The Resident Evil films are shameless, they are non-stop action filled cacophonies that are filled to the brim with characters that together share about three brain cells. So why is it that these films are so much fun? Because, for the most part, the series know what it is and it revels in it.

Director Paul W. S. Anderson is not trying to speak to the core of the human condition, he is trying to entertain the masses with well produced zombie violence. He is aiming for fun and stupid, not heady and contemplative. That is a big reason why he is my favorite of all Paul Anderson filmmakers, his goal in film-making is to entertain, and he is damn good at it.

Point of example. In the past Resident Evil films several fantastic characters have come and gone, including the immensely bad ass Oded Fehr. So what does ole W.S. do to spice up the fifth film? He brings nearly all of them back. Why, because it would be cool, that is why! No further explanation needed in this series.

Some times films should exist to put a smile on your face, to provide fun on visceral level. In that the Resident Evil movies have always succeeded, trying to reach down and entertain that inner 13-year-old inside all of us. If you want to be perplexed and challenged by a film, that other Paul Anderson has a movie coming out too, by all means enjoy it. I for one will be front and center for this particular celebration of entertainment for entertainment’s sake.

Resident Evil: Retribution hits theaters this September, check out the full trailer after the jump.

When I started writing the weekly film score review, one of the things I wanted to do was shine a light on some of my favorite scores from the past. Now that I have just passed my one-year anniversary on The Flickcast I feel now is a great time to go retro and talk about one of my favorite scores of all time, The Fifth Element.

The film is one of my five favorite of all time, and it is one of those pesky films that I can’t watch more than five minutes of it without needing to stay put and finish the rest. A huge part of that attraction comes from the score. Eric Serra crafted a unique, original and forward thinking score that lays beautifully over the top of Luc Besson’s imaginative world.

Eric Serra is a french composer who often works with Luc Besson, crafting modern and non-traditional scores that can be very polarizing. The most famous example of this was his highest profile job in America scoring the excellent Goldeneye. The film was all about making Bond relevant to a 90s audience, and for the score, that meant getting a guy who would break away from the John Barry mold. This caused quite the stir among Bond fans, and ultimately lead to an innovative score that probably just didn’t work for the movie it was made for.

If there is one franchise that has managed to live up to its very low standard, film after film, it would have to be Paul W.S. Anderson’s Resident Evil. Since the first one back in 2002, this franchise has managed to keep up with the technology, while hardly losing any of the excitement that fans are piling in to see with every new release.

With that comes Retribution, the fifth film in the franchise. This time, we’ve got a full group of folks joining from across the decade-spanning films. Joining lead Milla Jovovich this time around is Michelle Rodriguez (returning from the first film), Oded Fehr (Apocalypse & Extinction), and Sienna Guillory (Apocalypse & Afterlife).

A pretty stellar cast, given the heavy mythos of this world. And speaking of heavy, here’s the synopsis (as if you needed one):

The Umbrella Corporation’s deadly T-virus continues to ravage the Earth, transforming the global population into legions of the flesh eating Undead. The human race’s last and only hope, Alice (Milla Jovovich), awakens in the heart of Umbrella’s most clandestine operations facility and unveils more of her mysterious past as she delves further into the complex.

Without a safe haven, Alice continues to hunt those responsible for the outbreak; a chase that takes her from Tokyo to New York, Washington, D.C. and Moscow, culminating in a mind-blowing revelation that will force her to rethink everything that she once thought to be true. Aided by newfound allies and familiar friends, Alice must fight to survive long enough to escape a hostile world on the brink of oblivion. The countdown has begun.

Take a look at the trailer after the jump, in which takes a fun jab at the world of tablets we’ve come to live in. Catch Resident Evil: Retribution in theaters and in 3D on September 14th.

Welcome to this latest edition of Web Video Roundup where we highlight the best in online video made by pros and fans alike. This week we’ve got Captain America, Conan, a Supercut Superdump and stunt driver Ken Block doing his thing on the Universal back lot. If you haven’t seen what this guy can do with a car, you’re really missing out.

Let’s get to the vids!

• Everybody loves Jersey Shore (for some reason) so it’s time that real stars like John Lithgow and Jesse Eisenberg get in on that sweet reality money.

• Who doesn’t love some early set footage of The Avengers in which Captain America kicks some ass? We certainly do!

• Matthew Rhys puts his collective minds together to figure out how to get laid in this killer Herman’s Head-inspired short.

• Doctor Who fans will appreciate this one: the Don’t Blink Cat Strikes!

• If we see no other trailer for the upcoming Conan The Barbarian remake, this fan trailer alone will make us race to the theater with anticipation.

• There’s nothing worse than Face Blindness (whatever that is). That’s exactly what Milla Jovovich is cursed with in the new trailer for Faces in the Crowd.

The Summer movie season is in full swing and as such we should expect to see lots of trailers and other publicity materials for all sorts of movies coming out over the next few months. This time around Summit Entertainment has released a new trailer for director Paul W.S. Anderson’s The Three Musketeers.

This one is a new take on the classic Alexandre Dumas story that also happens to be in 3D. Not sure why the director and producers felt like it needed to be in 3D but heck, what do I know?

With audiences seemingly less interested in 3D these days and unwilling to pay premium prices for it, it seems like a bad idea to make this kind of movie in 3D — especially if something like Transformers 3 doesn’t help revive the 3D slump.

Although, according to the trailer, this movie was filmed in 3D and not converted after the fact. At least that’s something and doesn’t completely look like such a blatant grab for extra case from audiences. Plus, the movie has the underrated Ray Stevenson, Christoph Waltz and Milla Jovovich, so at least that’s something.

Click through for the trailer. The Three Musketeers hits theaters on October 14th.

If you’ve been following the marketing for Stone, you are no doubt poised to see a psychological thriller, of sorts. Unfortunately, Stone plays more like a  psychodrama than a psychological thriller.  The movie does a bang-up  job of establishing that something very, very  bad is going to happen.

Through music, imagery and a frightening  flashback we are conditioned to believe that there will be a showdown between good and evil.  I found myself on the edge of my seat, waiting for the proverbial shoe to drop, but it never does.

A strangely meandering story just sort of sputters out, and the film ends abruptly, prompting a “huh, you mean that was it?” It’s a pity, because there was a lot of potential in the movie.

Robert De Niro stars as Jack Mabry, a parole officer who works in a prison, reviewing cases to determine which inmates are qualified for a parole hearing.  He pores over the minutiae of each case, studies the files and conducts in-depth interviews with the potential parolees.  He is about to retire from his position when he is given one last case to review.

Edward Norton plays Gerald Creeson, who goes by the moniker “Stone.”  He is Jack’s last case. He has served ten years for arson, and he is starting to lose his mind within the confines of prison.  He is desperate to get out.  His sex-kitten wife Lucetta (Milla Jovovich) is also eager to have him back in her bed, and she is more than willing to use her sexuality to influence Jack’s decision.

By Shannon Hood and Jane Almirall

Each day we will provide you with capsule reviews and impressions of the films we see at Fantastic Fest, along with any activities or interviews we attend.  Complete reviews and interviews can be found on the site in upcoming weeks.

Day one of fantastic fest we hit the ground running and went straight from the airport to pick up our press badges.  We managed to cram in three screenings for the day, starting at 4pm.  Not too shabby.

Screening: Stone. Directed by John Curran and starring Edward Norton, Robert De Niro, Frances Conroy, and Milla Jovovich.  Summary: A convicted arsonist (Norton) looks to manipulate a parole officer (De Niro) into a plan to secure his parole by placing his beautiful wife (Jovovich)  in the lawman’s path.

Jane’s thoughts:  This was an unusual experience for me.  I was half expecting this to play out like a thriller-but instead I watched a slow (but evenly paced) meditative, existential character study.

The performances were great, but I can’t say I enjoyed the film (to its credit,we discussed it a great deal afterwards.)

The characters in Stone never quite feel like actual people, rather they represent certain characteristics of humanity.  Their stories slowly unfold to reveal that in the end, we are back at the beginning and haven’t moved an inch.

As summer dies down with explosive fire power and spiritual journeys to other lands, I recall the glorious action fest that was The Expendables. In turns out Julia Roberts has nothing on protein packed men with a mission on their minds. My female counterparts have voiced their love of meaty men in droves and unexpectedly taken away business from Julia’s love fest. Nearly 40 percent of The Expendables‘ audience was women. X-Men Origins: Wolverine‘s audience raked them in as nearly 50 percent of the audience was female. It seems women have tired of the boys akin to Michael Cera and instead jones for something with a little more muscle. Stallone should have learned the key to Hugh Jackman’s success to driving women in throngs- taking off his shirt.

I hear Hugh gave up his lead in Avon Man to start his insane work-out to become the ferocious mutant once again. If you take months upon months to beef up like these 80‘s action legends did, you’d think they’d want to show it off. Plus, wasn’t it super hot in Louisiana and Brazil where The Expendables shot? It was like 100 degrees with 100 percent humidity. Stallone couldn’t have been the only one who was feeling the heat.  Take off those shirts and up your female movie-going audience to 51 percent.

This week on The Flickcast Chris and Matt dive into more topics of interest and discuss issues affecting society. No, not really. They mostly just bitch about the current state of Hollywood and the lack of creativity in most studio films.

They also manage to talk about a few other things including upcoming premieres of new and returning TV programs such as Community, Fringe, The Big Bang Theory and Chuck as well as the success and relative merits of the latest Resident Evil franchise film. They also talked about more TV programs this week including James Cameron’s True Lies, Ryan Reynolds returning to TV as a producer and new scripted series coming from MTV.

Of course, Chris and Matt also made some picks this week including Matt’s pick of the 1988 Gary Busey film Bulletproof and Chris’ pick of the new Shawn Ryan TV series Terriers.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, at Facebook and MySpace or via email.

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With Resident Evil: Afterlife 3D topping the box office this weekend, it should come as no surprise that the next installment is already in the works. As the only major release of the weekend, Resident Evil topped the box office with $27.7M, which was enough reason to spawn a fifth sequel.

According to Milla Jovovich, the film’s star and wife of director Paul W.S. Anderson, this was the most successful film in the franchise.  In an interview with New York Magazine she said,”This new Resident Evil is the first one to ever open at No. 1 worldwide. It’s the biggest movie in the franchise.”

Unfortunately this statistic is true but not exactly accurate. With the additional charge for 3D viewings of the film, the film has made more in dollars and did take the number one spot at the box office, but it was the worst of the franchise in terms of attendance. From Box Office Mojo.

In terms of estimated attendance, Afterlife likely ranked last and slightly behind the first movie: Afterlife only seemed more popular due to general ticket price inflation and the movie’s premium for the 3D illusion. 2,062 venues showed the picture in regular 3D, while it ran in IMAX 3D at another 141 venues.