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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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.

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Back in the early 2000′s, studios both big and small were starting to really get on the bandwagon of computer-generated animated films. Pixar was already rolling in giant piles of money, and other people wanted the same, so they started cranking out some relatively decent pictures like Shrek and a few others. Then things took a turn when Robots hit screens in 2005.

It then became clear to the general public that just because a studio has the ability to make a computer-animated film with a handful of well-known actors, doesn’t mean they necessarily should. This is the case with Sony’s Resident Evil: Afterlife.

We can all face the fact that 3D has taken over modern cinema, and it isn’t going anywhere any time soon. The positive side to that fact is that we get some visually genius and beautiful films such as Avatar. The negative to that is when something like Alice in Wonderland or Clash of the Titans are done in 3D after they’ve been made, and all the process does is ruin the experience.

Resident Evil: Afterlife likes to take 3D to the precipice of being campy and overplayed, and do an Irish jig on that line. Technically, the film is a mess. It looks like a music video someone wrote after staying up all night watching a Matrix marathon. There are wire techniques that don’t even bother looking like they would ever take place in this physical world, in which the main character Alice (Mila Jovovich) just awkwardly hangs in the air.

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This should be interesting. Take two of the best actors working today, Robert De Niro and Edward Norton, put them together in a film where they are forced to be together and their lives and character’s stories are inexorably linked, throw in some action, suspense and gunfire and you will more than likely have a recipe for a hit.

The upcoming film Stone could just be one of those hits. It has the right elements and the story of a seasoned corrections official and a scheming inmate whose lives become dangerously intertwined seems like the perfect way to get De Niro and Norton back together again.

Not convinced? Well, we’ve got a trailer for the film to share with you that may just do the trick. In it we see both De Niro and Norton in action as they battle for supremacy and try to outwit and out-think each other. It makes for some intense scenes for sure.

Check out the trailer after the jump. Stone, which is directed by John Curran, also stars Milla Jovovich and Frances Conroy, It hits theaters on October 8th.

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We’ve been following this one relatively closely as we’re pretty big fans of actress Milla Jovovich, ass kicking and zombie hordes. So, when those things are combined, as they are in the Resident Evil series of films, you can be we are right there to cover it in anticipation of a great time.

With three films already down, a fourth installment of the Resident Evil franchise is on the way. Director Paul W.S. Anderson returns with Resident Evil: Afterlife, which continues the story of Alice and her quest to destroy the Umbrella Corporation all while kicking those zombie asses we mentioned before. Now, we’ve got a new trailer for the film to share with you today.

In this one, our favorite heroine again makes it look easy mowing down tons of zombies, Umbrella troops, jumping, kicking and slicing all while looking great in a fancy new outfit. Plus, we’ve also got some new baddies, sword fights and the return of Ali Larter as Claire Redfield and Sienna Guillory as Jill Valentine. Yeah, this looks pretty good.

Check out this new trailer after the jump. Resident Evil: Afterlife hits theaters on September 10th.

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Yesterday, we gave you a first peak at some screens from Resident Evil: Afterlife, the fourth film in the series which comes to theaters in 3D on September 10th. Today, we’ve gotten our hands on the first trailer for the movie and it has us a little worried. It has been an ongoing debate about the benefits of 3D in movies coming back as the big film trend. Some movies have used it in ways that it has provided added value to an already good flick while others have only had 3D effects to try and help cover a weak central story.

From the look of the trailer below, it looks like the main push of Resident Evil: Afterlife will be its 3D effects. Instead of focusing on the story or successes of the past three films, the trailer makes sure to name drop the use of James Cameron and Vincent Pace’s Fusion Camera System which was used in shooting Avatar. From the looks of the trailer, much of the movie is going to emphasize these stereotypical 3D effects of objects flying towards the screen at the audience.

While it obviously remains to be seen whether Resident Evil: Afterlife will be able to stand on its own or if it is dependent on its visual effects to get by. Take a peek after the jump and let us know what you think about it and make sure to stick right here for more on Resident Evil: Afterlife as it becomes available.

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