Red Letter Media Watches the Ending of Resident Evil: Afterlife
October 5, 2012 10:42 PM   Subscribe

The Red Letter Media guys have a miserable time watching the entire Resident Evil film series when the ending of Resident Evil: Afterlife simply breaks their minds. Watch the full review.
posted by Foci for Analysis (35 comments total) 9 users marked this as a favorite
 
The Resident Evil movies are my favorite cheese.
posted by L'Estrange Fruit at 11:44 PM on October 5, 2012 [3 favorites]


It looks like the guy on the left in the first link decided to cosplay as Barry Burton for the video. I don't remember Barry ever having such an obnoxious laugh in the game, though.
posted by Kevtaro at 11:49 PM on October 5, 2012 [1 favorite]


Gotta love how the guy is quick enough to dodge bullets fired at point blank range but is downright placid and welcoming when confronted with knives. (And, inexplicably, that last gunshot.)
posted by jklaiho at 11:49 PM on October 5, 2012


That was more painful than RE: Afterlife. Seriously, just FFW or delete it.
posted by unmake at 11:51 PM on October 5, 2012 [2 favorites]


I LOL'd.
posted by bardic at 11:59 PM on October 5, 2012


The most annoying sound in the world would be having that first link's "Barry Burton cosplay" guy in the audience at one of Gilbert Gottfried's standup comedy shows.
posted by Sleeper at 12:40 AM on October 6, 2012 [4 favorites]


you ever notice how people who can pass for amusing by reacting to things are really not that good on their own
posted by This, of course, alludes to you at 12:56 AM on October 6, 2012


I'm not sure which schlock I prefer more, Resident Evil of Final Destination. Either way, I've never missed a single installment of either franchise, and probably never will. They're just so trashily wonderful!
posted by Ghidorah at 1:13 AM on October 6, 2012




I'm not sure which schlock I prefer more, Resident Evil of Final Destination.

The Final Destination movies are, hands down, far superior movies.

I'm still bitter we got this stupid bullshit over the George Romero script.
posted by Redfield at 1:16 AM on October 6, 2012


I could see Rich Evans as a henchman for Mark Hamill's Joker, cracking up at an inappropriate moment, causing even Mr. J. to lose it. At that point, Batman would begin scowling, Joker would point and scream, "Come on now, that was a good one!" And Rich would star up again while Bats and Joker fight.
posted by Smart Dalek at 1:38 AM on October 6, 2012 [1 favorite]


Rich Evans should host the Oscars.
posted by homunculus at 1:40 AM on October 6, 2012


The Final Destination movies are, hands down, far superior movies.

What?! Can you honestly, without looking it up, think of an actual plot to any of the Final Destination movies? What about differences between any of them? The first one is pretty fun with "Hey guys, Death isn't trying to-" BUS!!! And now it's like "Hey guys, seriously, Death isn't trying to kill us..." Meanwhile a ping pong ball knocks some dominoes over which pops a balloon which sets off the Rube Goldberg Machine of Death. The only fun in those movies is trying to guess how everyone will die.
As corny as they may be, at least the Resident Evil movies have a plot.
posted by P.o.B. at 2:25 AM on October 6, 2012 [1 favorite]


But that's the beauty of Final Destination! The teacher's death in the first film is one of the most elaborate mouse trap-esque things I've ever seen on film. The false starts and red herrings are a wonder to behold, albeit in a trashy, trashy movie with little redeeming merit.

Not to knock the other kind of trash that is Resident Evil. When one of the best performances in your franchise history is Michelle Rodriguez, you've already got problems.

(see also the Fast and Furious franchise. Damn it, why am I such a sucker for these films? Then again, Tokyo Drift was pretty all right...)
posted by Ghidorah at 3:00 AM on October 6, 2012 [2 favorites]


Damn it, why am I such a sucker for these films? Then again, Tokyo Drift was pretty all right...)

Y'all remember "The Great Texas Dynamite Chase"? There's something about a movie primarily made to launder drug money which gives the script that something extra. I dunno. Maybe it's too early to articulate my thoughts on this..
posted by mikelieman at 3:24 AM on October 6, 2012 [1 favorite]


As corny as they may be, at least the Resident Evil movies have a plot.

As foul-smelling as he was, at least Stinky the Clown knew the rudiments of dance.
posted by fleacircus at 4:50 AM on October 6, 2012 [3 favorites]


I liked the films. It's a sink into your couch, turn your suspension of disbelief up to 11, switch off your brain and enjoy the ride, kind of fun.

But heaven knows - I've sneered my way through that which I don't like plenty of times, and I'd be a hypocrite to hold any anger because some people on the internet don't like the things I like. It's hard not to though.

Resident Evil films are fun dab-nabbit, and if you don't think so you're some pretentious film school moron who confuses great entertainment with rubbish pseudo-intellectual bore-fests. Hows about you stop worrying about the "arc" and "motivation" and try to stop destroying other people's enjoyment just because you're bored and you can?

I suppose I could create a complementary video for this where I watch them watching resident evil, and I mock them for being hipster fuckwits.

So that's where I am. Completely guilty of doing exactly the same as them, but still hating them for doing it. I shall call this "the critic's dilemma" or the "paradox of opinions". And I shall postfix it by saying I preferred it better when it was called κριτικός.
posted by zoo at 5:45 AM on October 6, 2012


you ever notice how people who can pass for amusing by reacting to things are really not that good on their own

You're asking this on MetaFilter?
posted by ODiV at 6:11 AM on October 6, 2012 [9 favorites]


I have never seen any of the movies but have of course loved the games, mostly. Can someone give me a frame of reference of the appeal here? Is it so-bad-it's good territory? Shut-your-brain-off-and-watch-stuff-asplode eye chowder? Both?
posted by middleclasstool at 6:19 AM on October 6, 2012


Can someone give me a frame of reference of the appeal here?

Milla Jovovich is pretty.
posted by Egg Shen at 6:20 AM on October 6, 2012 [2 favorites]


As foul-smelling as he was, at least Stinky the Clown knew the rudiments of dance.

Heh. As great a dancer as Basrishnakov was, his snarky potshot arguments were always fallacious. I assume you understand this, but it was a comparison not a stand alone statement.

reference of the appeal here?

Just fun. That's all I got. I couldn't make a real case, but you don't have to with those flicks. 1 - 3 are pretty great, but Afterlife, the 4th, is really goofy that leans more towards roll your eyes rather than har har.

Otoh, The Fast and the Furious - know there's a franchise...
posted by P.o.B. at 7:23 AM on October 6, 2012 [1 favorite]


NEW GLARUS BREWING, FUCK YEAH!
posted by symbioid at 8:28 AM on October 6, 2012


As someone who hasn't seen the Resident Evil Films... all that pristine white background makes about as much sense to me as a Silent Hill movie without all the inexplicable rust all over everything.
posted by Winnemac at 9:11 AM on October 6, 2012


I'm a big fan of the Plinkett reviews, so have tried several times to watch Half In The Bag. I gave it another shot with this.

As always, my response to Half In The Bag was ... Who cares? They have nothing interesting to say whatsoever. The Resident Evil movies are bad. Shocking. They take 45 minutes or so to list all of three reasons why (poor characterization, nonsensical videogame-like plots, missed opportunities to use setting) in a disinterested monotone with weird unrelated music playing intermittently in the background.

It's a level of analysis that anyone could have given from seeing a trailer. Probably from seeing a poster. They had MAYBE ten minutes' worth of material in this one - and that's to cover five movies.

Plinkett, Nostalgia Chick, the reviews and analyses in the Onion's AV Club ... I watch and read those because they have something to say. Half In The Bag is:

We watched some movies. They weren't very good.

*Crickets*
posted by kyrademon at 9:19 AM on October 6, 2012


when the ending of Resident Evil: Afterlife simply breaks their mind

I guess you had to be there.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 10:01 AM on October 6, 2012


@ODiV where else

incidentally i credit this kind of yuks-and-jeering mst anti-review with creating a market for armond white, so it's not all bad
posted by This, of course, alludes to you at 10:02 AM on October 6, 2012


Resident Evil films are fun dab-nabbit, and if you don't think so you're some pretentious film school moron who confuses great entertainment with rubbish pseudo-intellectual bore-fests. Hows about you stop worrying about the "arc" and "motivation" and try to stop destroying other people's enjoyment just because you're bored and you can?

I enjoy big dumb action movies but these ones are just so poorly done and ridiculous I can't get past it. YMMV which is fine.
posted by shakespeherian at 11:44 AM on October 6, 2012


I'd rather watch an Uwe Boll marathon than subject myself to anything from Red Letter Media.
posted by mgrichmond at 12:40 PM on October 6, 2012 [1 favorite]


Can someone give me a frame of reference of the appeal here? Is it so-bad-it's good territory? Shut-your-brain-off-and-watch-stuff-asplode eye chowder? Both?

When they try to go over-the-top, they overdo it so hard they punch right through the fourth wall, which is unfortunate, but (unlike the guys in the video) I just tune those moments out - when they're not overdoing it, it's like taking the joyful exuberant "low-budget zombie-flick" genre, and then creating one out of high-end special effects and experienced actors and Hollywood budget and costuming and blockbuster-style technical polish.

And what's not to like about that?

The world is richer for having the low-budget zombie-flick genre contain a high-budget series cast in the blockbuster mould.
posted by anonymisc at 12:52 PM on October 6, 2012


Also: Note to the Umbrella Corporation from a potential investor:

Get out of the virus business. You have some great people working on great stuff, but you're too sloppy at managing these virus R&D projects to make money over the long term.
Get into the underground-superstructure business. The engineering coming out of your departments that design and construct your secret underground fortresses all over the world, is second to none. You can own this industry, and the global military-industrial market is enormous.
posted by anonymisc at 1:01 PM on October 6, 2012 [2 favorites]


I enjoy big dumb action movies but these ones are just so poorly done and ridiculous I can't get past it.

THIS is where we part ways on movies, shakes?
posted by P.o.B. at 1:33 PM on October 6, 2012


Et tu, P.o.B.?
posted by shakespeherian at 1:56 PM on October 6, 2012 [1 favorite]


@mgrichmond

but theyre Red Letter Media that means theyre a Media organization
posted by This, of course, alludes to you at 4:01 PM on October 6, 2012


What we do, see, is we lock that laughing guy in a box.

With Ricky Gervais.

And then we launch them both into the sun.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 9:35 PM on October 6, 2012 [2 favorites]


I have seen all of the Resident Evil movies, and all I can tell you about them is Jovovich usually wakes up semi-naked, her name is Alice, and there are zombies.
Beyond that I cannot recall a single that happens.

Was there an aircraft carrier in the last one?

Compare that with Jovovich's Ultraviolet, which was a Resident Evil movie without zombies, which was so actively bad that I recall every horrible second.
posted by Mezentian at 11:59 PM on October 6, 2012


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