Starring Christopher Lambert, Leland Orser, Rick Fox, Barbara Tyson, Robert Joy, James Kidnie, Philip Williams.
Written by Christopher Lambert (story) and Brad Mirman (story and screenplay).
Directed by Russell Mulcahy.

Grade: C+

Review by Carlo Cavagna.

Stylistically and thematically a rip-off of Seven, Resurrection was theatrically released in Europe, but made it to the United States only as an HBO “Guilty Pleasure” Premiere movie, and, presumably, a video soon to be found at your local Blockbuster. In this gory serial-killer thriller,  Christopher Lambert plays Chicago police detective John Prudhomme, who of course hails from New Orleans, which is supposed to explain Lambert’s French accent. Lambert also co-wrote the story.

I confess I have a guilty pleasure of my own. I kind of like Christopher Lambert. I appreciate his camp value. So I’ve seen quite a lot of his crap, from the fairly good (Greystoke, Highlander), to the mediocre (Fortress, Mortal Kombat), to the abysmally bad (Adrenalin (sic), Highlander 2 & 3, The Sicilian, Knight Moves, The Hunted). In this distinguished filmography, Resurrection ranks pretty high. Director Russell Mulcahy (Highlander, Ricochet, Duran Duran’s Wild Boys video) may not make good movies, but he knows how to make them look good. In fact, the production value is several cuts above most straight-to-video schlock–the cinematography is quite good by any standard–and the writing is decent enough to keep you interested in the by-the-numbers plot, which does have a new twist on the killer’s motivation.

Resurrection is an entertaining movie if you approach it with really, really low expectations. Of course, now that you’ve read this capsule review, your expectations won’t be nearly as low as they need to be.

Review © October 1999 by AboutFilm.Com and the author.

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