Resident Evil: Extinction (2007)

A largely plotless survival horror with wooden 2D characters distinct from each other only in name, outfit, and weapon, this third Resident Evil movie, like the others, is easily dismissed as empty dross, but fans of CAPCOM's survival horror game series upon which these movies are based will derive great pleasure from the details - 3D geometric maps, zombie ravens, tourism posters - that recall so clearly the joys of the game.

★★☆☆☆

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Final Destination (2000)

Death itself, not some gimmicky fiend masked or back-from-the-dead, stalks the teens in the Final Destination slasher series and this original is where the innovative concept kicks off...but not in quite the polished fashion of later instalments, for although a group of teens cheat their way out of dying in a freak accident and Death comes knocking like it does in all the FD films, Death here is a malicious fiend, occasionally visible as a shadow that passes through kitchens and down streets - like the shadows in Ghost - and occasionally a manipulator of physics, so not yet the invisible but terrifying potential of violent, body slicing and dicing domestic Rube Goldberg machines.

★★★☆☆

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Resident Evil: Retribution (2012)

Paul W S Anderson's third Resident Evil directorial effort - the fifth movie in the series - dutifully brings the game franchise to life again, delivering the zombie-killing action across a series of distinct, game-like map areas and peppering scenes with fan-pleasing nostalgia - Umbrella Corporation logos, red barrels, ladders that slowly extend downwards, and a host of familiar characters played by actors who speak and move like polygon clusters - but even as a huge fan of the series myself, I find it hard to imagine anyone would be still paying attention at the one-hour mark, by which point this slick but completely vacant horror action exercise has been well and truly, er, done to death.

★★★☆☆

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Obsessed (2009)

A not very tightly scripted, low-grade suspense thriller in the vein of Disclosure and Fatal Attraction (a decent, upwardly-mobile corporate go-getting man has his life upended by a manipulative woman) is tolerable due to the good performances of future James Bond, Idris Elba as the beset man and Ali Larter, effective as the single-minded femme fatale.

★★☆☆☆

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