Zach Cregger has vowed not to get involved with existing franchises again. However, if Resident Evil is his only attempt at it, it is a really good one.

This is mostly a breezy, silly, family-friendly comedy that will probably be more successful at home than it will be in multiplexes filled with much louder movies.

Every phase of this is given ample room to develop, becoming bigger and wilder as it goes.

Paul Greengrass clearly wanted to end his sad story on a hopeful note. However, he swung too hard and the result is far more groan-inducing than it should be.

There is a lean, mean, violent action movie buried in here somewhere, that is like a cross between Aliens and Universal Soldier. However, there is too much fat on the bone for it to be let loose.

It is a wild, midnight movie kind of experience, meant to be seen with a raucous crowd in the mood for something weird.

Idiots is only about ¾ as nasty and stupid as it needed to be to be consistently funny.

The performances are fine, but it has nothing new to add to the genre or its themes. It is boring, circling the same ideas repeatedly.

It is funny, uses the classic characters well and contains lots of silly in-jokes for fans.

It is a fascinating deconstruction of the genre, picked apart to serve the filmmaker’s themes. Jane Schoenbrun’s films are alive and exciting because they go wherever they want.