Evil should not be resident in theaters

RESIDENT EVIL: APOCALYPSE: Following the events of Resident Evil, the deadly disease known as the T-Virus has now made its way above ground and is quickly infecting the inhabitants of Raccoon City. The few remaining survivors must now band together to make it out of the city alive before the villainous Umbrella Corporation ties up its loose ends once and for all. Now playing at Circle Cinemas and AMC Fenway 13.

From start to finish, this movie had straight-to-video written all over it. Set in fictional Raccoon City, the film picks up exactly where Resident Evil left off. The protagonist, Alice (Milla Jovovich), is yet again thrown in the middle of a ridiculous situation. One of the two sole survivors from the first film, she must now battle her way through genetically enhanced creatures and the living dead once more. Immediately, the movie gets a Sigourney Weaver-esque feeling from her.

However, when acknowledging this similarity, one notices a big difference between the two as well. Weaver had good directors and scripts. Jovovich unfortunately did not.

While this film reeked of both horrible special effects and a cheesy script, one redeeming quality it actually did hold was decent acting. The star, Jovovich, famous for such films as Return to the Blue Lagoon and Dazed and Confused, adds her natural sense of realism to it all.

Despite being thrown into these ridiculously predictable situations, she still allows the viewer to take her character seriously. Oded Fehr plays one of the few remaining police officers in Raccoon City, Carlos Olivera. Fehr, known from his character Ardeth Bey in The Mummy franchise accurately portrays a tough but level-headed cop just trying to make it out alive. Despite the absurd amount of cheesy lines thrown around in this film, these actors help you to notice only half of them.

This movie was presumably exactly the way most people thought it would be. Alexander Witt made it perfectly clear this was his first time sitting in the director's chair. While claiming to be an action film, this movie had all the characteristics of a mediocre picture.

The director, Alexander Witt, even made the rookie mistake of trying to fill gaps in the movie with comedy relief. Although Witt chooses Mike Epps of Next Friday, he is all wrong for this part. His character, L.J., seemed almost happy to see that people were being killed and that the city was being overrun by the living dead. The jokes that his character throws in were predictable and cheesy. They were about as painful and unfunny as Carrot Top's AT&T commercials, and only by comparing it to that could one possibly fathom how bad it was to watch this.

Even for those who like nearly all action and suspense films, this film is not recommended. By the end, you will be asking for your nine bucks and two hours back. Unfortunately there are no refunds, even for a movie such as this.