Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Jim (jim-1225) Maybe there's nothing special about this film. There is little originality in the plot and its treatment, good as they are, and if you wish to be hypercritical you can easily find a few flaws and implausibilities. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it, and am glad that the main character wasn't killed off at the end. Many seem to find ultimate tragedy obligatory to avoid predictability. The genre frequently has muscle-bound macho males (no names mentioned), sometimes toting improbable weapons, blasting everything in sight as they move mindlessly in and out of tight situations. This movie has a personable young female handling tight situations with little more than her extremely sharp wits, which I much prefer, and that's not due entirely to my own gender. There is a clear plot, which develops at a smart rate and holds the interest. There is also food for thought in this film, as there are real issues underlying the story, even though it is fictional.While not an expert in these matters, I thought the direction and photography were above average for a TVM. I was delighted to find DVDs available on the Amazon Marketplace at extremely keen prices, and have ordered a copy of the Odyssey version (Region 2, 2002). There is also a Fremantle version (Region 1, 2006). They are listed under the title 'Formula For Death' which was the title as shown on TV yesterday. I look forward to watching this again. Incidentally, searching for the DVD title 'Virus' leads to an entirely different story featuring Jamie Lee Curtis.

bdewar1 Nothing else to watch Saturday June 17, 2006; I'll try this one about a spreading virus; they are usually good. That is not a spoiler, after all, the title is "VIRUS."The screenplay was OK as it progressed until the last reel. Then ... and I will not give any spoiler at all; it just became sort of ... 'cartoon-a-rooney!This is the first bad review that I have given. The ending was so obvious and expected, as it rolled to the conclusion; I was telling my dog what was coming next, but I think he already had guessed.I wish LIFETIME would make movies in Hollywood, where the talent is. Oh well.predic

Robert J. Maxwell There's this pretty, young doctor, see, and she is kind of sassy and she thinks she's stumbled across some kind of conspiracy. She works in a bureaucracy and when she tells others of her suspicions, nobody believes her, except maybe her boyfriend who is also a doctor but who isn't around much. At one point she's alone in a big institution while people rummage around looking for her, stumbling through basements and whatnot, probably out to kill her, but she escapes through a window. At another point she's trapped in a reefer with a lot of dead bodies in plastic bags. A hit man pursues her but she outwits him. A trusted friend makes a suspicious phone call when she's not supposed to be listening. Turns out there is corruption at the top, with big-name people embodying raw capitalism. I know it sounds like Robin Cook's "Coma," but it's not. It's Robin Cook's "Virus."Boy, he did some effective recycling here. It's like three-card monte. He's shuffled them so well you have a tough time keeping track of the similarities. As a novelist, Cook has an eye for interesting stories but tends towards repetitiousness and pedestrian prose. The people who made this movie exhibit the same level of talent. It gets the job done, but not much more than that.The MacGuffin here -- the deliberate use of the ebola virus as a murder weapon -- is more intrinsically interesting than Coma's use of Organ Transplants R Us. But that makes these plodding results the more disappointing. These viruses are deadly and there is no way of stopping them once they hit their stride. And yet we learn virtually nothing about the virus except that it is injected into victims with an air gun. It might as well be a .38 revolver for all the implications that can be read into it. The viruses are frankly scarier than the movie makes them out to be. We don't know what they are or where they come from. It could be argued that they're not even alive. Some, like the tobacco mosaic virus, can be dried and turned into crystals. They're oddly shaped protein shells surrounding some DNA. They don't reproduce -- exactly. They invade a normal cell and convert it to the production of more viruses. It's like Apple Computers invading Microsoft's headquarters and ordering everyone at gunpoint to produce nothing but more Apple products. They come from all over, mostly from rainforests that humans have only recently invaded. The influenza virus outbreak of 1918 wiped out a substantial number of humans. And we don't know any more about stopping them now than we did then. They are nothing to sneeze at."Virus" kind of trivializes the threat. It should have been called not "Virus" but "Conspiracy," because that's the focus of the story. The peformances are no more than adequate, except that Caffrey and Devane are reliable and welcome whenever they're on screen. Bernson makes a poor heavy. Nicolette Sheridan has the face, figure, and acting talent of a model. (A little gratuitous nudity here might have helped the movie, or maybe a steamy scene of Sheridan and Devane making strenuous love while crashing around in the Max Lab among smashed vials of virulent hot agents.) Pass that air gun, would you?

vivianna This movie was based on Robin Cook's Outbreak, but could not be named that because the motion picture Outbreak (starring Dustin Hoffman) was already out. This movie was a good depiction of Dr. Cook's novel, the basic plot of which is similar to that in many of his other books. You will enjoy it if you like medical drama.