Resident Evil (2002)

Deep in the bedrock below Raccoon City, in a secret research facility run by the Umbrella Corporation known as The Hive, the main computer, known as the Red Queen malfunctions, shuts and locks down the facility and murders all the scientists and employees. Meanwhile Alice (Milla Jovovich) wakes up on the floor of a shower in a mansion. Alice does not remember where she is or who she is. Alice is part of the security for The Hive, but doesn't remember this. Hilarity ensues when a comando team from the Umbrella Corporation is sent into the Hive with Alice to shut down the Red Queen and reopen the facility...Bad idea. Scientist at The Hive were working on a virus with a small side effect, anyone infected would become a flesh eating zombie.

Trivia: This film was originally titled "Resident Evil: Ground Zero," but the title was changed to just "Resident Evil" after the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on the USA. The password into the Red Queen's Chamber is "12177". Connections to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: - Main character's name is Alice. - Computer is named 'Red Queen'. - 'The Red Queen' needs to kill someone who is infected, so she tries to get someone else to chop off their head. (Off with her head!) - Alice in Wonderland paperweight. - A white rabbit was use to test the T-virus. - To enter the hive they go through a mirrored door (through the looking glass). - The Red Queen also succeeds in cutting off "her" head - the medic in the laser hallway. - Kaplan worries about time, as the White Rabbit does. (Mentioned in commentary) - Matt is sitting on the ledge when Rain and JD hear the first zombie. This is mentioned in the commentary as a reference to the Caterpillar. Even though they're everywhere, the word "zombie" is never spoken in this film. Milla Jovovich's character, Alice, never has her name spoken, written or identified until the end credits. After returning to the laser hallway they find the bodies have vanished. This is a direct reference to the games, in which the bodies will vanish if you leave and reenter an area. Kaplan's lines draw attention to this. Milla Jovovich did all of her own stunts except the pipe jump in the sewer scene. She used a stunt double in that scene, because her agent thought she would get strangled by the hanging wires. During the shooting of the sewer scenes, Milla Jovovich right-hooked Paul W.S. Anderson in the face, giving him a big black eye. By the end she hurt about three cast and crew members. To prepare for their roles, the actors playing commandos, Milla Jovovich and Eric Mabius had a week of commando training (climbing, martial arts, weapons handling, etc.) with ex-Navy SEAL Jaymes Butler. All the minor cuts and bruises on Milla Jovovich's character are real. No make-up was applied.

I admit that I am not much of a gamer and I am not much of a scary movie fan so you are probably asking why in the heck am I watching a zombie movie based on a zombie video game. Well, I will tell you. Milla Jovovich. Plan and simple. I like her, I have since The Fifth Element. I know she has a reputation for not being in "good" movie and most of her roles are of girls who can kick ass. But I like her. So here we are, a bunch of commandos in full black combat gear and Milla Jovovich in a red dress cut to her thigh wearing combat boots. As for movies based on video games this one is actually really good. This a definitely not Doom, thank goodness. Besides the whole zombie aspect you can really see a comando team having to go in and subdue a rogue computer (well, at least I can, I'm optimistic like that). As long as you can get past the dead rising and wanting to eat you, the story stands up rather well. The only problem I see is that they might decide that they need to do a sequel.