"Resident Evil" - Bryan Damage

Medical courier Bryan (Austin Abrams) is given a delivery of a valuable biological substance, likely an organ, with an urgent time frame, double pay and a snowy mountain road, heading for "Racoon City". His journey takes a rapid downturn...

(People)
Three for Three from horror maestro and "You done fucked up now!" Abraham Lincoln impersonator Zach Cregger!
After the incredible debut "Barbarian" and wild sophomore spookfest "Weapons", it was kind of disappointing to hear news that he would be tackling the horror video game with the shittiest writing of the industry, and as a videogame movie to boot! Look, we've had a relatively good hit rate this year for videogame movies ("Exit 8", "Mortal Kombat 2" which might be the best thing since sliced bread, and "Iron Lung") but this is still a game based on "Resident Evil"...
He nailed it.
It's a fun, very funny, movie akin to a point and click adventure game where our hapless put upon protagonist (a rather excellent Austin Abrams) stumbles through different environments simply attempting to survive with whatever objects he can scramble and assemble there, as ever-increasingly bizarre monsters threaten his face; all the while he gives us some actually pretty funny narration and quippy riffing on it all. He's a wiley and lovable, scrappy scamp just trying to get by, and we end up rooting for this poor bastard as things begin to spiral. The movie seems aware that "Resident Evil" is goofy and dumb, and plays with the tongue-in-cheek sensibilities of the one good game ("Resident Evil 4"), especially when Paul Walter Hauser (always a delight) shows up to steal the show for 10 minutes. There's a clever, wry recurring gag about indestructible padlocks (and the arbitrary, confined tunnel vision of door "puzzles" in these sorts of games) which pays off excellently, and it feels like a light-hearted love affair with the genre. It remembers never to be an outright comedy, keeping disgusting and unpredictable monsters thick and fast (sewer man and the one in the hospital are the best, you'll know when you see it, as it also got the biggest laugh from me when killed) whilst stretching its 15 rating for all it's worth. The film's monster design is excellent.
It's a riotous good time, and kind of what you expect from a blockbuster done by an excellent horror director. I was never bored.