Double Feature: Stoker & 21 and Over

There are two reasons I haven't really been writing lately. Two weeks ago it was because I was vacationing in Florida and did not see a single film in that time. Last week it was because this is March, and there's hardly anything worth watching, let alone writing about. I WAS looking forward to The Croods (look for my Open Letters review soon), but other than that I've been massively let down by most of the titles early this year. The big ones have either been disappointing or outright bad, and I admit it's been a struggle to look ahead and see the potentially great movies releasing in the next few months, from Iron Man 3 to Star Trek Into Darkness to Elysium. But the idea of gems hidden in the rough compels me to go back to the theater, and I'm going to tell you about two such titles, with the psychological thriller Stoker and the raucous comedy 21 and Over.

In the first, Mia Wasikowska plays India Stoker, a quiet, somewhat creepy 18 year-old whose mother Evelyn (Nicole Kidman) doesn't understand her and whose father Richard has just died in a car crash. While the two women try to recover from their family tragedy, they are visited by Richard's distant brother Charlie (Matthew Goode), who stays in their home in an effort to help them cope. But when people close to the family start disappearing, India wonders where Charlie has been her entire life, and how he will affect both her and her mother. Soon a new side to India opens, one hidden long away. She has to decide whether she wants the potentially-harmful Charlie gone from her life, or whether she wants him all to herself.

I've learned never to trust anyone with a Green Thumb.

Stoker is most notable for being the American debut of South Korean director Park Chan-wook, best known for the classic Oldboy. His movies are generally very adult matters, and this film earns its R rating not through graphic depictions of violence and sex (those are there too) but through the kind of psychological horror that not many modern filmmakers would touch. Chan-wok follows in the footsteps of Hitchcock, not just in content but creatively, as well. He creates perfect camera angles many couldn't copy and features exquisite scenes such as an erotic piano duet (yup, never thought I'd put those words together) and one bit in particular that focuses exclusively on Kidman's face and showcases her amazing talent. Speaking of the actors, Wasikowska and Goode play up the creepy to a perfect degree, though I doubt anybody would have expected otherwise. While Stoker also has a talented supporting cast, it's the trio of leads who really keep your attention and never allow you to grow bored.

Seriously. Wow.

Unfortunately, these are the best parts of Stoker, which opens up the floor to the worst as well. The story isn't properly fleshed out, with the narrative swerving into completely unnecessary territory all the time. It also takes its sweet time finding a rhythm, and while it does eventually settle into a groove that finishes out the final act, there was all this setup that you almost wish you hadn't had to sit through; if a movie is better when you've shown up twenty minutes late, then it's doing it wrong. There are also some serious logic problems that never get explained, character motivations that remain obscured to ridiculous degrees, and no real sense of urgency or responsibility for their actions. This is a good screenplay by Wentworth Miller (yes, the Prison Break actor), but it could have used a ton of polishing before shooting began.

The creepiest eyes in Hollywood.

I did like Stoker, but if I'm being fair this a movie with a hell of a lot of problems. It has a bunch of Hitchcock's flair but almost none of his dedication to quality, though at least it is a better debut for a Korean director than Kim Ji-woon's The Last Stand. Stoker has a few a surprises, mixing it's psychological thrills with erotic noire, and the result is a decent - if far from perfect - place to start. Still, this might be better off as a rental, as I'm not sure the experience from watching this can be appreciated in a movie theater when sitting in a dark home theater wrapped in a blanket is DEFINITELY the way to go.

Far less original (but almost certainly more irreverent) is 21 and Over, directed by the writers of The Hangover, Jon Lucas and Scott Moore. In it, former high school best friends Casey (Skylar Astin) and Miller (Miles Teller) surprise their Straight-A bestie Jeff Chang (Justin Chon) on his 21'st birthday, with the intent of giving him a night of drunkenness and debauchery. But troubles arise in the form of Jeff's strict father, who has scheduled a Medical School interview for him early the next morning. What start off as "just one drink" quickly becomes more than a dozen, and when Casey and Miller have an unconscious Jeff and no idea where they are, it's a race against time to get him into bed and somewhere on the way to sobriety before morning, whether that means infiltrating a sorority, escaping angry mobs, or outrunning the cops. They've got until 7 a.m. to set things right. Until then, everything that can go wrong, WILL go wrong.

Please leave your air horns at home.

21 and Over is a combination of The Hangover, Project X and any college antics movie from the 70's. In fact, despite the multitude of offensive statements, excessive cursing and insane situations depicted in the movie, there's very little in this film that could possibly shock its potential - and very forgiving - audience. Lucas and Moore are definitely following a path laid forth by their predecessors, blissfully ignoring minute complications like idiotic characters, offensive stereotypes and bad examples, thanks to the people watching that simply don't care about those things. Sure, ignore the fact that the next morning these guys are going to be suffering from some severe alcohol poisoning, and the rest of the film STILL doesn't make any reasonable sense.

This would have been a much shorter movie if they'd just had the one drink.

And yet 21 and Over's egregious sense of ego is actually what makes it so charming. See, the filmmakers realize and then explore exactly what guy friendships are all about. Best friends come back together after long periods apart and instantly remember what they loved about hanging out. Guys will eternally have their friends backs, even faced with long odds and impossibilities. Even when they fight, it's bare-knuckled brawling one minute and all-forgiven back-slapping the next. While Casey and Miller definitely have their issues with one another (like the guys from The Hangover), they don't hold back and keep their mouths shut, because that's not what guy friends do. But neither do they let it get in the way of their mission, and the pair never lose focus on what's important: getting Jeff Chang home and ready for his appointment before his father finds out.

It doesn't hurt that despite its sameness, 21 and Over is still a very funny, occasionally shocking good time at the theater. Is it better than Revenge of the Nerds or Animal House? No, but it hangs on nicely with the drug and alcohol-infused comedies of the modern era, and the cast of Astin, Teller, Chon and Sarah Wright make for a charismatic group of young actors worthy of your ticket purchases. Unapolagetically rude and crude, you can't get much funnier at the movies right now.

Paul W.S. Anderson, Resident Genius

Thank goodness for Paul W.S. Anderson. Okay, yes, the films he has directed or produced have varied widely in quality, with Mortal Kombat, Event Horizon, Alien vs. Predator and Pandorum falling on both sides of the good/bad quality line. He's been one of the more frustrating movie makers in recent years, as for every indication he gives that he is able to make quality entertainment, the next picture he produces reeks of overly stylized, arrogant turd. Resident Evil, which he directed way back in 2002, stands as one of his better works behind the camera. Despite writing the first two sequels, Resident Evil: Apocalypse and Resident Evil: Extinction, directors Alexander Witt and Russell Mulcahy failed to match Anderson's tone and talent, leading to sequentially mediocre films that, despite their modest intent, were ultimately found lacking, especially for those like me who are fans of the games the films are based on. Anderson, however, seems to have turned a corner, choosing - instead of simply writing and funding a fourth Resident Evil film - to once again step behind the camera and put his money where his script is.

Okay, I just wanted to download some Femme Fatale images

If you HAVE been following the movies up to this point (and give yourself a round of applause if you have for making it), you probably know that what happens in the films bears little resemblance as to what happened in the original games. Yes, there are zombies, but whereas the games contained any widespread infection via natural or man-made methods, the second and third movies pretty much resulted in worldwide infection, leaving the world with little in the way of human survivors. That's where Alice comes in. Still played by Anderson's wife Milla Jovovich, Alice is still something of a mystery. Originally just an employee of the evil Umbrella Corporation (who manufactured the T-Virus that caused all the problems), Alice has been experimented on, displaying fantastic abilities and mental powers. Now, with an army of clones (experiments discovered at the end of Extinction) as her own personal army, Alice has taken the fight to Umbrella with the intent of destroying them permanently.

Oh, my, what big... swords... you have...

At least, that's how Resident Evil: Afterlight begins. Thankfully, after being treated to an explosive and bloody opening of Alice's army overtaking and destroying a secret Umbrella facility in Japan, all that is taken away by the purposeful destruction of the base (taking all the Alice clones with it), and Umbrella chairman Albert Wesker (Shawn Roberts, replacing Jason O'Mara from the original) slipping a drug into the original Alice that counteracts the virus that brought on her psychic powers in the first place. This thankfully saves the film from being a wrong-sided one-sided battle, forcing Alice to retreat and regroup. Attempting to link up with Claire Redfield (Ali Larter), who escaped to Alaska with a number of other survivors trying to find a safe haven in this hell. When she does find where the survivors escaped to however, she only finds an amnesiac Claire and no sign of any such safe location. And so the two must search for more survivors as it looks quite grim for the human race with Umbrella and billions of zombies left in charge.

Trying to look cool, Chris gets a boot in the face half a second later

Resident Evil: Afterlife was filmed using the same 3D technology James Cameron used in Avatar, and it shines more brightly here than any other 3D film released this year. Though still sometimes used for the expressed effect of the viewer feeling that something is coming right at him (not that I'm complaining, it's actually compelling here), the 3D also does a bang-up job of immersing the viewer in the environment of the movie at all times. Clouds, fog banks, running water, all are beautifully filmed to stunning effect with little to nothing looking like it doesn't belong. Five years after worldwide infection, the world has degraded, some areas worse than others. While rural Alaska is practically untouched by the zombie horde, Los Angeles is a gutted mess, with burning buildings the norm and a maximum security prison the only safe place. Anderson does a grand job of capturing the two moods, the blissful tranquility versus a dark, gloomy hole. Unlike the claustrophobic and similar-looking hallways of the original film, the director really gets a chance to play contrast, and it works out to the betterment of the film.

This image doesn't do it justice... the 3D water effects are AMAZING

The acting here is surprisingly good as well, with Jovovich all but born to play the main protagonist, Alice. As a fan of the games, it does bother me a little that a character that has no bases in the games has become the defining face of the films. Several characters from the games, from Leon Kennedy to Ada Wong have never even appeared in the films, yet Alice is probably more well known now than either. I know since the films don't share the same canon as the games, but it can still be irksome. Thankfully, Jovovich has never failed to entertain in this role, so my initial dislike can only go so far before I'm hooked. Her obnoxious voice overs aside, Alice is a force, and Jovovich carefully maintains that character well through the course of the movie, overshadowing her co-stars, though not by much. Larter puts on one of her better performances as Claire, a survivalist slowly regaining her memory over the course of the film's timeline. Prison Break's Wentworth Miller makes a great addition to the cast as Claire's brother (and RE1 original) Chris Redfield, who Alice and Claire meet in Los Angeles. In Chris, we have a soldier shocked to discover that his sister has survived the apocalypse that has swallowed the world, and Miller does a great job of conveying his strength, professionalism, and determination with little need for overly dramatic dialogue to prove the fact. Other notable additions to the cast are Boris Kodjoe as a former professional athlete and celebrity who shares some tender moments with Alice, and Kim Coates as a one-time Hollywood agent who has had a difficult time of establishing himself in this new world. Roberts is good in an over-the-top way as Albert Wesker, doing a good approximation of Wesker a la Code Veronica. Sure, he's almost hokey, but considering the character was always somewhat hokey in the games (when he wasn't deadly dangerous), it fits the character profile perfectly. This is by far the most impressive cast put together for this film franchise, and the movie comes out amazingly for it.

Whoops, now you've done it!

The game again borrows liberally from the monster gallery that inhabits the games, including two never before seen enemy types to the film. Well, moviegoers like myself might not have recognized them, but a little research does wonders. All new zombies with faces that part to show tendrils and teeth manage to dig their way into more than a few crevices, and a huge, lumbering monster with a hood over his head and a ginormous axe for a weapon are the main additions to the series, known as "majini" and the "Executioner", respectively. Both come from the Resident Evil 5 game, which of course is the only game in the main series I've yet to even play. Their addition was made welcome by the fact that they created a whole new dynamic from the typical zombie fare, and the tremendous 3D effects meant that unlike the Nemesis in Apocalypse or the Tyrant in Extinction, you never felt like Alice was just fighting a guy in a rubber suit (which, when they took a punch, the costume would depress in such a way as to actually look like a rubber suit) when taking on the Executioner. The monster effects are amazing overall, and never detract from the movie for one iota.

Yeah, I'd add "run" to the top of my "to do" list about now...

Cynics will critique Resident Evil: Afterlight for not being true canon, as prescribed by the games. I won't argue with that fact. At first, it seemed like the films in this series were trying to establish a new story based on the same continuity, but now what seems to be happening is the opposite. While still respecting the source material when relating to characters from the game, the film franchise has become something else entirely, using those same characters, monsters and relationships to tell it's OWN continuity, something I didn't think I'd see from this series. It's quite impressive what Anderson's been able to accomplish here, and I have to give him credit for not being handicapped by the original material and putting together his own interpretation of where the series wants to go.

It ended in 2009, but Miller is still trying to stage a Prison Break

Is Resident Evil: Afterlight a perfect movie? Heck, no. Like the earlier movies, it has little to no regard for it's original characters, killing off the most useless ones quickly and messily. Also, while the plot is better than those of the last two films, that's not saying much, and the quick reboot of Alice's powers and clones is a clear sign that Anderson knew he made a mistake introducing those elements in the last movie. It's still the best 3D movie I've seen this year, however, even beating out the very fun Piranha 3D, and I'm as shocked as you to announce that it's now my new #7 film of 2010. It probably won't stay there, but as the reigning king of 3D films, it earned it's spot.

Yeah, my thoughts exactly

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got six different Resident Evil games on my living room shelf that are now begging to be picked up and replayed.