Outbreak

So what is this one about?

Netflix tells us “As take-charge Army virologist Sam Daniels (Dustin Hoffman) strives to thwart a global biological meltdown in the form of a killer virus that has infested a California community, he must also battle those who say the only way to stop the disease is to firebomb the town. Silver-screen luminaries Rene Russo, Morgan Freeman, Donald Sutherland and Kevin Spacey join Hoffman in this edge-of-your-seat, doomsday thriller.”

Basically, this movie is about a fake Ebola virus. SWEET!!!!!

And how much did I pay to watch?

Some amount on Netflix. Lord, I have been SO slow in movie watching lately. (And not just watching, but UPDATING. I am ashamed)

And what did I think?

Well, if you know me IRL then you will know that lately (past month and a half –two months) I have been very interested in science books/ ebola. I read Panic in Level 4: Cannibals, Killer Viruses, and Other Journeys to the Edge of Science by Richard Preston. This book was FASCINATING! As someone who doesn’t really like science, I tore through this book…read it in less than a week! Then I read Preston’s The Hot Zone in less than a week too! And, as Wikipedia tells us, “The Hot Zone served as the loose basis of the Hollywood movie Outbreak (1995) about military machinations surrounding a fictional "Motaba virus." Huzzah! So, I figured I should watch this.

So, motaba is a hemorrhagic fever where the infected person bleeds out of all their orifaces and their guts turn to liquid. Sweet. But, it didn’t look a gross as I would have imagined it would. But, when I watched a documentary about Ebola, I was also surprised about how ungory the infected were. (Man, whenever I say “infected” I always think about zombies, sick.). But other than the lack of goriness, everything else in this movie was a hyperbolic form of its real world self! And I LOVED IT!

I found myself giggling at times that should have been suspenseful because the movie was just so extreme at times! For example, ebola tends to kill people within 7 to 10 days of infection, but this silly motaba virus killed people within like 24 hours…or maybe it was 2-4, I cannot remember, but it was super hyperbolic. And the Donald Sutherland character, he was the general, and he wasn’t just a mean general who was trying to mess up Dustin Hoffman, no, he was trying to [SPOILER ALERT] kill the whole town!!!! And the music was super, like, suspenseful and was supposed to be very dramatic. The whole thing was really just very silly.

And let me get this straight, I am supposed to believe that Dustin Hoffman (troll) and Renee Russo (not a troll, fairly good looking actually) were in love and married at one point. Um… what?? I cannot think of anyone not only less attractive, but less sexy, and appealing than Dustin Hoffman. (well, I probably could, and since I am typing this at work it isn’t like I don’t have so much time on my hands that I could just stare off into space for 15 minutes trying to think of someone else…but I digress). Maybe you should comment and leave me suggestions for who is less appealing than Dustin Hoffman.

Anyway, it was amusing.

So what is the rating? (out of 10)

So, was this as interesting as The Hot Zone? No way!!! Was it sort of fun anyway? Sure! It did take me quite a few sit downs to get through it (which might have had something to do with me being tired, because once I got into it, it was fun!) So, I’ll give it a 6. It gets that extra point because the disease ridden monkey was cute.

OH, and because Kevin Spacey was in it! (is he gay? I feel like I read somewhere that he is… weird)