In Sickness and in Health...

… I will endeavour to blog. This poor CR@B has been struck down by a flu-like virus for the past few days (pity me!), so until I’m back to full strength, here is a quick-fire roundup of my latest viewings:

TV Review: EXTREME GHOSTBUSTERS – VOLUME 1.1
PG – 273mins – 1997

Any ‘Busters lovers fearing a next generation takeover in the eternally-impending second sequel to everyone’s favourite 80’s supernatural comedy should surely be pacified by this animated 1997 dry run, which saw four college students strap on the proton packs and go phantom zapping in lieu of three-quarters of the original gang.

The Real Ghostbusters veteran Egon Spengler (Maurice Futurama LaMarche), secretary Janine Melnitz (Pat Musick) and gluttonous ghoul Slimer (Billy Futurama West) return to provide continuity between series, with paranormal proff. Spengler taking on the role of mentor to his new team of whizz kids: Kylie (Tara Strong), Garrett (Jason Marsden), Eduardo (Rino Romano) and Roland (Alfonso Ribeiro).

Some may complain that the emphasis on equality in the new members is pandering to contemporary equal opportunities (Kylie is a gothic girl, Garrett wheelchair bound, Eduardo a Latino and Roland African American), but the characters nonetheless have their own personalities and don’t fall back on lazy clichés (Garrett, for instance, is an extreme sports nut who has a self deprecating attitude towards his disability which borders on annoying).

The series’ greatest strength lies in its dialogue, which zings with banter between the misfit cohorts, who must learn to work together to save Manhattan from supernatural activity. The inundation of cultural references have quickly dated the show, but this is still a fun addition to the franchise which proves you don’t *need* Peter Venkman for ‘Busting to make you feel good.

CR@B Verdict: aaaaa

Blu Review: THE GHOST
15 – 128mins – 2010

Based on a Robert Harris novel of the same name, and adapted for the screen by the author and director Roman Polanski, The Ghost is a drawn out, slow-burn thriller full of political intrigue. Which isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy it (particularly worthy of praise is the minimalist score by Alexandre Desplat which mimicks the character’s tuneful ringtone to tremendous effect), just that the bloated midsection could have done with a major edit to not make the conclusion feel so rushed.

Ewan McGregor plays a British ghost-writer who is drafted in to complete the memoirs of former Prime Minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan), after his predecessor died in a ferry accident before the project was finished. The top secret assignment is clouded in privacy, and McGregor’s ghost is drawn into a dark secret concerning Lang which coincides with the ex-PM being accused of war crimes by the British foreign minister (Robert Pugh). Does his late predecessor’s error-strewn manuscript hide the clues to this mystery, and is their more to his death then accidental drowning?

The film exudes a composed, almost tranquil, ambience which makes it remarkably effortless viewing, but the mystery plot does drag on somewhat to little revelatory effect. The ending, also, requires a stretch of credibility, coming somewhat out of the blue after two hours of meandering amateur sleuthing. Nonetheless, this is an aptly produced thriller, even if the writer-turned-detective-on-isolated-island concept did strongly remind me of Steig Larsson's superior The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

CR@B Verdict: aaaaa

Blu Review: RESIDENT EVIL: AFTERLIFE
15 – 97mins – 2010

The fourth instalment in this never-ending zombie arcade series offers little that 2007's part three (Extinction, reviewed HERE) didn’t already bring to the screen, other than the en vogue 3D gimmick which inflated its box office gross.

Milla Jovovich returns as superhuman Alice, who takes her newly discovered army of clones to Tokyo to settle the score with Umbrella Corps. Chairman Albert Wesker (Shawn Roberts), before flying to Alaska to rendezvous with Claire Redfield (Ali Larter) and company at the infection-free haven known as “Arcadia”. Typically, nothing quite goes to plan.

Rolling on directly from Extinction’s conclusion, and setting up yet another follow-up with a frustratingly open-ended, ostensibly futile finale [sic] for the hero’s to undoubtedly escape from, what most annoyed me about Afterlife was how spectacularly it fails to stand on its own: this is less a self-contained sequel and more a mid-game level in the shoot ‘em up inspired franchise. Thus: wholly unsatisfying.

Wentworth Miller channels his Prison Break persona as Claire’s locked up bro Chris, but their relationship stalls from the off due to Claire’s amnesia, leaving him to be no more relevant than any other survivor, while unaccounted mutations nabbed from the fifth videogame mean that every zombie now has tentacles shooting from their face (!), while a hooded, axe-wielding bastard shows up out of nowhere with no explanation whatsoever. It may look pretty, but Afterlife fails on any level deeper than superficial.

CR@B Verdict: aaaaa

Wait – I’ve got ANOTHER Life?!!

DVD Review: RESIDENT EVIL: EXTINCTION
15 – 90mins – 2007
Written by: Paul W. S. Anderson
Directed by: Russell Mulcahy
Starring: Milla Jovovich, Oded Fehr, Ali Larter, Iain Glen , Ashanti , Christopher Egan, Spencer Locke, Matthew Marsden, Jason O’Mara, Mike Epps
________________________________

Much like the T-virus infected adversaries who litter the streets of Raccoon City and beyond, the Resident Evil film series will just not die. No matter how many rounds of critical lambasting are directed their way, a couple of years later another one will shuffle and groan its way into the cinemas. It’s not even like the game’s fans think the big screen spin-offs hold a dismembered limb to their cherished console classics – so who is keeping this rotten saga lumbering on??

And breathe... Okay, rant over. After all that seething, it may surprise you to learn that Extinction – the third in the four (to date) part series – is my favourite Resident Evil film to date. Admittedly I have yet to see 2010’s Afterlife, but still “favourite” isn’t saying much: the 2002 original and follow up Apocalypse were dismal. And I’m a huge zombie nut. But then we are dealing with director Paul W. S. Anderson here (Alien vs Predator – need I say more?), who is still scribing this series even if he is no longer behind the lens.

I was impressed by the double bluff opening sequence which slickly introduced us to the mysterious “Project Alice” by cloning the original film’s mansion awakening, but once the real-but-psychically-enhanced Alice (Jovovich) – surviving off the grid for some five years since the devastating outbreak – is back to her usual slogging and slaughtering, the film regresses to a generic safe ground: it’s still watchable enough, it just feels so familiar.

The Umbrella Corporation’s aforementioned project – to find a cure for the rabid infection by extracting a genetic serum from clones of Alice – is shown in its experimental stage to humanize the zombies in scenes straight out of George A. Romero’s landmark Day of the Dead, while the clone breeding ground is discovered by Alice in much the same fashion to how Ripley sees a sea of failed test subjects in Alien Resurrection.

On a positive note, the schematic scene changes are stylishly executed, while the infected raven attack sequence is pretty cool (certainly better than the devil dogs, that’s for sure!), but the bulk of Extinction feels like a long-winded red-herring, with Alice joining Claire Redfield’s (Ali Larter) caravan of survivors on a Mad Max-style romp through the desert – only for Alice to drop out of the convoy as soon as the plan is established to head to the Arctic, leaving her free to face-off alone against a genetically mutated scientist (Iain Glen) in a replica of the “big boss” showdown against Nemesis from the last film


In a CR@B Shell: Anderson’s unintentional ode to genre classics is an adequately entertaining if totally unoriginal popcorn horror. Resident Evil: Extinction was everything I expected it to be – because I’d seen many of its core plotlines before.
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