Virus

Rating:
Summary: Mediocre
Review: The idea for the film is a good one. An alien virus powered by electricity takes control of a Russian vessel and decides to rid the ship of its human inhabitants. Jamie Lee Curtis and her fellow crew members discover the stranded ship. They soon find themselves trapped on board and battling their way out. Unfortunately, the alien ends up looking like a rejected model for the Terminator. There's really nothing new or innovative about the film. If you've seen any of the "Alien" films, "The Abyss," or "Leviathan," you've pretty much seen all the events that occur in "Virus." It's not a horrible film, but it's not a great one either. It'd be a good film to watch when bored.

Rating:
Summary: Another (...) one
Review: What a BAD BAD BAD movie. Hey look, let's steal the Borg from STAR TREK. While we're at it, let's steal the exact same ending as EVENT HORIZON. Ok, so it is unoriginal, has bad dialogue, silly plot, bad acting (other than Sutherland who appeared drunk in every scene), and bad effects. Also throw in Sutherland's accent which changed from nothing to Russian to Scottish in the blink of an eye. EVENT HORIZON on a boat is definitely worth missing.

Rating:
Summary: Bad Acting, Good Effects
Review: I've been seeing alot of bad reviews for this movie and a few good ones. While it is true that the characters are not well developed and the acting was not so good, the special effects were pretty good. The big four-legged leviathan at the end was one of the best sci-fi "monsters" I've seen. Maybe there were too many scenes that seemed designed to gross out the audience rather that to add to the plot, but what can you do? The ending was a disappointment, though. The people just jumped in a little metal-plated room and flew away and the ship blew up. After watching the big cyborg get blown up by a rocket and a compressed oxygen tank and still not die, I would have enjoyed watching the stupid thing finally burn, but that didn't happen.

Rating:
Summary: Technically well-done, but what a let-down.
Review: Missing this film when it opened theatrically (it seems it disappeared after a few days at the box office), I was anxious to see if since (1) I am a big sci-fi buff, and (2) much of it was filmed where I formerly lived (coastal Virginia). I finally bought the DVD, and boy, was I disappointed! Other reviewer's criticisms are right on the mark. Deriviative? Sure, but that can be forgiven; after all, many sci-fi and horror films do owe much to previous works. Technically impressive? No question it looks great, and the Dolby Digital surround effects are superb(thus the two stars). That's the good news. The bad news is that this is among the most lame, unexciting snoozers to come down the pike in a while. Jamie Lee Curtis maintains her trademark horror-sticken visage, Donald Sutherland's acting is of high-school production level, and the rest of the cast is largely forgettable, although they do flesh out the typical stereotypes usually found in such films. Even Jamie Lee's "tight purple sweater" cannot save this turkey. Insomniacs would do well to play this back-to-back with the equally dreadful 'Sphere'. If you don't fall asleep then, you have a real problem.

Rating:
Summary: Not Bad, not bad at all!
Review: This movie was very enjoyable actually. BUT you have to be a hardcore SCI-FI buff to enjoy it. It's not star wars, star trek, even babylon 5 but it's a good saturday night flick. Don't be critical of it, just enjoy it for was it is. It's a fun movie that wasn't made for an academy award. Have fun

Rating:
Summary: The "Virus" in the film must be an IQ Eating Virus.
Review: There is a lot of Eye Rolling and Unintentional Laughter to be had while watching "Virus", but that's not saying it isn't Enjoyable. If the Sight of Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Sutherland and William Baldwin Acting like they are 8 year olds playing "Tag" on a Big Boat sounds appealing to you, (it did to me) you'll have a Good Old time with this Mindless Monster movie.

The Acting is Quite Robotic. Jamie Lee is set on "Gasp". William is set on "Cardboard Hero" and Donald on "Overact". The rest of the cast don't bother with Luxury's like Acting, they just Run and Shoot. The Special Effects are the Real stars of the film, but they Still aren't as impressive as I expected, and they appear to In-frequently. The Ending is also a letdown, as it comes out of Nowhere and has no real Climax.

So What's to Enjoy, you ask... Well, it's all done in the name of Fun, it may take itself a little to Seriously, but It doesn't even Attempt to be anything New or Special, it merely attempts to Entertain. The Hurricane scenes are Impressively staged and the Sets look very Fitting.

Some of the Dialogue, eg ("If you get me killed, I'm gonna Kick you're A$$") makes you want to get up and leave, but if you stick with it, you will get some B Grade fun.

Rating:
Summary: Astonishingly bad.
Review: Virus makes a mistake at every turn. It's stupid, boring, and senseless. Rather than being campy like Deep Rising, it takes itself too seriously, thus there's no entertainment factor present at all. Though the film may sound intriguing to sci-fi fans, I would avoid at all costs.

Rating:
Summary: The Worst Movie I Have Ever Seen
Review: This thing is the absolute worst excuse for a film I have ever watched. There is absolutely no originality here at all. The Alien-meets-Speed idea sounds good on paper, but that is the only place it does. And there is a larger resemblence to the former than to the latter, because it keeps coming at you with action until you just get sick of seeing ,in this case, the evil robot in its umpteenth iteration, or they are trying to keep you occupied so that you will not realize how unoriginal this is. The dreadful plot had the crew of the tugboat Sea Star (Jamie Lee, William Baldwin, Donald Sutherland, and a bunch of unknowns) travelling the treacherous seas of the Pacific (or the Atlantic, or maybe even the Indian, the movie never says, aside from that it is on an ocean) in the middle of a storm. The boat loses its valuable cargo, and the captain (Sutherland) is about to shoot himself in the head when his ship finds another ship, a seemingly abandoned Russian research vessel that the crew hopes to claim salvage rights from. Of course greed gets in the way of judgment and they don't think why the ship is abandoned until they find out that a killer robot is trying to kill them all. It isn't just a robot, though, it is a being from outer space that was transmitted through a video linkup with the space shuttle. It took advantage of the advanced robotic systems on board to kill everyone it could and use them for parts. As in, to remove body parts. They borrowed from Sphere when the entity (what else can I call it) talks to the greedy crew and tells them this. It almost made me laugh, because although Sphere was definitely not a classic (the book was, the movie was average), this crud makes it look like Star Wars. The movie has nothing for the viewer that doesn't get turned on by excessive amounts of gore, but it does have bad characters, awful dialogue, not to mention a very non-surprise ending. The only characters that don't croak are the two "perfect" characters: perfect because they have no character flaws at all. (I don't want to give away the ending, so I won't reveal who they are, but if you have read this review or if you see the first 20 minutes of the movie, you don't have to be a genius to figure it out.) The only character I (and many others that watched this thing) almost liked was the Russian woman who was spared initially by this nameless entity, and I thought she might survive, until she was wasted by the alien as well. It's a struggle not to pull the video out of the player and "infect" it with gasoline, then light it on fire with a match. If you don't already see this piece of trash in the bargain bin at your local video store, you might find it in the garbage receptacle outside. Now I will use a quote from a famous Sherlock Holmes story and modify it: As you value your life and reason stay away from this movie. This goes beyond bad. I would give it negative stars if I could.

This is godawful crap to be avoided at all costs.

Rating:
Summary: Virus can be fun!
Review: Virus may seem like a god-awful movie at first, but with just a little work, you can make it surprisingly tolerable. Upon renting Virus, I decided to make it a little more interesting by playing a little drinking game. The game had the following rules (all based on the contents of the movie, incidentally):

1.) Every time the music swells for no reason whatsoever to heighten the "spooky" atmosphere -- take a drink.

2.) Every time Jamie Lee Curtis (she has a job on a boat -- and she's a WOMAN!) has an in-your-face confrontation with a male authority figure -- take a drink.

3.) Every time Jamie Lee Curtis is rescued by a male authority figure -- take a drink.

4.) Every scene Jamie Lee Curtis stops talking and starts screaming -- take a drink.

5.) Every time they pull the old "cat trick" (OH NO LOOK OUT BALDWIN CLONE -- oh, whew, it's just the cat!) -- take a drink.

6.) Every time the token Macho Black Guy says something macho ("I'm gonna mess you up, giant robot sucka") -- take a drink.

7.) Every time someone yells "It's gonna blow!" -- take a drink.

8.) Every time a rock-stupid supporting character hears a mysterious sound from an air vent and responds by sticking his damn hand in there -- take a drink.

9.) Every time a rock-stupid supporting character gets himself killed by attempting the previous, or something similar, or just because it's been ten minutes and no extras have died yet -- take a drink.

10.) Every time the characters enter a room full of billowing smoke, flashing lights, and random sparks (man, who hired the electrician for all these abandoned starships and boats, anyway?) -- take a drink.

Yes, Virus is an offensive mishmash of cliches, pounded sternly into something resembling a script, and filmed -- evidently in great haste -- for your viewing pleasure. If you like monster movies, Virus does have one thing going for it, and that's a pretty impressive Giant Robot Thing at the end. But the rest is swill. Trite, recycled, boring, warmed-over swill. You've seen this movie so many times you can probably -- oh, let's say -- make a drinking game based on it, without seeing the movie first -- and be right about almost all of it. Try not to watch it sober if you can help it at all. Incidentally, the movie does contain all these moments, in spades -- so play this game while watching Virus and your entertainment is practically guaranteed. Otherwise, you're on your own.

Rating:
Summary: I was hoping for some entertainment, it's just terrible.
Review: The thing is, Virus is a dull thriller because of how badly executed everything is. The only decent aspect to the whole film is Joanna Pacula's performance, which seems masterful in comparison to everything else. The direction from John Bruno is second-rate, as he films most of the action scenes in a dark setting. And for a film of this sort, it takes a rather long time to get to where it's going. It's almost halfway through by the time the crew encounters the first robot.

You would think the action scenes would be exciting, but the villains of this piece are victims of poor special effects, hurting the film even more. To add insult to injury, the musical score is oddly out of sync with everything else.

The rest of the actors in the film don't really convince. Jamie Lee Curtis has shown she's a has been. William Baldwin may be more talented than his brother Daniel, but that's hardly an endorsement. Donald Sutherland should have not been in the film at all. There's also a scene in which one of the characters receives one of the most mind-bogglingly bad death scenes. In this scene, Curtis is almost swept into the ocean by a wave from the storm, so somebody comes along to help, and that very same person ends up saving Curtis and gets swept off the ship himself!