Virus *** (1999, Jamie Lee Curtis, William Baldwin, Donald Sutherland) – Classic Movie Review 827

Director John Bruno’s 1999 monster movie, based on the comic books by Chuck Pfarrer, is good fun. The 100 minutes just rattles along.

It’s Alien on the ocean, as an American crew takes refuge in the eye of a typhoon aboard a Russian research vessel, which they initially take to be empty and decide to salvage it for the $30million or so it’ll fetch. They soon find that the Soviets – except one (Joanna Pacula) – have been killed by an alien who begins to prey on them.

As the death toll rises, the alien’s motive becomes clear: humans are a virus that must be destroyed. The Americans are on their own against the monster, because they realise if they call for help, the monster will escape to rampage and replicate. So off we go with this very good premise, reasonable execution and fine special effects from many different sources.

Unfortunately, the film and its actors are let down by some rotten, hokey dialogue and an almost total lack of characterisation – so everyone’s a cardboard stereotype – in the screenplay by Pfarrer and Dennis Feldman (who wrote Species). This leaves the likeable stars Jamie Lee Curtis (as Kit Foster) and William Baldwin (as Steve Baker) rather high and dry some of the time, though they go to it with an iron will. But nothing stops Donald Sutherland’s splendidly lip-smacking captain in a the-game’s-up-let’s-go-for-it performance worthy of Jon Voight.

The James Bond movie-style ending’s a bit of a let-down, too. But otherwise this is good old-fashioned B-movie film-making, playing like a big-budget ($75million), polished-up antique 50s Sci-Fi chiller.

Art Department, Animation Department and Visual Effects supremo Bruno is best known for his work on Titanic (1997), Avatar (2009) and Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). By 2014 Virus is his only feature film as director.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 827

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