RESIDENT EVIL (2002) ** From the title I was hoping that it was a documentary on the Reagan administration. Instead it's a bunch of corporate goofs trapped in an underground lair, being attacked by zombies because of an illegal CIA virus experiment. This may strike some as unlikely, but I assure you that you don't consider it nearly as unlikely as I would have considered the kids just a few years older than me settling for the most boring set of occupational opportunities in the history of mankind, all in the service of the corporate oligarchy. After the film I was catching the news, which informed me that 1 in every 3 office workers in the UK are actively planning to change jobs. "Actively planning?" Fucking please. What was it that Jim Morrison said in Miami, "Trade in your hours for a handful of dimes." So the film does have something to do with Reagan, even if the writers didn't know it. Regular people are turned into zombies while in corporate offices, and when they try to escape they're attacked by the other zombies. Paul W. S. Anderson generates a lot more suspense than the film deserves, and on a fairly constant basis, through methods that I haven't entirely identified. Some of it is quick cuts to close-ups and back, some of it moving cameras shooting action shots in such a disconcerting manner that you can't tell if it's even vaguely realistic. He uses long shots down corridors, usually of repeating patterns like arches, very nicely, though I'm not sure how he manages to generate suspense from the method. I'm not entirely sold on Milla Jovovich's leading lady attributes, but her athleticism works well in this role, which also plays away from any possible weaknesses by defining her as disoriented and inarticulate. So do I think that the final scene accurately depicts how the fallout from the Reagan revolution is going to look? Well, it already looks that way a lot of places, it's just a question of how fast it's going to spread.
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