Virus (1999)

When the crew of an American tugboat boards an abandoned Russian research vessel, the alien life form aboard regards them as a virus which must be destroyed. This movie tries way too hard to be Aliens meets Terminator especially since producer Gale Ann Hurd produced the first 3 Terminator Movies and Aliens but the film just fails and you know that your movie sucks when Donald Sutherland is bored as hell his performance was a let down although i will give them a credit the cgi was OK but the actual effects they created were pretty good and Jamie Lee Curtis wasn't that bad but with a story like this and a cast of this length you would except the movie would be awesome but nope not a chance. I give it a 5.5 out of 10 still pretty bad except some things in it.

It isn't necessary to go through the plot in any detail. A tugboat crew boards a deserted ship in search of salvage and find it occupied by an extraterrestrial force that produces a lot of CGIs that are more than usually disgusting.Other reviewers have pointed out the sources that were ripped off. Mostly we see a variation on "Alien" but there are also touches of "Robocop" and "Jaws." I'm trying to imagine the designated audience. It must be younger folk, too young to have seen the originals, which were shockers in their own way. And of that group, I'd expect the greatest approval from those whose tastes have been degraded by overexposure to adult films designed for dull people.

Although many agree that films that use or recycle elements from successful previous franchises, end up not being entertaining or appealing, there are always a few that go against the grain. An example of those kinds of movies is like Leviathan (1989) and Screamers (1995). Well, Virus (1999) is not much different from those.The movie is based off of a series Dark Horse comics written by Chuck Pfarrer in the early 90s. The story is about how the crew of a tugboat stumble upon an abandoned ship. Inside, they discover that an electrical alien lifeform has taken control of the ship and has been using parts of the ship and its crewmembers to create robotic creatures to do its dirty work. Now its up to the crew to figure out how to rid the ship of this "virus" before it docks on dry land and takes control of other computers. So it's like Alien (1979) mixed with The Terminator (1984), OK so? It is not like Universal Studios was trying to out match these films, each film must be treated for what its worth and not as who's better than the original. William Baldwin, horror heroine Jaime Lee Curtis, Donald Sutherland and Joanna Pacula are just of the few actors that star in this film. I'd say that not many of these characters were memorable, but they do share good sarcastic lines, quirky reaction faces and fierce retaliations. I did laugh a lot at the character of Capt. Robert Everton played by Sutherland. Even though it probably wasn't intended to be funny, Sutherland is able to make his character come out with deadpan lines and a sadistic sense of humor. My question is, how did any of these characters come together as one group in the script? Screenwriter Pfarrer wrote the dialog like they hated each other from the start. What kind of crew is that? I'm surprised anything was accomplished with how much bickering took place. However, this didn't happen all to often because soon they had to work together. Surprisingly, this is one of the things I didn't realize. It took about until half way before the pace started to increase and that may make viewers restless. The gunfire and blood is there. The actual gore may be a bit low for gorehounds but it is still enjoyable. Not to mention there are also some "boo" moments too and that may catch audiences off guard even if most people won't find it frightening. Adding to the creepiness of the setting's atmosphere is composer Joel McNeely's orchestral score. It may not be extraordinarily inventive, but simplistically, it gets its point across in making the scenes work with the music to enhance the viewing experience. Finally, I have to give the most credit to director John Bruno. To say the film didn't work because a visual effects supervisor was given a chance to direct doesn't mean squat. Bruno is a talented man and his ability to make Chuck Pfarrer's vision come to fruition was done professionally. One of the scenes I found the most astounding was the sweatshop room where two of the crew members run into an area where numerous amounts of robots are being made by robotic arms. It was done surprisingly well, almost too well because of how realistic it was. Bruno should be given more credit for this reason alone.Like many other movies, Chuck Pfarrer's Dark Horse comic adaptation reuses elements from other movies. And although its story is not creative, it is still fun, especially for its special effects, cast members and musical score.

Virus...I rented this movie picturing some sort of world wide epidemic of HIV you could catch like a cold. Nothing of the sort of course. The minute I saw the fake looking sea surrounding the tug boat...I thought this is going to be a dog. I was right. Turns out the virus is either an alien computer program or the alien computer program thinks humans are viruses...I was never quite clear on that point.Someone else commented that science fiction has to fit science... in this movie nothing looks functional from a scientific view point ..the small robots with leather wings look like they are made from a child's erector set and a dead bat. Ditto for the larger half cadaver half erector set machines all of which have to be hooked by cables to the central computer... I guess the aliens had not advanced to wireless connections despite having flying saucers etc.... it is just dumb dumb and more dumb.Gee how convenient that the ship has rocket powered ejector seats??? Huhhh? I bet the Russians install them on all their military ship!!! As some one else stated this is half slasher half half science fiction and bad at both. 75 million (cost of movie) you have to be joking! Nothing is frightening or exciting in this movie.