Rush Hour 3 & Resident Evil: Extinction Blu-ray Specs & Review

Rush Hour 3 (Blu-ray) Overall Grade Worth For Collection

New Line Home Entertainment / 2007 / 90 Minutes
Street Date: December 23, 2007

Technical Specs

• Blu-ray
• BD-50 Dual-Layer Disc/BD-25 Single-Layer Disc
• Two-Disc Set

Video Resolution/Codec

• 1080p/VC-1

Aspect Ratio(s)

• 2.35:1

Audio Formats

• English DTS-HD Lossless Master Audio 7.1 Surround

Subtitles/Captions

• English SDH
• Spanish Subtitles

Supplements

• Audio Commentary
• Documentaries
• Deleted Scenes
• Outtakes

Exclusive HD Content

• Video Commentary

They say good things come in threes, and that certainly is true of certain movie trilogies. Recent three-peats like 'Spider-Man 3,' 'Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End' and 'Bourne Ultimatum' are all examples of films that -- whatever their faults may be -- are perfectly respectable sequels that creatively justified themselves beyond th

eir guaranteed box office returns. They were also follow-ups to films that are at least recent enough to retain a hint of relevancy to today's pop culture landscape. But 'Rush Hour 3' comes so long after the first 'Rush Hour' (1998) and 'Rush Hour 2' (2001) that one wonders if today's audiences even remember what the fuss was originally about. This is the kind of movie where kids will have to call up their uncles and ask why Chan and Tucker were worth watching in the first place.

As is often the case with sequels, the story is simply a greatest hits recreation of the first two 'Rush Hour' flicks. In fact, if you've seen the other 'Rush Hour' movies, you already know what happens. Chan stars as the same old Inspector Lee, who we're still supposed to laugh at because he speaks "funny English" while clobbering the bad guys with his ka-ra-te skills, while Tucker is the same old American detective Carter, who still cracks wise in such a high-pitched, shrill voice that he makes Michael Jackson sound butch. Once again, these two mis-matched cops will be thrown together to foil an identi-kit plot, this time involving some sort of assassinated ambassador, a crazy hitman with long-buried ties to Lee's childhood

in an orphanage, and the obvious criminal mastermind behind it all who looked suspiciously like the once-great actor Max Von Sydow (until I realized it actually was Max Von Sydow, a long way from his glory days working for Ingmar Bergman).

Resident Evil: Extinction (Blu-ray) Overall Grade Recommended

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / 2007 / 94 Minutes / Rated R
Street Date: January 02, 2008

Technical Specs

• Blu-ray
• BD-50 Dual-Layer Disc
• Region A/B/C

Video Resolution/Codec

• 1080p/AVC MPEG-4

Aspect Ratio(s)

• 2.40:1

Audio Formats

• English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround
• French Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround
• Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
• Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround

Subtitles/Captions

• English Subtitles
• English SDH
• French Subtitles
• Spanish Subtitles
• Portuguese Subtitles
• Chinese Subtitles

Supplements

• Audio Commentary
• Featurette
• Deleted Scenes
• Video Game Trailers

Exclusive HD Content

• Picture-in-Picture Commentary
• Blu-Wizard

Here it is in a nutshell: Better than the second movie, not as good as the first.

'Resident Evil: Extinction' picks up a few years after the end of the last franchise entry, 'Resident Evil: Apocalypse'. The picture begins with a strange replay of the first movie that eventually culminates in a clever twist. Soon after, we learn that the T-Virus infection has spread rapidly around the planet in the elapsed time, essentially wiping out most of mankind and leaving the world a barren desert wasteland overrun by zombies. In 'Mad Max' fashion, a band of survivors including returning characters Carlos Olivera (Oded Fehr) and L.J. (Mike Epps) cruise the highways in a convoy of modified and armored vehicles. Our girl Alice (Milla Jovovich) is still about as well, mostly keeping to herself as she learns to develop the superhuman telekinetic powers caused by genetic experimentation performed on her by the evil Umbrella Corporation. Naturally, she'll soon cross paths with her old friends to face off against the remnants of Umbrella, hiding in a new Hive fortress beneath the Nevada sands.

For their part, the baddies haven't abandoned their nefarious plans and are still up to no good. This time around, they've been testing a biological serum that will domesticate and control a new breed of super zombies for use as weapons. Smarter and faster than the usual lumbering brain-eaters, these new monsters pose a greater-than-usual threat to our heroes, but the formula hasn't quite been perfected yet, and for that Umbrella wants Alice back. Needless to say, she isn't particularly interested in helping the cause. All of this leads to a confrontation in Las Vegas, the city long since abandoned and swallowed by the desert.

'Extinction' is once again written by series mastermind Paul W.S. Anderson, but directed this time out by Russell Mulcahy of 'Highlander' fame. To say that this is one of Mulcahy's least idiotic movies may be damning it with faint praise (anyone else remember 'Ricochet', the boneheaded action flick that climaxed with an arm-wrestling match between Denzel Washington and John Lithgow?). Nonetheless, what he's put together here is an efficient, professional sequel with decent action, gore, and production values. It's a nice change to see this horror movie set mostly outdoors and during the daytime. The zombie dogs are back, and those are always fun. An attack by zombie crows in the middle of the movie of course steals heavily from 'The Birds', but is pretty cool anyway (Hitchcock never thought to set his birds on fire, now did he?). The movie also makes a token nod to the video game series by introducing the character of Claire Redfield, played here by Ali Larter of 'Heroes'.

The third movie thankfully pares back most of the blatant stupidity that plagued 'Apocalypse'. This isn't a smart movie by any means, but there are no annoying comic relief characters (L.J. has been given a complete personality rewrite to make him less irritating) and the plot doesn't violate the established rules of the series. Unfortunately, that isn't to say that there aren't some serious lapses in basic logic. One character bitten in an attack tries to pretend there's nothing wrong with him for an awfully long time, during which no one else seems to notice him slowly but obviously zombifying right in front of them. After Alice smashes through a fence to get to a fortified Umbrella compound, for some reason the hordes of zombies milling around outside don’t bother to follow her in. The film also ends with yet another cheesy monster (a hallmark of the franchise by now), and has an excessive amount of obnoxious Sony product placement.

Paul Anderson has been calling 'Extinction' the end of a trilogy, which is odd considering that the picture's final twist is a blatant setup for a 4th movie. I'm not sure how much longer the 'Resident Evil' series can carry on, but it's been fun so far and I'd be willing to give it another go.