the hive of the nasty Umbrella Corporation, scientists are working like busy bees developing a new virus.
Properly used, the virus will produce a serum that will reverse aging and rejuvinate damaged organs.
In the wrong hands -- and it's not long before it gets there -- the virus can reanimate the dead.
Like all good zombies, these ones are ravenous for human flesh.
The folks at Umbrella send in uber-commandos to disarm the computer that, like HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey, has gone rogue.
The entrance to Hive is a luxurious mansion owned by agents Alice (Milla Jovovich) and her hubby Spense (James Purefoy).
But, horror of horrors when the Red Queen went ballistic, Alice and Spense were sprayed with a chemical that gives them temporary amnesia.
The commandos lead by Rain (Michelle Rodriguez) and Kaplan (Martin Crewes) suspect Alice and Spense are actually skilled operatives.
For reasons that defy logic but allow Jovovich to wear a slinky gown, the commandos take Alice, Spense and a cop named Matt (Eric Mabius) along on mission.
The first 30 minutes of Resident Evil are chilling and genuinely scary.
There's a new jolt every few minutes as the unsuspecting adventurers work their way toward the lair of the Red Queen. The laser dicing hallway and zombie dogs are particularly effective.
Jovovich is vacuous but sexy. Rodriguez strikes attitude, so it's up to their co-stars to compensate by overacting.
Movies based on video games are shallow, obvious and one-dimensional.
Every few minutes the heroes encounter a new danger or a variation of an older one which is all that really happens in Resident Evil.
(More on: Resident Evil).
(This film is rated R)
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