House of the Dead 2 (2005)
[+]
(Foreign Titles)
Nomination Year: 2012
SYNOPSIS: Based upon the videogame.
If I were to say to you that I recently watched, for Smithee purposes, the sequel to a movie based upon a zombie-killin' videogame, which starred an attractive zombie-killin' female, you might in turn reply that while Milla Jovovich is indeed an attractive zombie-killin' female, your opinion is that the Resident Evil franchise is too high-budget (or alternatively not bad enough) for The Smithee Awards. In turn, I would have no choice but to reveal that I am not talking about a Resident Evil film, but instead the distinctly second-tier House of the Dead 2, starring Emmanuelle Vaugier (also of Wishmaster 3, if you're keeping score).
While not as high-quality, high-concept, or high-budget as that other series, this one was a lot of Smithee fun. It was a nice change of pace to see a zombie film that didn't fetishize viscera. It helped make the movie enjoyable rather than a bloody slog.
The plot is straightforward. A campus prof has captured his son's (zombie) girlfriend and is trying to use an enzyme derived from her blood as an eternal-life serum. Of course, that doesn't go as planned, and soon the campus area is infested. A Special Science Squad (consisting of our two main characters) is called in, to be guarded by a group of Marines. The zombies pick off the Marines one-by-one, although (being Marines) the majority of deaths are characters taking themselves (or each other) out post-bite but pre-zombie. The Science Squad manages to get a Zero Generation (i.e. prof's son's girlfriend) DNA sample from her (she's still locked up in the science building), but the vial is broken as they try to escape campus. With serious resolve, they fight their way back into the science lab, and get another ... narrowly avoiding the cluster bombs that are coming.
The DNA sample is so that the science teams can create a zombie antidote. The world is safe! Or ... is it?
It isn't.
If I were to say to you that I recently watched, for Smithee purposes, the sequel to a movie based upon a zombie-killin' videogame, which starred an attractive zombie-killin' female, you might in turn reply that while Milla Jovovich is indeed an attractive zombie-killin' female, your opinion is that the Resident Evil franchise is too high-budget (or alternatively not bad enough) for The Smithee Awards. In turn, I would have no choice but to reveal that I am not talking about a Resident Evil film, but instead the distinctly second-tier House of the Dead 2, starring Emmanuelle Vaugier (also of Wishmaster 3, if you're keeping score).
While not as high-quality, high-concept, or high-budget as that other series, this one was a lot of Smithee fun. It was a nice change of pace to see a zombie film that didn't fetishize viscera. It helped make the movie enjoyable rather than a bloody slog.
The plot is straightforward. A campus prof has captured his son's (zombie) girlfriend and is trying to use an enzyme derived from her blood as an eternal-life serum. Of course, that doesn't go as planned, and soon the campus area is infested. A Special Science Squad (consisting of our two main characters) is called in, to be guarded by a group of Marines. The zombies pick off the Marines one-by-one, although (being Marines) the majority of deaths are characters taking themselves (or each other) out post-bite but pre-zombie. The Science Squad manages to get a Zero Generation (i.e. prof's son's girlfriend) DNA sample from her (she's still locked up in the science building), but the vial is broken as they try to escape campus. With serious resolve, they fight their way back into the science lab, and get another ... narrowly avoiding the cluster bombs that are coming.
The DNA sample is so that the science teams can create a zombie antidote. The world is safe! Or ... is it?
It isn't.
Kevin Hogan
"Whoops!"
Michael Hurst
Sid Haig
