Syntell

Resident Evil Review
This may be the best video game to movie adaption of all time.

Zach Cregger's Resident Evil arrives with a mountain of internet debate already stacked against it, mostly people arguing over how faithful it should have been to the games. After seeing it, that argument feels beside the point. This is a movie that proves lore obedience was never the goal worth chasing. What matters is whether it tells a good story, and this one absolutely does.

The whole thing rides on Austin Abrams as Bryan, a medical courier who gets pulled into a viral outbreak at Raccoon City General Hospital, and he carries it almost single handedly. What makes Bryan work is how real he feels. He is not the typical horror protagonist who wanders down a dark alley out of curiosity and gets what is coming to him. He says "nope" and keeps moving. He is handed tools that would obviously help him and has no idea how to use them, including a running joke about never having fired a gun outside of a first person shooter. One of my favorite moments comes when he is forced into a genuinely difficult ethical call involving a child, It’s a real F the kids type of situation. He feels like one of us stuck in the middle of a hellscape. You’re never really mad at the decisions Bryan makes and that is exactly why the movie works as well as it does.

It also helps that this movie is almost as funny as it is scary. Cregger comes from a comedy background, and it shows in the best possible way. Horror lives and dies on timing, the same as a joke does, and he clearly understands that. He is not leaning on jump scares to do the heavy lifting, but when they come, they land. He gets a lot out of negative space too. Dark corners feel genuinely threatening, and the sound design keeps you watching every shadow in the frame. The creature design matches that same restraint, simple where it needs to be. When the larger villains arrive the complexity isn’t shy on spending the budget. It get’s wildly graphic when the story calls for it. There is plenty of gore here, and Cregger does not flinch from it.

Looking at his career so far, this feels like the movie that pulls from his first two projects. Barbarian worked because of how tightly it focused on a small cast. Weapons widened the lens, added more characters and more complexity, and still held onto the suspense while leaning further into comedy and building one of the most memorable villains in recent horror. Resident Evil goes back to the smaller, more personal focus of Barbarian, but keeps the bigger world of Weapons and leans even harder into the comedy than either film did before it. It feels like Cregger took the best instincts from both movies and refined them.

If I have one gripe, it is that the movie is at its most endearing in its smaller, more contained stretches, when everything is locked in on Bryan's start of his journey. Once the story widens out into a bigger world, that intimacy fades just a little, and the tone shifts along with it. It is a small thing, nowhere close to a deal breaker, but it is the one place where the movie's ambition costs it something.

For longtime fans, there is plenty of Easter eggs. Keep an eye out for the green health pack bag, a nod to the herb collecting from the original games, and a typewriter tucked into the background. There are a few deeper references reserved for the die hard fans too. It is just enough to remind you where you are without forcing Cregger to retell a story that has already been told.

None of the games' familiar characters show up here, and honestly, you will not miss them. The ending earns everything it is building toward. You spend the whole movie rooting for Bryan, and the final stretch will leave your mouth hanging open. This is a ten out of ten for me, an A+ without a doubt, and it belongs in the conversation for one of the best video game adaptations ever made, right alongside the Sonic the Hedgehog movies, the first Super Mario Bros. movie, and Gran Turismo. Zach Cregger just showed us how much he has grown, and I cannot wait to see where he goes next.

5 days ago | [YT] | 405

Syntell

Widows Bay cleaned up 🤯
Don’t worry we already covered it. Check out our reactions here: www.youtube.com/playlist?list...

6 days ago | [YT] | 97

Syntell

Coyote vs. Acme

Depending on who you ask, Coyote vs. Acme is either a fluke of a comeback story or the best argument yet that Warner Bros. nearly buried a genuinely good movie for no good reason. Somewhere along the way to theaters it touched a mythical 101% on Rotten Tomatoes, a number no film actually earns, and one this one doesn't quite either. What Coyote vs. Acme does earn is something better, a movie that's more fun than it has any right to be, and more sincere than its title suggests.

The setup is straightforward David versus Goliath: Wile E. Coyote, tired of Acme's defective products blowing up in his face (literally), sues the company, and finds himself represented by Kevin Avery (Will Forte), a down and out billboard attorney in over his head. On the other side of the aisle is Buddy Crane (John Cena), Acme's lead counsel, and easily the film's biggest inside joke. Cena isn't leaping into some hidden dramatic role here; he's leaning into what he does best, comedy, and it works. He's not walking away with any awards for it, but he understands the assignment, and there's real charm in watching him get laughs out of a character who's without a doubt the villain.

Forte, for his part, brings the affable, awkward energy he's built a career on, and the film smartly lets the Kevin and Coyote relationship grow past being attorney and client into something like real friendship by the time the credits roll. Lana Condor, as Kevin's niece and intern Paige, ends up being the film's quiet emotional center. More than anyone else in the cast, she's the one who gives the story its heart.

And Wile E. Coyote himself is handled with real care. He stays true to the character we grew up with: smart, stubborn, endlessly resourceful, and, crucially, still mute, communicating entirely through gestures and handwritten signs rather than a voice stapled on for the movie. It's a choice that could have felt like a gimmick in a live action setting; instead it actually works quite well.

Underneath the slapstick DNA, there's a surprisingly pointed thread running through this one. The Looney Tunes cast feels less like comic relief and more like a class of characters denied the basic justice the humans around them take for granted, and the lawsuit stands in for something a little bigger than anvils and dynamite. The film is also self aware enough to own its uglier history. They actually call out Pepé Le Pew for being, well, a bit of a creep, and it lands as an acknowledgment rather than a dodge.

There's a late scene involving a fan favorite character taking the stand that I won't spoil, except to say: bring tissues, or at least be ready to blame it on dust in the theater. It's the moment the movie's been building toward, and it earns it.

Does Coyote vs. Acme deserve a perfect score? No, and going in expecting perfection is the surest way to walk out a little let down. What it does deserve is a solid four out of five stars and a genuine recommendation. It's not an essential theatrical experience. This is a perfectly fine one to catch on streaming, but it is a film worth your time, packed with old school cameos (Bugs, Daffy, and deep cut faces longtime fans haven't thought about in over forty years) and a nostalgic sense of fun the whole way through.

One note for parents: this skews more toward adults and longtime fans than toward kids. The pacing is slower, more centered on character than the classic anvil to the head chaos younger viewers might expect, and it showed. A few kids in my screening got restless. Bring the nostalgic adult in your life. The tagalong six year old might need a little patience.


Rating: 4/5 stars

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 208

Syntell

"We’re building a brand new hero live this Saturday night.
*COMMENT with the most creative, devastating, or highly specific weakness a hero could have.
The top 3 commented flaws will be voted on live."

2 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 37

Syntell

We are building an original hero.
So if you had to pick a power source, which of these would you get your powers from?

2 months ago | [YT] | 76

Syntell

2 months ago | [YT] | 166

Syntell

We just wrapped our full Season 1 reaction to The Good Place — and it's already up on Patreon! 🌟
If you've been watching along with us, you already know this show does something most shows can't — it makes you actually think while you're laughing. Season 1 is something special, and we have a LOT to say about it.
Members get access to the full, uncut reactions right now 👇
www.patreon.com/syntell

2 months ago | [YT] | 169

Syntell

Which of these Youtube content creator projects are you most excited for.
And don't forget to check out our reaction to Iron Lung here: https://youtu.be/HwppkS1SOvk?si=uYwsd...

3 months ago | [YT] | 53

Syntell

Tonight we're talking about and voting for the 15 biggest Gangstas/Criminals/Organizations in TV and Movie history? These we're my top 4.

Join us at 10pm EST and don't forget to vote here.
vevox.app/#/m/415214142

4 months ago | [YT] | 43

Syntell

What version of Spider Noir should we watch?

4 months ago | [YT] | 91