RESIDENT EVIL: WELCOME TO RACCOON CITY
(15) 107mins
★☆☆☆☆
WHEN a movie calls itself “The Final Chapter”, that is as absolute as a “last ever” Elton John tour.
Five years after what was supposed to be the end of the Resident Evil film series, the survival-horror franchise has been given a reboot.
This is one of those dreaded ‘origins’ movies, taking us back to the start of the story
Milla Jovovich and her character Alice have gone. In their place is Skins actress Kaya Scodelario as the kick-ass hero from the original video games, Claire Redfield.
This is one of those dreaded “origins” movies, taking us back to the start of the story.
It is 1998, the American sprawl of Raccoon City still exists and the evil Umbrella Corporation has not yet unleashed its virus upon the planet.
In the place of the post-apocalyptic Mad Max vibe of the previous films is a seen-it-all-before zombie movie with recently deceased humans clawing at blood-smeared glazing.
Even the undead probably have the imagination to dream up something more original than this.
It is a checklist of horror movie cliches. Sweaty blokes depicted as deserving their grisly end? Tick.
Someone actually saying, “Let’s split up”? Tick.
Characters being saved by a just-in-time bullet from someone turning up behind them? Tick, tick, tick.
Kaya is the best thing in Raccoon City, trying to breathe some emotion into her character in the brief moments when she isn’t shooting something.
But the British actress can’t fill Milla’s substantial leather boots.
She doesn’t have the ice-cool killer attitude to lift the laughably bad dialogue that Jovovich did.
In the “plot”, which is more vacant than a zombie stare, Claire returns to the city where she was brought up in an orphanage so she can warn her cop brother Chris to get out while he can.
But it is too late, with the clock of destruction already ticking by the time she arrives.
As with all these films, the question is who will be fortunate enough to be saved from an infectious bite.
I started to hope no one would make it out alive, because that would stop this reboot in its infancy.
There were six Jovovich Resident Evil films in all. The prospect of six of these is as appealing as being dinner for a reanimated corpse.
ACTOR Aml Ameen’s directorial debut delivers plenty of seasonal cheer, even if the love-triangle plot lacks originality.
Ameen plays Melvin, a soap star turned famous author who left London after his parents announced they were divorcing on Boxing Day two years ago.
Now living in Hollywood, Melvin returns home to promote his book, so it is time for his pregnant girlfriend Lisa (Aja Naomi King) to meet the family.
Unfortunately, Melvin hasn’t told Lisa his ex is mega-star singer Georgia (Little Mix’s Leigh-Anne Pinnock) and as her mum is his mum’s best friend, she will be spending the hols with them too.
Marianne Jean-Baptiste, as Melvin’s mum Shirley, adds weight to a flabby subplot about her secret white boyfriend Richard (Stephen Dillane).
The family scenes, with black British culture affectionately portrayed, are the real crackers, along with a joyous nativity scene punching in on modern family dynamics.
Just like Christmas itself, there are highs, lows and a few moments you could have done without. But despite all that, it is still pretty enjoyable.
IN 2008, film-maker Luke Holland began tracking down people who took part in Hitler’s Third Reich.
He filmed nearly 300 interviews with the now elderly participants of the Nazi regime.
For more than a decade, he compiled the confessions.
But it wasn’t until the final months of his life, last year, that Holland completed this powerful documentary.
Exploring how they rationalised their behaviour and were able to live with themselves over the years that followed, he speaks to former SS and Wehrmacht officers and also those people who were children at the time.
One recalls being a nine-year-old holding hands with other children outside a Jewish department store so customers couldn’t enter.
Another speaks about being recruited into the Hitler Youth by a school teacher.
There are former officers who tell horrifying tales of what they witnessed, with little emotion.
Many lie or bend the truth, while some can’t hide their pride at having been part of the Nazi elite.
Tucked between the seemingly endless talking heads of elderly Germans is interesting footage of the time.
While this passion project is an important and valuable document, it is more of an essay on the subject than a masterclass in the art of documentary making.
