As I mentioned some time ago, this movie is basically the 90s version of Contagion. There's a hemorraghic fever called
Daniels is a maverick; his superior General Ford (Freeman) and his superior General McClintock (Sutherland) know Daniels as someone who doesn't always stay in line. His ex-wife Robbie (Russo) has just taken a new job at the CDC, so there's lots of drama there. The new disease soon infects a small town in California, requiring a military quarantine. It also very quickly infects Casey (Spacey), Daniels' friend and colleague, and then Robbie. Drama.
The back half of the movie ramps up the action as Daniels and his new med tech Salt (Gooding Jr.) have to zoom around in a helicopter finding the host animal that has antibodies for the disease and avoiding McClintock's attempts to kill him, and then they have to stop a bomber plane coming to firebomb the town to contain the disease. In the end, of course, Ford has McClintock arrested, Daniels and Robbie get back together, Casey dies (?), and the disease is cured. All is well.
So, I can't help but compare this movie to Contagion, as I mentioned, and not just because they're sold together. Contagion is a very sober, realistic look at what a deadly pandemic would look like. Outbreak is a thriller, which means that the pace has to be ramped up, which means the disease can't just be a nasty strain of the flu and kill one in five, it has to be a disease that kills you by liquefying your organs and it has to kill fucking everyone. Likewise, the drama in the movie can't just be about the disease and how the general public reacts and what lengths people go to in order to protect their own, there has to be a plotline about it being a biological weapon (which, if we're being honest, doesn't really go anywhere and is only there to motivate Sutherland's character to be a complete jackass). Even the plotline about the relationship between Russo and Hoffman isn't really necessary, and frankly Hoffman's character kinda comes off as a bit of a bully in places.
With all of that said, I like this movie. The first half, in particular, is taut and creepy in places, and the depiction of the the USAMRIID labs has some great establishing shots with no dialog at all. Likewise, the cast is stellar and completely sells the movie. It's not as well scripted or as disturbing as Contagion, but it's kinda more watchable.
My Grade: B
Rewatch Value: High
Next up: Over the Hedge
No comments:
Post a Comment