Outbreak (1995)

I like the premise of this film, but it's not executed well. Uncontrollable viruses that decimate populations and spread with deadly virulence just make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, or maybe that's just the internal bleeding. Regardless, I was left hanging by a fairly unoriginal disaster movie.Plot holes, cheesy action sequences and unrealistic depictions of human behavior during an outbreak aside, the film managed to keep my attention for two hours, though this wasn't necessarily a good thing. I found myself truly watching this movie from the outside looking in, because I didn't feel a part of what was going on on screen, and I should have.I generally disliked some of the actors working in this film to begin with, but watching this film now, even if they may have provided fair performances, I can't connect or sympathize with their characters. Their ability as actors to transform into someone I care about, relate to or believe in has been diminished or overshadowed by their personal reputations.All in all, I would not watch this film again as it has nothing more to offer and was not particularly enjoyable, scary or believable.

Hollywood does have issues about making films like "Outbreak". While the opening scenes to establish the premise are generally good, sometimes endings become a bit too predictable where the heroes put the baddies in their place. A few moments in the last third of the film also become a bit unbelievable especially in terms of how information is tracked and interpreted by the US government. Still overall, I would still rank it as one of the better films of its type.In the late 1960's, an outbreak of a terrible virus which turns innards into cream of wheat infects native villagers along with some American soldiers in Zaire, currently the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the middle of Africa. American officials who work for the Center for Disease Control assess the situation. One of the voices in the suits is Donald Sutherland, playing Major General Donald "Donnie" McClintock. To contain the village and prevent further spread, the US government deploys an extreme method to suppress the virus.Fast-forward to the mid-1990's. Again in Zaire, another village has also been wiped out by a virus, strangely similar to the one 30 years earlier. Colonel Sam Daniels (Dustin Hoffman), Lieutenant Colonel Casey Schuler (Kevin Spacey) and Major Salt (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) investigate what General McClintock saw there decades ago. There are no survivors except some children. During the investigation, Salt practically loses his lunch. After they leave, a small monkey is shown being captured by a trapper on the outskirts of the village. It looks like either a rhesus Old World monkey or a white-headed capuchin, a New World monkey. Neither are indigenous to Africa, but we run with it. (Rhesus monkeys reside in Asia, and white-headed capuchins reside in Central and South America.)Back in the good old US, we had learned in an earlier somewhat melodramatic scene that Daniels had been married to one of his colleagues at the Center for Disease Control, Roberta "Robby" Keough (Rene Russo), before the recent misadventure in the Congo. Daniels desires to further investigate the virus, which appears to be unknown. However, he is stopped by his supervisor Brigadier General Billy Ford (Morgan Freeman) seemingly for illogical reasons. Turns out, Ford and McClintock made a pact to keep the knowledge about the virus and the government's "solution" a secret since the 1960's. Daniels looking into the matter might blow their cover.On another front, the monkey ends up in a facility in San Jose, CA, via an international trading ship. A young man "Jimbo" (Patrick Dempsey) bribes some security guards to take the monkey to a pet shop. He delivers the goods, but the shop owner is disappointed: he needed a male, not a female. Jimbo decides to let the monkey go in the redwoods somewhere between San Jose and San Francisco. He then flies back to Boston, and on the flight he becomes ill and nearly infects a younger passenger. In less than two days, Jimbo, his girlfriend, the pet shop owner and members of the town of Cedar Creek, CA, are infected with the virus.Robby learns of the epidemic and quickly flies from D.C. to Boston to examine the victims. It rings strangely of the virus Daniels had been researching. A growing epidemic is occurring in the small California town, apparently a carrier had infected people at the local movie theatre. Now the epidemic is growing, and the government quarantines the whole town. All the while, Ford and McClintock are trying to engage in damage control to prevent the others higher-ups in the US government, and ultimately the press and the public from finding out about what happened in Zaire in the 1960's.The strongest elements of the film are the behind-the-politics about the decision-making concerning the response to the virus. This aspect carries much of the film and makes it more interesting than a straight action-disaster film, somewhat similar to Jaws in which the mayor continually fights the head of police concerning the appropriate response. The ending was a little bit weak in terms of how the good guys finally stop the baddies, meaning the people, not the virus. I think I would have liked to have seen more of a conclusion about the original events in the 1960's as a way to wrap up the story.Generally, a good popcorn film. Kevin Spacey, as usual, delivers a fantastic performance as one of the researchers in the Center for Disease Control. Dustin Hoffman is good as the intelligent but somewhat hot-headed higher-up researcher as is Russo's performance as the more level-headed of the two. We get pieces of their backstory which sort of works. Freeman and Sutherland deliver strong supporting performances as the behind-the-scenes amoral officers bent on keeping the full truth under wraps. Maybe a one-watch, but considering how many marginal films are made every year, it's a decent one-watch.

Medical pandemic disaster movies has always been scary to me. There is a certain fear that come with movies, dealing with a deadly virus outbreak that is untreatable, and threatens the whole world's population. It's a terrifying thought. Directed by Wolfgang Petersen and loosely based on Richard Preston's nonfiction book, 'The Hot Zone', this film gives that, what-if fictional scenario; a name, 'Motaba'. Inspired by then recent real-life Ebola outbreaks, and speculating on the measures taken by the military and the Center for Disease Control if such an outbreak occurred in the United States, Petersen hope to capture those fears, and challenge it, into a compelling entertaining watch. For the most part, he and his crew kinda pull it off. The cinematography from Michael Ballhaus, the music by James Newton Howard and the makeup department, led by Ellis Burman Jr were amazing. For the most part, even the acting, was very good, throughout this film. In spite of Kevin Spacey rocking the worst dyed wig, ever. Even the capuchin, Binks was great as the disease carrier, Betsy the monkey. It's just funny, how often, people mistake her for another monkey, Katie. Katie as Marcel is the one that was mock with the fake "Outbreak 2: The Virus Takes Manhattan" poster in the 1990's sitcom 'Friends', not Binks. I don't blame people, for not knowing the different, between the monkeys, after all, the producers didn't. In the end, they all deliver us from Ebola. Without spoiling the movie, too much, there were only a few things that I didn't like, about this film. Most of them, had to do with the inconsistencies on the effects of this disease. Don't get me wrong, I like the way, they describe the virus, as something that will liquefying the internal organs of its victims. However, it's seem to me, that the illness, only turns rapidly and deadly, whenever the film calls for it to act. How on earth can some sick characters only look a bit feverish, pale and dried out, while the other characters has blood streaming from their eyes, nose and mouth, skin destroyed, during the same stage. It's make no sense. Yes, I understand, some bodies might have stronger phagocyte cells than others, but it doesn't explain, how accidentally sticking yourself with a contaminated needle is less severe than breathing in the inflection, due to a small rip in a hazmat suit. According to the head of epidemiology at UC Berkeley's School of Public Health, it's very unrealistic; as there is fewer cases of researcher dying from breathing in an inflection, than those who die, due to direct contact with blood, excretions or saliva. Another thing, I didn't like, about this film is the ability of the scientists in the film, being able to solve most of the illness in a few hours. It seem a bit, impractical. In real-life, vaccine research, often takes months, or even years. Even with that, the only reason, why the scientists work so hard, toward the end, was to save the main character, Colonel Sam Daniels (Dustin Hoffman)'s marital troubles. It's kinda shallow, when you think, deep about it. I really didn't think the movie, needed to add that romantic subplot with Rene Russo's character, Roberta "Robby" Keough. It felt, a bit distracting. Another thing, I didn't like is how the film morphs from a medical thriller into another generic government covert military conspiracy action movie. I don't mind, the whole firebomb subplot, but the idea, it was used before in the town of Motaba, and nobody knows about it, is hard to believe. Are we to believe that nobody from Zaire know about this!? Did they do no research on where this disease, came from!? Come on! Also, how in the hell did the US able to bomb another African country's army base, anyways!? Wouldn't that be, an act of war!? Anyways, the idea of the military wanted to use Motaba, as a biological weapon should had been cut out, because adding an over the top stereotypical villain like Major General Donald McClintock (Donald Sutherland), really took away, some of the deadliness effects of the disease. For the last part, it felt like, a different movie, with the long-drawn helicopter chase, jumping into a moving ship, and hijacking a news outlet. It was eating a lot of time that could had made the disease even scarier. Despite that, the movie does have some very frightful moments. The idea that the disease was exposed to others in a movie theater, must had really scare those audience members who came to the theaters to see this movie. However, there is one scene that really disturbed me. All of the scenes with 'Sample 612' were haunting, due to how heartbreaking, it was. It made for a very intense watch. Overall: While, it does have a few flaws throughout the film. Don't avoided this film like the plague. Go see it. It might not be a great film, but it's entertaining enough to overlook it flaws. Highly recommended.

I really really amazed by how many stars played in this movie, it's great to see that... Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey, Cuba Gooding Jr., Patrick Dempsey, and Donald Sutherland, all of them in a movie?? I never imagined that... The story itself just usual like the other movies that tells about the end of the world... And the ending itself just standard, a little disappointing I think, because it just looks like this movie just want the main character not dead, they're not telling how the other people that sick can be cured so easily like that... But overall, I should give a thumbs up to Wolfgang Petersen for having so many stars, especially Oscar winners, in this movie...