BEFORE: See what I did there? Then again, maybe you saw this one coming. Linking from "Contagion", Gwyneth Paltrow was also in "Seven" with Morgan Freeman and another of tonight's actors (identity withheld in case you haven't seen "Seven").
THE PLOT: Extreme measures are necessary to contain an epidemic of a deadly airborne virus.
AFTER: This covers a lot of the same ground as "Contagion", with an animal-based virus infecting humans and causing a pandemic that forces the U.S. military to invoke martial law. Here the main outbreak is confined to just one California town, although it was shown spreading to Boston, it didn't seem to affect that city quite as bad. Must have been the cold weather.
I'm sure there are official military and medical guidelines for dealing with a plague, at least, I'd like to think so. But the problem is, they're drawn up by imperfect humans, and then have to be carried out by other imperfect humans, which explains why we saw members of the CDC bending the rules in favor of their friends and family, and that also happens in this film. I wonder if regular people are just faceless masses to those in charge, and ultimately get treated differently from people that they personally care about. As always, it comes down to who you know.
Again, I'm fascinated by the mechanics of dealing with a plague, but when those rules then are thrown out the window or disregarded, that's when my interest starts to wane. Why set up the rules of engagement just to discard them later on?
"Outbreak" is more of a thriller than "Contagion", more narrative in structure, whereas "Contagion" just feels like a collection of loosely-connected themes. This makes "Outbreak" a bit easier to follow, but it also leads to some "Oh, come ON!" moments, mostly because Dustin Hoffman seems like such an unlikely sort of action hero. According to IMDB, the original plan was to have a more action-oriented star like Harrison Ford, and Hoffman was clearly not the first choice. So it seems like the casting mutated over time, just like the virus did.
NITPICK POINT: Again, I've got a problem with people removing their sealed bio-suits in very dramatic fashion. Looks great on film, we get to see the actor's faces more, but ill-advised for their characters. Would you film a movie in space where people remove their space helmets to deliver a line? Of course not, because they'd die - same deal. In the most extreme examples, the army team goes into an infected village, and are told by one local that the virus is not airborne, so they remove their suits. Well, how the heck does HE know? Where's his medical degree?
Another time, two characters take off their bio-suits and walk straight through the "hot zone" while completely unprotected. They get into a helicopter and leave the quarantined town - isn't that EXACTLY the type of behavior that could spread the virus to another city?
NITPICK POINT #2: Show me the man who works for the military who can synthesize a viral antidote from a creature with antibodies and is also an accomplished helicopter pilot. Given the specialized training that army, umm, specialists go through, I sincerely doubt any soldier would have both skills.
NITPICK POINT #3: As we learned last night, even if you can find an infected creature that isn't sick, and therefore has the antibodies, it can take months to develop an antivirus - even if you skip clinical trials on lab animals and then humans. And to generate enough for a town - add on a few more weeks. Not hours.
NITPICK POINT #4: Do I even need to get into how hard it would be in real life to find one lost monkey in the woods of California? Look at the size of a monkey, compared with the size of Northern California. Logically, it would take a month, and I think that's a very low estimate. Also, what are the chances that the monkey wasn't bitten by another animal, or didn't bite or scratch another animal while defending itself in the woods? I call "Shenanigans" all around.
Also starring Dustin Hoffman (last heard in "Kung Fu Panda 2"), Kevin Spacey (last seen in "Recount"), Rene Russo (last seen in "Thor"), Cuba Gooding Jr., Donald Sutherland (last seen in "Horrible Bosses"), Patrick Dempsey.
RATING: 6 out of 10 rocket launchers
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