Virus

Year: 1999

Director: John Bruno

Written by: Chuck Pfarrer and Dennis Feldman

Threat: Alien

Weapon of Choice: Guns

IMDb page: IMDb link

       Virus

Rish Outfield's reviews
Not a slasher, but definitely horror. Even with an inappropriate title (just try and defend it) and zero box office, it had high production-values and a nice cast going for it. Donald Sutherland was likable when he wasn't supposed to be. I like Jamie Lee Curtis a lot, but she had less to do here than usual. Joanna Pacula was very convincing (I didn't know it was her until the credits). One of the nameless Baldwin brothers (the smarmy one) co-stars, and has an incredibly tacked-on romance with Jamie Lee. I think people naturally have a fear of robotics and technology, so the bad guy was pretty effective. At the same time, I couldn't help but notice the similarity here with Star Trek:First Contact. And that wasn't the only movie I was reminded of. Well, Gale Anne Hurd produced this thing, so she couldn't possibly be ripping off other Gale Anne Hurd movies, right? Obviously, there were no elements stolen from Aliens, The Terminator, Deep Impact, or The Abyss--and that's a relief. There were a couple of fun moments, but mostly I was left empty. Also, a scene or two really worked, but they were so few and far between that it seemed like they were from another movie.
Best Scare: Donald Sutherland's cool transformation.
I'd Recommend It To: Hmmm. . . Ms. Curtis' fans, I guess.

The tyranist's thoughts
To be blunt this is a major rip off of Alien and possibly Terminator, but it was a lot of fun to watch. I would highly recommend seeing this on the big screen, since the biggest attraction of the movie are the effects. They will be much more appreciable in a theatre than when this comes out on DVD. Everyone's favourite scream queen is back in this one and really performs admirably. Well, okay, it did kind of bug me that she was the only female crew member on a cargo tug that was crewed by a lot of people who appeared to be societal outcasts. I mean, really, she would've been raped inside of five minutes. Still, she is Jamie Lee and maybe they saw Halloween H20: 20 Years Later and decided that she could kick their asses if they upset her.
I also particularly liked Joanna Pacula. If I had my druthers she would have survived with Jamie Lee and Billy Baldwin would have died. At least she sacrificed her life for the noble cause of preserving the earth. All things considered, I would say that seeing this film once is going to be enjoyable, but too much time to analyze it will probably make it seem even worse than it is.

Sequel
Owes everything to/rips off earlier film skull Alien
Sequel setup
Bad title skull
Bad premise
Bad acting
Bad dialogue
MTV Editing skull
OTS
Girl unnecessarily gets naked
Wanton sex
Death associated with sex
Characters forget about threat
Secluded location skullskull
Power is cut skull
Phone lines are cut skull
Someone investigates a strange noise skull
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door
Camera is the killer skull
Victims cower in front of a window/door skull
Toilet stall scene
Victim locks self in with killer skull
Killer is in car with victim
Cat jumps out
Fake scare skull
Laughable scare
Blood hits camera
Beheading skull
Killer doesn't stay dead skull
Stupid discovery of corpse
Dream sequence skull
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls
No one believes only witness skull
Blood fountain
Poor death effect
Excessive gore
Music detracts from scene skull
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie
Future celebrity appears
No one dies at all
Death in first five minutes skull
Virgin survives
Geek/Nerd survives
Little kid lamely survives
Dog/Pet miraculously survives
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes
Unresolved subplots skullskull
"It was all a dream" ending skull
Unbelievably happy ending
What the hell?

Total Skulls: 21

Other movies in this series:
None