(Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter opens Friday and is the newest — and the last — offering in the video game franchise. Star Milla Jovovich has survived six of these films — on screen and off — with bad-assery and skill. But when she’s not destroying the undead, she does films of other genres (The Fifth Element, Dazed and Confused, Zoolander). Living in a zombie apocalypse probably doesn’t give one too long to ponder many things other than survival tactics, like Five Favorite Films or the next great strudel recipe. But we were able to get Jovovich to do just that. Here is her list of awesomeness:
It’s such a modern film and it was really just taking all these risks and pushing the boundaries. When you know the history about it, it’s so interesting because it bankrupted the people that made it. I don’t even think it was that successful when it first came out.
It just kind of built up this audience over years and years. It’s so beautifully shot and the music, everything just came together, and Sean Young. That was a defining moment in her career. Perfect.
Her hair is unforgettable.
Daryl Hannah, that makeup, it was just out of this world.
I interviewed Ridley Scott once and said, “I just want to thank you for giving me Rutger Hauer in boxer briefs because it kind of turned me into a woman.”
Right?
Really exceptional. That’s a great one.
Those tests that they do at the beginning — I think that’s just classic.
It’s one of those movies — it almost seems like they had a crystal ball when they were writing it; it’s so valid even today.
It really is.
That’s one film that just like — when you’re flipping the channels and you’re lucky enough to find that — I don’t care where it starts, the end or the beginning or the middle — I’ll just watch that all the way because all of those characters, all of those actors; it’s like the beginning of so many amazing careers. The dialogue is timeless. That first scene with John C. Reilly, he’s like, “Dig for greed.” It’s so good.
Oh my God, there are so many good scenes in that movie.
There’s quite a few [Paul] Thomas Anderson movies that… Magnolia is one of those too. I’ll watch that one at any point. Tom Cruise…
He’s unbelievable in that.
Amazing, and just the most incredible performances. Julianne Moore just killed in that movie.
It f—ed me up for life. I still can’t walk down a long corridor without getting scared.
You always imagine that it’s going to be covered in blood in a minute, or that there are twins at the end of it.
Something at the end.
Always something.
I always run, and that’s saying a lot. You’re an adult — you’re a middle aged person — and you’re still like, “Okay, let’s just get to my room.”
A good argument, I think, for how movies really do effect you. They really do stay with you. They can make an impression on you.
It’s so true.
I have a question. Do you think that Jack Nicholson became crazy during the course of the movie or that he always was crazy?
I think Kubrick‘s pretty crazy too. Do you know what I’m saying? I think he drove them crazy.
They probably all started pretty crazy then.
I think Jack Nicholson was born crazy but I’m not one to talk. I don’t know him.
Mean Streets — Robert De Niro is so gorgeous. Again, the beginning of all these people’s careers. What a full, well-rounded movie. Then you go to Goodfellas, it’s hard. [Picking five] really is hard. I also loved Wolf of Wall Street, I have to say. That was a fun movie. Matthew McConaughey, so good.
I think [what I love about Mean Streets is] just seeing the world, seeing the costumes, the relationships these guys have with each other. I think also just the stories behind — knowing that these actors, this was so many of their first movie breakout performances; it’s unbelievable watching it and the performances are so great.
You can’t forget animated films either. WALL-E just kills me. It’s so funny because we watched WALL-E with my daughter when she was little, like two and three and four, and she loved it and then we didn’t watch. It was one of those “we watched it 50 times” kind of films. We didn’t watch it for a couple of years and tried to watch it again when she was seven and as soon as she heard the music, in that part where you have to press play and it was lonely music, and she’s like, “It’s just making me feel really sad. I can’t watch it.”
Then watching him alone on the garbage dumps and she was like, “But everybody’s gone.” It suddenly just started making her question reality, and she kind of tripped out. I had to turn it off because she started crying.
It’s amazing to me, because I don’t have kids, but the emotional difference — I see the same thing in myself too. I watch Boogie Nights as an adult way different than I did maybe even just five years before that. It’s interesting how your relationship changes.
You grow and make stupid mistakes. You suddenly watch and go, “Oh my God.”
You’re like Alfred Molina in a bathrobe throwing firecrackers.
Right, exactly. Also, with Don Cheadle and the bank. Heartbreaking.
I know, I still feel bad for him.
I feel like we all have moments like that, where we’re, “I’m not that.” I’m like really dragging, “I’m not that.”
I was driven to this and I’m just trying to do something good. That’s a solid, it’s a solid film.
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter opens Friday, Jan. 27 in wide release.
