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David McK (3233 KP) rated Monster Hunter (2020) in Movies

Apr 10, 2023  
Monster Hunter (2020)
Monster Hunter (2020)
2020 | Action, Adventure, Fantasy
5
5.1 (16 Ratings)
Movie Rating Watch
If you mention bad video-game adaptations, there's usually one director that comes to mind (Paul WS Anderson), and one actor (Milla Jovovich).

This being, at the time of writing, their latest.

Based on the video game series by Capcom (yes, the same people who did the Resident Evil games) which - I have to admit - I've never actually played, it's very easy to spot the influences of said game on the film, which (in the film) sees Jovovich's US Ranger Lt Artemis and her men transported to an alien environment infested by, you guessed it!, various icky monsters. It's also extremely easy to spot the influences of other, far far better, 'creature features': think Starship Troopers, Tremors or even Aliens to name but three!

Perhaps, as a non-player of the game, I'm just not the target audience ...?
  
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Justin Long recommended Boogie Nights (1997) in Movies (curated)

 
Boogie Nights (1997)
Boogie Nights (1997)
1997 | Comedy, Drama
8.8 (4 Ratings)
Movie Favorite Watch

"I think a lot about Martin Scorsese and how heavily influenced Paul Thomas Anderson was by him. I feel like he learned so much from Scorsese in Boogie Nights, and so I feel like picking Boogie Nights is somewhat accounting for my Martin Scorsese love. But I’m also being very honest about a movie that I can watch over and over. Just the epic nature and the grandness of it, and some of the shots and the style of it, and the music — my God, the way he uses music — and that great shot where somebody jumps into the pool and you hear the muffled soundtrack. It’s brilliant. I never get sick of watching it. And the acting is just some of my favorite actors at the top of their game. I love doing impressions and one of my earliest impressions of an actor was Philip Seymour Hoffman in that movie, when he’s saying how much he loves the name and he’s chewing on the pen."

Source
  
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LeftSideCut (3778 KP) rated Resident Evil (2002) in Movies

Oct 28, 2020  
Resident Evil (2002)
Resident Evil (2002)
2002 | Action, Horror, Mystery
3
7.4 (37 Ratings)
Movie Rating Watch
Let's just brush aside for a moment that this adaption of Resident Evil bares little resemblance to the video game it's based upon and instead take a look at it as its own film, how it's comes off as a horror, and what visionary director Paul WS Anderson has to offer to the zombie genre...

...it's a terrible film, it's a shitty horror, and Anderson should just keep away from beloved franchises forever. I actually actively hate most of his films (have I mentioned this before?).
The big gaping issue with Resident Evil is it's characters and screenplay. The characters are a collection of edgy shitbags who spout one liners every two seconds and are just ripped straight from the "cliché action bastard handbook". It's difficult to care about any of them. I understand that Alice (Milla Jovovich) goes on to lead the entire franchise, but in the first entry, she hardly does or says anything, and as such, the audience doesn't get much of a chance to bond with her before the credits roll.
The script is just eye rollingly cringey. Every single line is either a "witty" quip, or lazy exposition and it becomes tiresome very quickly.

Some of the effects are ok - the zombie dogs look pretty gnarly, but The Licker (one of the only concrete connections to the game series) is brought to life with some of the worst CGI I've ever seen. To say it's aged badly would be an understatement, as I remember it looking dodgy AF back in 2002 when I was a humble 14 year old. Other than that, the whole film has that awful early 2000s aesthetic (The Matrix truly has a lot to answer for) and the inclusion of obnoxious breakbeat music cues that everyone was obsessed with at the time is the cherry on the mouldy cake. Ugh.

It's not all terrible... There are a couple of memorable set pieces, and the film manages to be somewhat entertaining here and there, but overall, Resident Evil is another garbage pile video game adaption, and the fact that George Romero wrote an unused screenplay that was much closer to the first game (and was poised to direct!) just rubs salt in this horrible festering wound left behind by Paul WS Anderson's Resident Evil. Hate it.
  
Show all 6 comments.
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Jackjack (877 KP) Nov 4, 2020

28 day and 28 weeks later were pretty good!!! Gunna have to watch a few of those other ones you mentioned!!
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LeftSideCut (3778 KP) Nov 5, 2020

@Jackjack to further prove that you're not the only one who disagrees with me, I genuinely lost a handful of followers on Twitter after posting this review there just before Halloween 😂