Resident Evil Apocalypse and the Shakey Fist Logic (part one)

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Andrew Dickinson (i.e. oddment84, aka "that guy who creates a bunch of podcasts" ) returns for a discussion on Resident Evil Apocalypse. We had that much to say about the 2004 action-horror (which is heavy on the over-the-top action, and incredibly light on the horror) that we've had to split it into two parts.

The following is a reduced version of the full show notes, which you can find here.

Content Warning

Due to the nature of the movie we talk about in this episode, we’d recommend that you don’t listen to this one with little ones around.

Please listen responsibly

Show Notes

We have another video game movie discussion episode this week, as we tackle the 2004 train-wreck that is Resident Evil Apocalypse. Unlike when we talked about the first Resident Evil movie - here's a link to that - we knew that we'd need help in discussing this movie. Luckily, AndrewD had some time off between his podcasts, radio show

did you know that the DreamCast Years podcast has joined RadioSega?

and his Dreamcast Years Two book project, and wanted to discuss the second Resident Evil movie with us.

As with, pretty much, every episode we've put out so far this year, this one was recorded a little in advance

in fact, it was actually recorded before the episode on the first Resident Evil movie went out 

What's great about this show is that we often get updates on Squidgey's life goals:

My foot hasn't fallen off, so I take that as a win
- Squidge

And, to be fair, there's not much you can say to that really.

Thoughts Going In

Squidge immediately came up with a better name for the movie:

Resident Evil Chocapocalypse
- Squidge

which, we can all agree, would be a better movie. Andrew mentions:

Do you remember those little Cadbury's machines you used to get at Christmas, that had the little, tiny things of Cadbury's chocolate, and you'd put 2p in and it would spit them out?
- AndrewD

you'll have to click through to the full show notes to see an example of what he means

For each 10p piece you put into this, it would dispense a small piece of Cadbury's chocolate. That is, if you had loaded the pieces of chocolate into the machine beforehand - which was the ONLY flaw in this device's design -Imagine being peppered with chocolates while watching a movie. Wouldn't that be great?

....

Anyway, so Resident Evil Apocalypse came out in 2004, and Jay hadn't seen it since it came out. But before we dove into the sequel, we talked about the George A. Romero script, which was commissioned but never produced. Reading through it, you get a feeling that Romero had played the original game and had a handle on the story and characters.

The three of us felt that the fact that the previous film had so little to do with the franchise meant that Paul W. S. Anderson was forced to put as many references to the series into his sequel as possible. And clearly, he hated having to have Alice alongside Jill Valentine in this film.

The Plot - Part One

Here's a 10,000 ft view of the "plot", as we see it

• Flashbacks to set up the backstory
• Is it Matt or Max?

shooty shooty, gun gun. Lots of punchy zombie
- AndrewD

• "2 Weeks earlier", opening the hive, and portable CD players
• Dr. Ashford loses his daughter, because his car is hit, but she's alive
• Jill "Bad-Ass" Valentine murders a bunch of people in the middle of a police station, and no one bats an eyelid

it's how bad-assing work's, right?
- AndrewD

• Captain Switzerland is sent by Umbrella to run the mop-up operation
• Running up several flights of stairs in heels
• Carlos saves the day... or not
• Leg fu for the win
• Bluetooth earpieces
• Totally not the Berlin Wall
• Surplus and more!
• Dr. Ashford has frowny-face glasses, but hacks the system
• Recreating the intro from Resident Evil 3
• Activating Nemesis through science and gratuitous bar charts
• Help me, Alice Kenobi. You're my only hope
• Entering the church
• That person I know... maybe they're not a zombie

They're in a church, right? Why didn't they just grab a holy hand grenade?
- Squidge

• Jill's badassery makes her forget her training
• An action scene which Jay describes as:

Alice dealing with the lickers is so far over the top, it's practically in lower orbit
- Jay

• Leg fu saves the day, and donkey kicks for the win

Make sure to check out the full show notes for more discussion on the points we raise, some extra meta-analysis, some out-of-context screen grabs from the movie, and some links to related things.

Are you a fan of the Resident Evil Movies? If so, what makes them fun to watch? What's with the leg-fu usage? Just how over the top is the church scene? Why did they spend so long making Jill out to be a badass, if they were going to replace her with Alice?

psst. we've actually done a bunch of these "goes to the movies" episodes. Check this page to see all of the released specials.

What other movies would you like us to cover? Let us know on Twitter, Facebook, leave a comment on the show notes or try our brand new contact page.

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