★★
For a long time, Jamie Lee Curtis had apparently given up on indie horror to work in the mainstream. After her debut in Halloween in 1978, she starred in four more horror films: The Fog (1980), Prom Night (1980), Terror Train (1980) and Halloween 2 (1981). She returned to the genre in 1998 for Halloween H20: 20 Years Later. It's strange that Curtis would snub all horror appearances for so long, then suddenly appear in two in a row. Virus is the latest film about a team that finds itself trapped by a monster. It's not an original idea, but films like this are usually fast-paced and offer impressive special effects. Of course, special effects alone can't save a movie (with a few exceptions), and that's why this movie ultimately fails as a satisfying trip to the movies.
Curtis stars as Kit Foster, the navigator of the Sea Star vessel. The captain is Robert Everton, played by Donald Sutherland. He's an actor who knows a good script when he sees one, so it's obvious that he was thinking of the bills when he signed onto this project. The Sea Star is trapped in the middle of a hurricane, but fortunately the crew makes it to the eye of the storm, where it stumbles onto a Russian ship. In the beginning of the movie, we saw that the ship was invaded by an extraterrestrial life form, which transported itself down into the ship's satellite dish. We learn later that the virus can take over the computers and machinery onboard. When the crew members of the Sea Star board the ship and find her deserted, they decide to salvage the ship, the value of which could net them $30 million.
Once onboard, it doesn't take long for the virus to go to work, and soon everyone is running around in the dark searching for a way to defeat the virus and escape. A lone Russian scientist named Nadia Vinogradova (Joanna Pacula) warns the crew that turning the power on will only give the virus what it needs to take over the ship and sail it to civilization. The movie becomes a cat-and-mouse game, in which the virus chases after the humans by assembling robots to search every part of the vessel. The virus can even take over human bodies and turn them into cyborgs. The cyborgs resemble the Borg from "Star Trek: The Next Generation," although their construction is far more inferior.
Captain Everton is the obligatory character who doesn't believe in the danger around him. When faced with certain death, he just sits around and proclaims that no one else is salvaging this ship. William Baldwin as Steve Baker is fine, but he isn't given much to do. We can pretty much guess right from the start that he's going to survive. The only smart character is Richie Mason (Sherman Augustus), who knows weapons and cleverly comes up with a way to defeat the virus while everyone else is getting lost and being chased. He also devises an escape plan that is the only part of the movie that had me impressed.
Virus is basically a standard retelling of a familiar plot. There's nothing outstanding about its execution or acting, but I was never bored with the film because it has some neat special effects and fast-paced directing which was just enough to keep my attention. It's a competent film, but with a little more work on the script and character development, Virus could have been better.
© 2000 Silver Screen Reviews
Curtis stars as Kit Foster, the navigator of the Sea Star vessel. The captain is Robert Everton, played by Donald Sutherland. He's an actor who knows a good script when he sees one, so it's obvious that he was thinking of the bills when he signed onto this project. The Sea Star is trapped in the middle of a hurricane, but fortunately the crew makes it to the eye of the storm, where it stumbles onto a Russian ship. In the beginning of the movie, we saw that the ship was invaded by an extraterrestrial life form, which transported itself down into the ship's satellite dish. We learn later that the virus can take over the computers and machinery onboard. When the crew members of the Sea Star board the ship and find her deserted, they decide to salvage the ship, the value of which could net them $30 million.
Once onboard, it doesn't take long for the virus to go to work, and soon everyone is running around in the dark searching for a way to defeat the virus and escape. A lone Russian scientist named Nadia Vinogradova (Joanna Pacula) warns the crew that turning the power on will only give the virus what it needs to take over the ship and sail it to civilization. The movie becomes a cat-and-mouse game, in which the virus chases after the humans by assembling robots to search every part of the vessel. The virus can even take over human bodies and turn them into cyborgs. The cyborgs resemble the Borg from "Star Trek: The Next Generation," although their construction is far more inferior.
Captain Everton is the obligatory character who doesn't believe in the danger around him. When faced with certain death, he just sits around and proclaims that no one else is salvaging this ship. William Baldwin as Steve Baker is fine, but he isn't given much to do. We can pretty much guess right from the start that he's going to survive. The only smart character is Richie Mason (Sherman Augustus), who knows weapons and cleverly comes up with a way to defeat the virus while everyone else is getting lost and being chased. He also devises an escape plan that is the only part of the movie that had me impressed.
Virus is basically a standard retelling of a familiar plot. There's nothing outstanding about its execution or acting, but I was never bored with the film because it has some neat special effects and fast-paced directing which was just enough to keep my attention. It's a competent film, but with a little more work on the script and character development, Virus could have been better.
© 2000 Silver Screen Reviews
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