Poor Alice. She keeps waking up wet, naked and alone. When last we saw her, she was escaping from a top-secret medical research facility with four other survivors of a nuclear "accident" that destroyed the fictional Raccoon City. Actually, an evil scientist employed by the multinational Umbrella Corporation allowed the group to leave so he could activate a secret program implanted in dear Alice.

Watching Resident Evil: Extinction, the third installment in a series inspired by the video game, made me wish that I had a secret program implanted in me that would allow me to watch the movie in fast forward mode. Whereas the first installment in the series had a pleasant degree of kooky, claustrophobic atmosphere, and the second (Resident Evil: Apocalypse) had the virtue of non-stop action sequences -- even if the action was often silly and indecipherable visually -- Extinction has no such saving grace.

The first two films also had the benefit of lovely supporting distractions, in the persons of sexy fighting femme butt-kickers Michelle Rodriguez (in the first) and Sienna Guillory (in the second). Alas, Extinction completely wastes Ali Larter, who is reduced to striding around purposefully and acting compassionate as the leader of a group of survivors. This ain't Heroes, folks. Milla Jovovich previously appeared to revel in her unlikely role as Alice, a supremely efficient killing machine, but here she pouts and frowns and labors under the weight of tons of pancake makeup affixed to her face, to what purpose or intent I do not know.

Sony Pictures has launched the official site for Resident Evil: Extinction. This time around: Alice, our genetically enhanced heroine (Milla Jovovich) is lost in the wastelands of Nevada while fending off the evil plans of the Umbrella Corporation. Joining Jovovich as fellow plague survivors are Heroes' Ali Larter and R&B singer Ashanti. Also returning are Oded Fehr as Carlos Oliviera and Mike Epps as L.J. Last month we had gotten word of a new R trailer for the film and another gallery of photos released to the web. The arrival of a web site might not seem like such a big deal, especially in the current climate of viral fever, but there's plenty of cool content. There are wallpapers, screen savers, and loads of media gallerie, as well as a pretty decent online game -- but be warned; it's armed with one of those age-verification login pages.

Resident Evil: Extinction was directed by Russell Mulcahy; according to this piece over at Movies Online, Paul W.S. Anderson's script has reportedly taken elements from the RE: Code Veronica. Anderson has written his share of video game flicks, including all three of the Resident Evil flicks, and directing the first one back in 2002. There had been some debate over whether Extinction was going to be the last film in the series, but Sony refers to the film as "the third and final installment", so I guess it really is the end for Alice -- I can only hope she will go out in style. Extinction hits theaters September 21st.

[via ComingSoon.net]

You can't keep a good film down. Well okay ... a passable film. It's no secret a third Resident Evil film is on the way, building on the undeniably mediocre success of the first two. Resident Evil: Extinction will serve as the finale to the video game franchise's film run; a run which was easily among the most successful for a video game-to-movie titles. The final film will see the return of most of the franchise's stars, most notably of course being Milla Jovovich. A new actress can now be added to the list, as singer/actress Ashanti's official website now declares she will be joining the film's cast. No indication of what part she will be playing has been offered as yet.

I will never forgive Ashanti for the fiasco that was Muppets Wizard of Oz. I know she didn't write it or anything but the film hurt my soul, and she was a big part of the reason. Don't get me wrong ... I still loved the Muppets (and always will), but the flick could have been a whole lot better, starting with the casting of Dorothy. Hm, this post took a pretty radical turn there, from killer zombie flick to the Muppets. I'd apologize for it, but there's never a reason to apologize for talking about the Muppets.