Westside Steve Posted October 15, 2011 Report Share Posted October 15, 2011 Contagion Warner Brothers PG 13 105 min Well it’s not like I was expecting anything ground breaking here, as there really aren’t a lot of different ways a plague flick can go. Still there can be a wide variation in how well that old tune is played. One might think that a cast including Gwyneth Paltrow, Matt Damon, Lawrence Fishburne and Jude Law with Steven Soderbergh at the helm this would be a pretty solid way to kick off the cold and flu season. Unfortunately that’s not the case. The tale starts out on a predictable course and rarely strays. There’s a nasty little virus going around and it’s passed by touching objects or people. The symptoms are the same old cough fever etc. and then some grotesque faces and, of course, you die. Oh and so does everyone who’s touched you or anything you’ve been in contact with. Well, not everybody, to be exact. There seem to be a handful of people who are just immune to the bug (there always are) and Matt Damon happens to be one. Unfortunately his cheating wife isn’t so one side story is wondering whether or not their daughter is immune. Soon, citizens are dropping like flies as humanity goes feral. Cities are quarantined and the unfortunate population goes wild, looting rampaging; the whole 9 yards. To make it all worse there are some unscrupulous elements involved, the usual suspects as you might guess, namely the government and (gasp) big pharmaceutical companies! It seems a disreputable blog weasel (Law) is hyping the healing power of some modern day snake oil. People are rioting in the streets to get a drop of the spurious cure. Most all of the elements of an “end of civilization” story are present but none get enough screen time to catch fire. To make it worse the all-star cast seems to be reading the anemic script for the first time. It’s as if they don’t care or Soderbergh can’t get them to perform. I’d understand if English were his second language but, hey, the guy’s from Georgia. I can’t imagine that the sole purpose was to take a shot at big pharm, but who knows? At any rate after all the ineffectual stumbling along we’re left with a payoff more likely to illicit a BFD than an OMG. C- WSS Email westsidesteve@aol.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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