I'm not a big fan of this series, but I think the third film, Resident Evil: Extinction, is probably my favorite just because it takes us into a classic apocalypse with a convoy of survivors, zombie crows - the whole nine yards. Mutant Alice is sort of badass, the fast zombies are sort of scary, but there are also too many one liners and tongue-in-cheek moments for my liking.
9 is directed by Shane Acker, but the Average Joe thinks its from Tim Burton. Burton actually co-produced this animation anomaly with Russian wunderkind Timur Bekmambetov and the results are, well, middling at best. The film looks gorgeous and the story is original, but it feels like a first course. The film is all action and little else so by the end you feel less entertained than stimulated. I think the film is already starting to be forgotten, but it was a film that garnered a lot of buzz upon release and it is certainly important in the 21st century PA pantheon, so I decided to include it here.
I feel bad leaving this list on a sour note, but I just couldn't in good conscience leave the bomb that is Terminator: Salvation off this list. As the only of the Terminator series that takes us fully into "Judgment Day" everyone was expecting great things - particularly when some stellar trailers started to make their way online. And yes the film looks great, but the script is just abominable. Abysmal. Atrocious. A$$. A great cast couldn't even save the haphazardness of it all. It all just feels rushed and it's too bad because the premise is exactly what were we waiting for after three films that just riffed on the same time-travel premise. Oh well, you win some, you lose some.
And now for something completely different. To quote myself from 2008; "Right at your Door does what every great indie film working on a minimal budget needs to do. It exploits a suspenseful high concept plot device only to morph it into an intimate and ultimately human story... It tells the story of Brad and Lexi, a young couple whose new life together is turned upside-down when a slew of "dirty bombs" are detonated in L.A., releasing toxic gas into the atmosphere. Told by the media to seal the house, Brad grudgingly quarantines Lexi outside where she must wait for help."Informed by a post 9/11 America, the film provokes questions about our new-found paranoia while it divulges just how severely we've come to distrust authorities who are as likely to hurt us as help us. The editing is sharp, the acting is superb, and the story is as riveting as it is devastating. A must see.
Zombieland is a textbook case of right place, right time. Premiering right when worldwide zombie mania was at it's apex, (you could argue that apex is still rockin' on) Zombieland cleaned up at the box office and introduced fanboys to cute-as-a-button indie darling, Emma Stone (move over Zooey). As stated above, it would never have existed without Shaun of the Dead, but at the same time it's not a copycat. Its humor is decidedly American and its obvious also owes a lot to Apatow productions. Too early to tell is it's a seminal PA flick, but its certainly important here and now.
You really can't downplay the importance of Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright's Shaun of the Dead. It spawned years worth of copycat zomedies (certainly the movie below would never have existed without it). It also proved the Brits were still in the game and had their uncanny self deprecating sense of humor intact. I'm sure you've all seen it all so that's enough out of me - suffice it to say Shaun of the Dead has proved and important import.
Connected is a newish short film that comes from Danish filmmakers Jens Raunkjær Christensen and Jonas Drotner Mouritsen who classify it as a "sci-fi western." Set in the distant future, Connected is a story about survival and greed in a post apocalyptic wasteland. Two survivors of an unknown disaster shuffle through a desolate landscape tied to each other's oxygen tank. It quickly becomes clear that not everybody has the strength to survive. This film is about ideas more than excitement, but it's a striking vision. 
Dawn of the Dead put Zack Snyder on the map and proved that remakes can actually work. Not all of us agree that this film holds a candle to George Romero's 70s classic, but there's no denying it captured the horror world when it was released in 2004. It took up the gauntlet that Boyle laid down with fast zombies and has one of the best apocalyptic openings ever. And Sarah Polley. Enough said.
Danny Boyle single handedly re-animated the lifeless corpse of the zombie apocalypse genre with his insanely frenetic 28 Days Later... Fast zombies, Godspeed you Black Emperor, and some insane hand-held photography made 28 Days Later the most exciting apocalypse flick anyone had seen in years. Of course, Boyle didn't re-invent the wheel here. Issues of militarism and the story of a small band of survivors isn't anything we haven't seen in any Romero movie, but Danny made it modern and we loved it. So much so that a sequel followed and we may even be getting a threequel before the 21st century is over.
Years after a plague kills most of humanity and transforms the rest into monsters, the sole survivor in New York City struggles valiantly to find a cure. I wasnt a big fan of this film, myself but it still has high popularity rights to be on this list.
So we have "Dr. Strangelove," the movie that dares point out how our drive to destroy ourselves just might be some sort of twisted outgrowth of our libido. Hardly a moment goes by in this film without sexual text or context. Even the two bombs in the B-52 (named by its crew, "Leper Colony") are scribbled with what were then considered come-on lines. Deranged Gen. Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) has sent his air wing into the Soviet Union because he felt a "loss of essence" during the "physical act of love," and is certain this is caused by flouridated water.
Eli walks alone in post-apocalyptic America. He heads west along the Highway of Death on a mission he doesn't fully understand but knows he must complete. In his backpack is the last copy of a book that could become the wellspring of a revived society. Or in the wrong hands, the hammer of a despot. Denzel Washington is Eli, who keeps his blade sharp and his survival instincts sharper as his quest thrusts him into a savage wasteland... and into explosive conflict with a resourceful warlord (Gary Oldman) set on possessing the book. "We walk by faith, not by sight," quotes Eli. Under the taut direction of the Hughes Brothers (Menace II Society), those words hit home with unexpected meaning and power.
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