Really Surprised!

Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

I don't know if Zombie purists would call it a zombie film but this nice little picture stands the test of time to tonight's DVD viewing. I enjoyed almost all of it but the ending could have been better. The film makes some big comments on genetic engineering and the government/ corporation relationships regarding this. I would google this subject out and you will find some stories just as scary as this film! Some real scares there. I like how the film doesn't make me cringe like many sci-fi/horror films of the period but actually impressed me. A hidden gem. Highly competent film that sustains almost to the end. The film involves some zombie concepts but doesn't follow the formula quite like the other films in that genre. Great cast and the direction is restrained. The film stands the test of time so source it out.

Sam Waterston... Kathleen Quinlan... Yaphet Kotto... Richard Dysart... all in all a good cast. It manages to never get truly laughable, even though it's pretty dated now. The story is actually not bad. Kathleen Quinlan is very good as a security guard trying to do the right thing when the biohazard erupts. Sam Waterston is okay...Yaphet Kotto would probably delete this from his credits if he could. What trips up this movie? The biohazard erupts and the plant seals itself automatically with steel doors. Then the government boys show up. Three lab workers who got out are rounded up and stuck in 'bubble boy' baggies, and they hang out with the rest of the townspeople in front of the plant through the movie(!)....they are conveniently unzipped in the final scene. A steel door protecting uncontaminated scientists is pounded by the crazed with a fire extinguisher... and in the final scene it is shiny and new when it opens to release the scientists... A jackhammer employed to cut a hole in the wall is clearly not working when the hole is opened. I must say, though, that it held my interest until the end.

I remember seeing this 20 yrs ago and having a very favorable impression, but the recent copy I bought and viewed this week showed both better and worse aspects, different from what I recalled. Anyway, the story is quite catching and most of the acting is above average, thanks to a good ensemble cast of quality folks. Very well done art/set design makes up for rather standard plot direction, with some nicely eerie moments. There's well written, believable dialog interspersed with silly, and well developed characters interspersed with stereotypes. So it's a mishmash but a good one. Would have been nice to see a more believable military response to the viral outbreak, but the budget must have only been enough for a small crew of national guard type soldiers rather than a more believable crack platoon outfit that would have been all over the locals, and sent them packing. Definitely a good half of a double feature with Endangered Species, or Andromeda Strain.

I recently saw a preview for Resident Evil, the latest sci-fi/gore opus from Event Horizon director Paul Anderson. (Not to be confused with Paul Thomas Anderson). It looks like a big budget, explosive version of Warning Sign, a strange little horror movie I remember watching in the '80s. The plot of the 1985 film involves a deadly serum leaking inside a bio-chemical plant in rural Utah. The plant is sealed off--no one can get in or get out. What happens inside is best described as Night of the Living Dead meets the Andromeda Strain. All in all, not a bad horror film, and the actors (Sam Waterston, Kathleen Quinlan--both Oscar nominees, but alas, not for Warning Sign) manage to keep straight faces. The film has an "Alien" feel to it, and is quite stylish to boot. More than anything, the film has a good, somewhat believable premise for a horror story. But the execution is just so odd. Scientists becoming zombies or monsters has been done before, and the atmospheric first half of the movie is somewhat ruined by the over-the-top, borderline campy second half. We'll see soon enough whether Anderson's version of the idea is successful, although judging from the ads, I seriously doubt it.