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It's time for us to dive back into video game movies, and this time we wanted to tackle the first CGI entry to the Resident Evil canon: Resident Evil Degeneration (aka "DE-GENERATION ZED!"). That's right, the games that started life as "Tank Jank" (as Squidge puts it) spawned several CGI movies, and this is the first in the series. But does it hold up against the Hollywood movies? There's only one way to find out.
psst. we've done a bunch of these "goes to the movies" episodes. Check this page to see all of the released specials.
This is actually a sample of the full show notes - make sure to click here to check out the full show notes.
Content Warning
As this is an episode about a biopunk action horror movie and the games that it's based on we'd advise a little caution for this episode. There's nothing explicitly terrible in this episode, but the subject matter can be pretty rough.
This episode has a few swears in it, but none which should be too offensive.
Please listen responsibly.
Show Notes
Squidge started the episode in his own, fantastic way:
From active time battling to zombie slaying Waffling Taylors covers video games and beyond.
In this episode, we cover the 2008 CGI video game movie Resident Evil: Degeneration. We chat about all manner of topics, including everything from snooty british accents to the zombie wrestling week.
So without further ado, sit back, grab some snacks, and get ready for this episode entitled "Resident Evil Degeneration - Death In The Departure Lounge". Oh my.
Enjoy.
— Squidge
Initial Thoughts
Whilst it got a (very) limited theatrical release, both Jay and Squidge first saw this on Blue-Ray DVDs—remember when Blu-Ray movies where a new thing?
Jay brought up some points about how this was Capcom's attempts to regain control from the ... big-ball-of-mud (shall we say) that is the Paul W. S. Anderson Resident Evil movies. But as he said in Resident Evil and the Paper Kimono:
It's fun if you're able to, like, take all of the ideas of it being a "Resident Evil" movie out and just enjoy it. For a zombie action horror movie, it's actually lots of fun
— Jay
And whilst a lot of people initially reacted to the lack of horror aspects in this movie, Jay said that it's worth pointing out that this game came out between Resident Evil 4 and 5; putting it smack dab in the middle of the over-the-shoulder action-oriented phase of the games. And during this monologue (of sorts), Jay brought up the idea of revisiting "Resident Evil: Welcome To Racoon City" for the podcast because:
I think we're gonna have to cover [Resident Evil: Welcome To Racoon City]. And, like, the reaction.
Because I feel like, I feel like it's been long enough now that the people who initially reacted when it first came out was like, "No, Leon's stupid in this movie." And "oh, oh, they used the Jill sandwich line too early," and all that kind of stuff. I'm talking about welcome to Raccoon City right there; [and the] detractors from that movie.
I think now that it's been a few years and now that it's no longer cool to [poop] on that movie, they're all going to be like, "nah, nah. I loved it when it first came out."
— Jay
The article that he mentioned can be found here, and an article which is more about gamers reactions to videogame movies can be found here. Both are worth a read.
But heading back to the movie in question, both Jay and Squidge had a ton of fun watching this movie.
Someone was asking me the other day, "so what's this movie like then?"
And I said, "imagine Die Hard 2 meets Snakes On A Plane, meets Day Of The Dead and you've got it." That's essentially the movie
— Jay
Full Show Notes
Make sure to check out the full show notes for more discussion on the points we raise, some extra meta-analysis, some out-of-context screen grabs from the movie, and some links to related things.
What other movies would you like us to cover? Let us know on Discord, X, Facebook, or try our brand-new contact page.
psst. we've done a bunch of these "goes to the movies" episodes. Check this page to see all of the released specials.
Links of Interest
Signing Off... For Now
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