After breaking up with her shitty ex boyfriend, Juliet (Hilary Swank) rents out an apartment in a building owned by suave mofo Max (Jeffery Dean Mrgan), and his creepy old man August (Christopher Lee). Juliet, on the rebound, starts a bit of a flirt-tastic relationship with Max, and along the way, figures that this seemingly charming chap may not be what he seems.
First up, this film was put out under Hammer Films, who are in the midst of staging a return to horror glory. This film doesn't bring the gothic sexy element that made Hammer awesome back to life, however, it is a neat little thriller, and is brought to life by very real feeling characters.
I don't like Hilary Swank. Ever since the original Buffy film and The Next Karate Kid, something just shat me when it came to her. Shes not a terrible actor, maybe its just the roles she plays in the films that shes in?Well, this movie just put her up in my book - she was fantastic.
Sexy, despondent, and annoyingly fit all at the same time, she made what could have been an awfully dull, generic character, into someone I really kind of gave a shit about. JDM was the same, (although i haven't seen anything i didn't like him in) he was this really nice, charming man, with an incredibly dark soul. By the time you find out what hes really like, it's fucked up.
This brings me to my only real gripe. This movie could have built a lot of suspense, instead, it spoils it for you about 20 minutes into the film. Saying that, I wont spoil anything that you cant gather from looking at the DVD cover. JDM plays a bastard, and HS plays the victim. When things are revealed to Juliet, it would have been nice to follow with her, instead of knowing already what was going on, and then waiting for her to find out. It tended to make the film slightly tedious.
So Swank and Morgan were topps. How about Hammer legend Christoper Lee? Well he was in the movie for a total of five minutes and his character didnt offer anything to the plot, and it really just felt like he was in there becasue this was a hammer film and needed a hammer icon.
Saying that though, I love Christopher Lee, and its great to still see him in movies.
DVD Extras were made up of jack shit on the Region 4 Release. Mind you, I don't see anything being incredibly worthwhile to put on there. I thought the film could have done with a Gag Reel during the credits, but hey thats just me. There is a trailer for the film, and for other films, but thats about it really.
In closing, The Resident was a cool film, with a few niggly bits, but nothing to cry about. I got my samolians worth in hiring it out, and hell, if I see it as an ex-rental, I may even buy it and watch it again. Thats the biggest compliment I can give a film I guess.
3 out of 5 Doogs.
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