Alice in Zombieland

Resident Evil: The Final Chapter

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RESIDENT Evil is awesome. It’s fun, entertaining, engrossing, and can get really really scary when those zombies jump out at you. And don’t even get me started on those boss battles ... oh wait, you’re talking about the movie franchise? Is that even based on the video games anymore? Heck, I can’t even keep track of how many movies there have been already.

Anyway, for this sixth and supposedly final chapter, Milla Jovovich’s Alice heads back to the place where it all started – The Hive, the Umbrella Corporation’s underground headquarters – for a final confrontation with the dastardly Albert Wesker (Shawn Roberts) and Dr Alexander Isaacs (Iain Glen), in a bid to end the T-Virus plague once and for all.

You should know what to expect from the franchise by now – lots of over-the-top undead-killing action, and Alice looking cool while doing it. After a handy recap of how the whole T-Virus mess happened in the first place, the opening fight against a giant flying thingy sets the tone for the rest of the movie, which pretty much consists of one action setpiece after another. The standout sequence, however, involves Alice leading a settlement of survivors in a standoff against an army of undead and Isaacs’ armoured tanks – the fiery climax of this battle is arguably one of the most memorable scenes from the entire franchise.

From then on, the film digresses to a dungeon crawl in which Alice navigates the various traps in The Hive with a group of people (including Ali Larter’s Clare), most of whom are there just to demonstrate exactly how lethal those traps are. It gets a bit tedious at this point, to be honest, and by the second or third one, you’ll be begging for a zombie to put you out of your misery. Still, at least Alice gets a kickass final boss fight this time around.

If you’ve already watched the first five Resident Evil films, you might as well make it a set. But if you want something more than a mindless zombie action movie, just go play the video game instad.

– Michael Cheang The Bye-Bye Man

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VOLDEMORT sympathisers would be happy to note that the Dark Lord has been reincar- nated in a B-grade horror flick. Because that’s exactly what the Bye Bye Man looks like here – albeit a bit more “street”.

Harry Potter aspirations aside, there’s really nothing much going for this college horror flick. Punk Voldemort – er, sorry, I mean Bye Bye Man – is summoned from a haunted nightstand at an off-campus home recently rented by three friends.

Now, the supernatural entity here is not all-powerful like in most movies of this type. Refrain from thinking or saying his name (He Who Must Not Be Named, anybody?) and you’ll be safe from the wrath of the boogeyman. This results in the creepy mantra “Don’t think it, don’t say it” being repeated throughout the film’s shabby pace and its accompanying promotional poster.

But with its poor editing, a half-baked plot and horrendous acting, moviegoers might want to consider a third mantra: Don’t watch it.

– Chester Chin A Monster Calls

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CONOR is a boy who is too old to be a kid and too young to be an adult, no thanks to the awful things he has to deal with; his mother dying of cancer being the worst of these. There is also a spot of bullying, an absent father and a strict grandmother thrown in for good measure.

And finally, a monster who visits him on some nights. But really, what is a monster compared to all the terrible problems he is having?

Director J.A. Bayona delivers on this emotional tale, with strong performances from the cast – Liam Neeson (voicing the monster) and young Lewis MacDougall are especially impressive – as well as beautiful illustrations and special effects.

Throughout the film you are just waiting in trepidation, like Conor, for the worst to happen. When it does, it comes with a heartfelt revelation. – Mumtaj Begum

Arrival

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IT’S not often you’ll find a movie like Arrival that speaks to both the mind and the heart.

This sci-fi film, directed by Denis Villeneuve ( Sicario, Prisoners), begins with 12 alien spaceships landing in 12 locations around the world. Protagonist Louise Banks (Amy Adams) is a linguistics professor sent to one of the spaceships in Montana to communicate with the extraterrestrials and find out their purpose on Earth.

Banks has to start from scratch, teaching them our language and understanding theirs, before getting any answers at all. And that process is absolutely fascinating. A large part of the film documents Banks and her team trying to decipher what the aliens are saying in their language. It gets very science-y here but the film presents it so well, it’s beautiful to watch.

The film also weaves in a touching narrative of Banks’ life and her private pains. There’s a moment when Arrival suddenly shifts from being just a science fiction movie to a deep, reflective piece about the things that matter in life. And that’s when it truly soars.

– Kenneth Chaw Patriots Day

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I’LL be honest, walking into the cinema hall, I was expecting something akin to Michael Bay’s overdone flag-waving theatrics in Transformers or Pearl Harbor, as this film is based off a very recent terrorist attack in Boston in 2013, and this may deter some due to Hollywood’s supposed insensitivity in making a feature film about it so soon after the real deal.

But I did not expect Patriots Day, the second 2016 offering from director Peter Berg and star Mark Wahlberg following Deepwater Horizon, to be a riveting thriller from start to finish that honours its everyday heroes gloriously.

Berg introduces his various sets of realworld characters, sans Wahlberg’s (more on him later), before startling everyone with a chilling, graphic re-enactment of the attack – made all the more morbid with Berg splicing in actual footage from the aftermath. The hunt for the two terrorists gets underway for a good chunk of the film from here on out, with killer suspense sequences – a standout scene involving the criminals taking a terrified hostage along for the ride – that climaxes with a great shootout in the Bostonian suburbs.

Berg assembles a mighty fine cast here – John Goodman, J.K. Simmons and Kevin Bacon especially – but my biggest gripe is Wahlberg himself. He’s playing a fictional cop, and everyone in the film looks to him as the guy with all the answers. A bit annoying, but the focus refreshingly isn’t on him all the time, and Berg maintains the suspenseful momentum like an expert tennis player, even ending the film with a poignant tribute to its heroes – both the fallen and survivors. – Delton V. Cox