Jeri Jacquin

Are you ready for the holidays? Did you make your list and check it twice? Well check it again because Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is bringing all six RESIDENT EVIL films in 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and Digital (and watch 4K UHK movies on PS5) in a fantastic pack that will stuff any stocking to the brim!

Beginning in 2002, director Paul W.S. Anderson brings Milla Jovovich into the role of Alice and she makes it her own. Alice wakes up in a dilapidated mansion not knowing what is happening to her. Soon learning who she is, she seeks out the Umbrella Corporation, zombies, the Hive and the Red Queen. To do that she needs help because Umbrella and its scientists are not going down with a fight but then again, neither is Alice!

Along with Jovovich is Michelle Rodriguez as Rain, Eric Mabius as Matt, James Purefoy as Spence and Michaela Dicker as Red Queen to name a few to this large cast.

In 2004 director Alexander Witt begins his vision with RESIDENT EVIL: Apocalypse and Umbrella investigating what has happened at the Hive only to run into a hoard of the undead that make their way to Raccoon City. That is when Umbrella tries to get everyone out and STARS op Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory) telling them to get out.

Alice (Mila Jovovich) wakes up in a hospital that is deserted and knows she needs supplies now. At the bridge, Major Cain (Thomas Kretschmann) seals off the only way out but soldier Carlos (Oded Fehr) and Ginovaef team up with STARS to fight off the hoard. When they are surrounded, Alice saves them, and Dr. Ashford (Jared Harris) finds a way to use CCTV to stay in contact with the survivors while looking for his daughter Angela (Sophie Babasseur).

Escaping may be what they planned but it is also what someone else at Umbrella has planned!

Also cast is Sandrine Holt as Terri Morales, Zack Ward as Nicholai Ginovaef, Razaaq Adoti as Sgt. Wells and Matthew G. Tayor as Nemesis.

In 2007, Alice is back with RESIDENT EVIL: Extinction directed by Russell Mulcahy. Waking up in a mansion, Alice must use powers to escape. Umbrella is on to her and she is thrown into a hole with other Alices’. That means the real Alice is somewhere else when she finds that there is an uninfected place in Alaska. Hooking up with a convoy, Alice tells them what she knows.

Dr. Isaacs wants Alice back believing that her blood can tame the zombies and creates a new strain of zombies. Going against orders, Isaacs sends his new friends out to find Alice and they attack a convoy she is with. In the meantime, Umbrella tries their own method to turn Alice off, but it fails, and she finds their underground labs.

Along with the convoy, Alice, Claire (Ali Larter) and Carlos (Oded Fehr) see thousands of Isaacs creations and rescuing anyone from the labs is going to be difficult. Isaac panics and creates something even more evil than the zombies – a Tyrant. Coming up against the Red Queen brings results Alice could not have seen coming but they aren’t even close to finished with those responsible.

The cast include Iain Glen as Isaacs, Ashanti as betty, Mike Epps as L., Spencer Locke as K-Mart and Christopher Egan as Mikey.

RESIDENT EVIL: Afterlife sees the return of director Paul W.S. Anderson in this 2010 story franchise. A year has passed as Alice and the clones are in Tokyo attacking Umbrella’s HQ trying to get to Wesker who is not about to be captured. On a ship, Alice is injected with something that takes her abilities away. Thinking he will be the only one with superpowers does not go well.

In Alaska, Alice finds Arcadia but not as she hoped it would be. Claire (Ali Larter) has problems of her own that Alice manages to control as they leave for Los Angeles. There are survivors living in a prison with West (Boris Kodjoe), Wendell (Fulvio Cecere), Waters (Kacey Clarke), Bennett (Kim Coates), Yong (Norman Yeung) and Angel (Sergio Mencheta).

There, Alice discovers that there is an Arcadia and needs the help of Chris Redfield (Wentworth Miller) to find it. When they do it is deserted but functional. Checking it out, Alice finds Wesker in a condition that needs to be removed from the ship before it can be a haven. But, not all haven’s can last in Alice’s world!

Other cast include Mika Nakashima as J-Pop girl and Ray Olubowale as the Axeman.

In 2012, director Paul W.S. Anderson returns for the fifth installment with RESIDENT EVIL: Retribution as Alice is with the others on the Arcadia as its under attack headed by Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory). But something else has happened, Alice is with her family when the zombies coming, and horror ensues in Raccoon City. Is this a dream?

The captures Alice is being interrogated by Jill, but Alice finds her way out and inside a simulation! She must fight her way out but not before Wesker tells her what has happened with the Red Queen and Umbrella. Managing to get the crew of Kennedy, Burton and Luther West and Ada, their plan is to blow up Umbrella but there is a horde around them.

But now Alice is fighting two worlds that have collided! She gets to Wesker new headquarters – the White House. Meeting there she is given the ultimate weapon and told the Red Queen wants to wipe out humanity completely. Alice has other plans!

The cast also includes Michelle Rodriguez as Rain, Li Bingbing as Ada, Johann Urb as Kennedy, Boris Kodjoe as West, Kevin Durand as Barry, Oded Fehr as Carlos and Shawn Roberts as Wesker.

Finally, in 2016 director Paul W. S. Anderson brings the founder of the Umbrella Corporation forward in the story. Dr. Marcus’ (Mark Simpson) daughter Alicia has progeria. Using a drug from Dr. Ashford leads to tragic results, a web of deceit is created by Wesker (Shawn Roberts).

Now in Washington D.C., Alice (Mila Jovovich) wakes and the Red Queen tells her she has 45 hours to get to the Hive or the humans that are left will be wiped out. Finding a convoy learning Claire (Ali Larter) survived the attack on the Arcadia, they go to the Hive where Wesker is in control.

Alice also learns from the Red Queen that she cannot hurt an Umbrella employee but also must value human life which conflicts her program. Showing Alice what the plans are to restore Hive, she also tells Alice that there is a mole in her group. Running into Isaacs (Iain Glen), the traitor is revealed, and Alice learns who she is.

That does not stop her goal of destroying the hive and with Claire and Isaacs, Wesker knows his moments are numbers in milliseconds. The Red Queen tries to make it right with Alice but until the virus is controlled, she knows her work will never be done!

Cast also includes Eoin Macken as Doc, Fraser James as Razor, Ruby Rose as Abigail, William Levy as Christian, and Rola as Cobalt.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment encompasses motion picture production for television, digital content and theater releases. The studios include Columbia Pictures, Screen Gems, TriStar Pictures, Sony Pictures Animation, Stage 6 Films and Sony Picture Classics. To see what is coming to theaters and to home entertainment please visit www.sonypictures.com.

MOVIES ANYWHERE gives viewers the ability to download the Movies Anywhere App. With that you can view films by downloading or streaming to your favorite device using a Digital Code. For more information on Movies Anywhere please visit www.MoviesAnywhere.com.

There are Blu-ray as well as 4K Special Features in this box set. Including Filmmaker and cast commentaries, Featurettes, Deleted Scenes, Alternate Endings, Picture-in-Picture, Outtakes, and Extended Scenes. Each film brings its own unique special features that add so much information and entertainment to each film.

Let us be clear, Mila Jovovich is and always will be Alice. She has made such a name for herself with this franchise. To be honest, the first time I saw Jovovich was in one of my all-time favorite films, the 1997 film THE FIFTH ELEMENT with Bruce Willis. I can not go past that film when channel surfing without watching it to the finish, no matter how far into the movie it is. The combination of Jovovich and Willis is undeniable and let me to watch more of her films.

As Alice she is the total badass before her time and paved the way for so many actresses to go on to do films like the RESIDENT EVIL franchise. She is powerful, does not have a lot to say but when she does you might want to listen. Jovovich gives Alice a fierceness that even when she does not have a weapon, you know by a look that things are not going to work out well for the other guy.

This is an amazing series of stories told from a video game franchise that has been amazingly successful. Each film takes the viewer further down the rabbit hole of bad guys, the undead, good guys, clones and a world that has been turned upside down by one person. Sounds eerily close to what is going on in the world right now (minus the zombies though the year is not over yet!).

So, when you are making out your Christmas list of goodies that are a tad different than a necktie or a new vacuum – why not stretch your imagination to include a series of films that will keep the family captivated over and over again. This is definetly a cuddle-up-winter-time-rainy-snowy-coco-blanket-on-the-sofa marathon worthy of every moment.

In the end – she gives us a different kind of heroine but a heroine all the same!

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