User Reviews

I was pleasantly surprised by this entertaining B-movie which, while hideously clichéd, still manages to deliver the goods in terms of suspense. It's a fast-paced action adventure which flies by while you're watching. Okay so the plot is really just a jumble of bits from THE TERMINATOR and ALIENS to STAR TREK and HARDWARE plus more than a nod to last year's DEEP RISING, but it's given a fresh perspective via some expensive-looking sets and a glossy sheen.

I for one always enjoy these "people wandering through dark corridors getting picked off one by one" sorts of films, especially when the monsters are good, and they're very good in this film. Before they really appear the first half builds up some real suspense and atmosphere as Donald Sutherland and his crew discover an abandoned ship, floating in a mist cloud Mary Celeste-style. The producers gathered together a fun bunch of actors and actresses to play the B-movie types who get picked off one by one.

Firstly we have Jamie Lee Curtis as the tough heroine who (surprise, surprise) turns out to be one of the sole survivors - trust me, I'm not ruining anything here. Curtis looks pretty old in this film but turns in an adequate performance. William Baldwin is the hero of the group, always going on ahead and shooting first. He's fine. Donald Sutherland also turns up, surprisingly, and even more surprisingly gives a pretty awful performance. For a start he's supposed to be Irish but he can't do an Irish accent, and also he gives a very hammy performance as the drunk captain. Joanna Pacula also appears and strangely doesn't seem to have aged at all in ten years - she looks as good as she ever did.

I liked the way that the mechanical monsters in this film started off small and gradually grew bigger and bigger. The first time we see them is when they are little insect like robotic things, scuttling about and amassing components to build bigger and better things. After some disturbing scenes in the ship's hold, androids start to appear, the dead flesh having been recycled and used a new - these androids look very good, gory and gruesome and quite frightening too. From then on the giant robots keep getting bigger and bigger until this gigantic machine appears at the end to attack the few survivors. This big beastie is absolutely phenomenal, the CGI animation has never looked better! As well as the above average special effects, we also get some effectively gruesome moments in which killed crew members turn up as automatons. They're pretty sick looking and extremely cool. There is also some brief gore, one poor guy has a hole punched through his body! The requisite number of shells and bombs are also spent during the film's running time - it's obvious where the budget was spent, on visual spectacle, just as I like to see. If you're a fan of waterlogged chillers in the mould of DEEP STAR SIX and LEVIATHAN, then by all means watch this entertaining B-movie - it's a lot better than its reputation would have you imagine.

After losing their payload the ramshackle, sinking, ocean-going salvage tug "Sea Star" takes refuge in the eye of a typhoon in an attempt to make repairs. Whilst trying to find help the tug, captained by Robert Everton ('Donald Sutherland' ), discovers a Russian science vessel adrift in the eye. The crew believes their troubles are over and they are set for life when the captain informs them of the value of salvaging this apparent ghost-ship. However, the navigator Kit Foster (Jamie Lee Curtis) and the chief engineer Steve Baker (William Baldwin) are not convinced that it will be that easy. Once power is restored to the ship strange things start to happen and the crew mysteriously disappear one by one. It isn't until the discovery of the last remaining Russian crew member, the chief science officer Nadia Vinogradiya (Joanna Pacula), that the crew realize the enemy ranged against them isn't the Russians but something far more malevolent. While I'll admit that the plots is hacked from dozens of other (Mostly better) films, 'Virus' is no where as bad as others have made it out to be. Jamie Lee Curtis is likable in the lead and the special effects are terrific! The film is an entertaining and fast-paced sci-fi horror movie. It was gory too. I enjoyed it. 6.5/10. ABOUT THE DVD: Universal has done a terrific job with the release of the virus DVD. The crisp looking 2.35:1 wide screen transfer looks great. There's little to no grain, sharp colors, solid blacks and realistic flesh tones. The Dolby digital 5.1 audio is very effective. I loved them gunshots! Gotta have your gunshots! Extras are great, too. The commentary, provided by the director, John Bruno, select cast members and the composer is an enjoyable track filled with behind-the-scenes stories and is quite informative. Next up is a very good 17-minute documentary, Ghost in the machine, covering everything from special effects construction to cast interviews. Next up are a collection of 4 deleted scenes (Shown in there rough-cut form), which are pretty enjoyable in there own right. Next up is a tiny 6-minute featurette, which is really just a rehash of the documentary. Also included are production notes, DVD-ROM features, a trailer, and really cool animated menus. Nice! DVD ratings

Virus never decides what kind of movie it wants to be. Thriller, Sci-fi, horror, action, farce, comedy? Which is it? You can have Thriller, but you can't have dead-pan one liners and hysterical over acting Russians. OR can you? The only way to make this movie watchable is to make a drinking game out of it: Every time someone says a terrible cliché like "If we play our cards right." or "Get your asses up here." or "We gotta get off this ship." or "I need medical attention." then you drink. Believe me, you will be plastered by the beginning of the second act. At one point a character learns they are all in imminent peril and she says, "We need to get off this ship." Wow!

And another line that will haunt me is when William Baldwin says, "You point that gun at me one more time..."

and Sutherland says, "Or what?"

And William Baldwin pauses. Sweat drips from his forehead. All eyes are upon him. Tension is palpable. Baldwin says, "Think about it." and walks away.

That, my friends, is some damn fine writing.

But the production design and animatronics are very very good, which makes me wonder how this script was left in tact. This is what happens when there is enough money for a tug boat and a government ship, but not enough for a script rewrite. One or the other. So the producers chose the tug boat and the ship and prayed the translation into Hungarian for the European DVD release would make up for the fact every other line makes you think the writer learned English from watching Streets of San Francisco reruns. But the writer also produced, so maybe he is a little in love with his craptastic writing. It wouldn't be the first case of vanity screen writing.

I watched it all despite commercials but I wouldn't hesitate to turn it off the next time.

Nothing great, nothing awful. As always, if there is an African American guy in a scary movie, it's a BGD - black guy dies.

Okay, I know, this movie borrows so many elements from so many sci-fi/horror movies that I'm not gonna bother making a list of them. The setting, plot development, characters, ending,... are all far from original but the premise of this movie sorta is. Instead of monsters or cyborgs running around killing people, we now have an intelligent alien life-force in the form of electricity from outerspace invading a big Russian research-ship in desolate ocean waters. The life-form takes over the ship's computers and electronic circuits and is determined to wipe out the one virus it sees as a threat: Humanity. When the crew of the small salvage-ship Sea Star finds the abandoned Russian vessel dead in the water, the fun starts.

The acting is okay, but the characters are badly written and full of clichés, with Donald Shutterland's character, Capt. Robert Everton, being the worst (and therefore the most fun). He handles in an irrational manner all the time. In the beginning of the movie he wants to kill himself by blowing his brains out 'cause he's depressed over losing his cargo. Then he's happy 'cause he thinks that salving the Russian ship will make him a millionaire. When things go wrong again, he claims himself being the superior life-form and tries to make a deal with the alien force. Needless to say this is the last dumb mistake he'll ever make. Jamie Lee Curtis and William Baldwin play the only 'normal' characters on board.

But we don't watch these type of movies for character-development or logical plot-twists, do we? The suspense and action leading up to the climax are well dosed and the special effects are rather excellent. They start out small and turn grotesque near the end, like it should be. We have small spider/bat-like robots operated by animatronics, puppetry and humans with metal parts sticking out of them for the visualization of the symbiosis between man and machine, and in the end they switch to solid CGI for the massive über-robot. I just love the whole "using humans for spare-parts"-idea.

I must say (sorry for the spoiler) that there is a survivor (though easy to figure out, I'm not gonna tell who it is), but the way he/she escapes the ship is a bit ridiculous, probably doing it for only one reason: to make the ending look spectacular. Just jumping overboard would've been as effective and less dangerous. But we don't wanna see that, huh?

Bottomline: This flick is fun! But make sure you leave your brain at the door when you see this, otherwise you'll end up needing spare-parts yourself. You might even have yourself a treat by organizing a triple-feature "Ships Of Horror"-night, by watching VIRUS, DEEP RISING and GHOST SHIP. Because there are far more worse horror-flicks involving ships out there. If you don't believe me, then check out UNINVITED, DEATH SHIP or (sorry, Jason-lovers) Friday THE 13TH, PART 8: JASON TAKES MANHATTEN (instead of what the movie's title might lead you to suspect, almost 70% of it takes place on a cruise-ship!).

If you like the "robots vs humans"-concept, you might wanna check out more obscure similar titles like SATURN 3 (starring Harvey Keitel) or MOONTRAP (starring Bruce Campbell). In any case, VIRUS stirred up my "flesh & metal"-fetish, so I'm gonna watch TETSUO all over again.

"Virus" is not as bad as its reputation would indicate, even if star Jamie Lee Curtis herself feels that this is the worst thing she ever did. It's certainly not without its drawbacks - dumb and clichéd characters (the coward, the one who gets victimized first, the psycho, the no-nonsense hero, etc.), silly dialogue and silly moments, a familiar feel to it - but, taken for what it is, it provides some adequate entertainment. It makes sense that its director is John Bruno, whose background is in special effects, as it's often a showcase for some interesting and decently executed effects, with such luminaries as Phil Tippett, Steve Johnson, and Eric Allard contributing their talents. The story has a tugboat taking refuge from a hurricane by resting in its eye, and coming across an abandoned Russian research vessel that we know has already been overwhelmed by some weird phenomenon. It turns out the culprit is some sort of living alien electricity that has infested the computer on the vessel and manipulated its robotics department to come up with some amusing if not terribly imaginative human-robot hybrids. The movie has the look of quality - it's photographed by David Eggby ("Mad Max", "Pitch Black"), who does a cameo as a captain, and designed by Mayling Cheng - and features a booming score by Joel McNeely. The actors really do their darnedest, no matter how badly written some of their roles might be. Jamie Lee is worth watching as always, William Baldwin is okay as the male lead, Donald Sutherland a total hoot as Jamie Lee's crazed and sleazy superior, and lovely Joanna Pacula is great as the traumatized survivor of the initial attack who tries to help the newcomers; also appearing are character players Marshall Bell, Sherman Augustus, Cliff Curtis, and Julio Oscar Mechoso. Provided one can turn off their brain and just laps up this kind of thing anyway, it is possible to be entertained by "Virus". As for Jamie Lee's own opinion on the matter, she certainly has done better films in the genre, but this isn't the total fiasco it's made out to be, either. Just go in with your expectations low. Five out of 10.