Virus

At a Prodichem chemical plant in New Jersey, there is an accident involving a secret biological warfare project. Only Alex Bur survives, and he contacts Leo Burns of the New York Tribune.

Alex is soon dead, but not before announcing he has a plan whose details are unknown.

At a press conference, President John Lawrence Wheeler and adviser Eric Black deny everything, but Black is actually in charge of the project, which President Wheeler knows nothing about.

Secret Service Agent Ken Fairchild, who showed his talent when the President appeared threatened at the press conference, is assigned to check out Thermal Wells National Park in advance of the One World Conference the President is attending. Fairchild ends up being a bumbling idiot in the great outdoors and must be rescued by veterinarian Dr. Larraine Keller. This is the first of several comic moments with these two.

Meanwhile, Ripley has been hired to transport a shipment from Prodichem. He is either drunk or crazy or both, and it is the same dangerous chemical from the accident earlier in the movie that he is delivering.

Can you guess where Ripley will end up?

There are some positive qualities in this movie. The scenery at Thermal Wells is beautiful, and that's with no snow at all. There are no camera shots from a distance with snow. Camp David is also beautiful. Most of the leading actors have a few good moments, but no one delivers a consistent performance. Daniel Kash as Ripley, Leah Pinsent as Lorraine and Chuck Shamata as Leo come the closest.

The stunt players do a good job, especially the one(s) playing Ripley. One sequence involving Ripley and his truck is actually quite well done, though far short of the gold standard of "Breakdown". I am curious about why the film quality is so different in part of the sequence; it's as if the rest of the film is videotaped and these shots are filmed. But it's effective.

And there is some excitement involving the truck and toward the end. It's actually enjoyable to watch our heroes work toward their goal, if you're not too picky about details and quality. The writing is halfway intelligent (geology experts might disagree) toward the end.

The real evidence that quality was not a priority: inconsistency. At Thermal Wells, everything is covered with snow in one scene, and the snow is still falling heavily. Then there is only a little snow. Then no snow has fallen at all. Then there is a little snow on the ground. then everything is covered again. Then the sky is perfectly clear and no snow has fallen anywhere. Oh, and let's not forget this: if a man and a woman are on a motorcycle, regardless of what has happened anywhere else, there MUST be just a little snow on the ground. This is explained (when nothing has happened yet that I can see): at high altitudes the weather changes quickly. One apparently doesn't need to travel far in this territory for drastic changes to take place. No one should have scheduled the One World Conference for someplace like this.

And then there are the medical inconsistencies. In the first scene, people die a gruesome, bloody death. So others can experience the same illness, appear dead, and end up recovering as if nothing has happened? Again, this is explained away.

If one doesn't get too picky, it is still possible to enjoy this movie. If for no other reason, to laugh at all its problems.

I always liked Brian "Stone Cold" Bosworth, and will watch anything he appears in. Having said that, I would not care to see "Spill" (aka "Virus") a second time. Bosworth plays a national security chief who crosses paths with the usual government renegades when a truck full of illegal toxins crashes in a national park and the bad guys decide to cover up the incident, even if it means murdering a bunch of witnesses. You say you've heard this plot before? The action scenes are OK, but this one is a bare-bones thriller that appears to have been shot for video. For Bosworth fans only. For those of you too young to remember, Bosworth first appeared in an early 1990s action flick, "Stone Cold." Wrestler Steve Williams (aka Austin) later picked up the title of that movie and adopted it for his ring nickname.

I concur; this is without a doubt one of the worst movies ever made. Do not watch it. It seemed *much* longer that it was, was quite tedious and overall just a horrible movie. Gaping plot holes, bad acting, you name it. It made me seriously lose confidence in the judgment of the people who picked it out to watch. I don't know if it was a budget issue or a script issue or what, but the final product is *terrible*.

I would give you a summary of the plot, but I don't think this movie is worth it. The plot is not coherent enough to deserve a summary. The premise is that a deadly virus is on the loose and is going to kill a bunch of people if the heroes fail to save the day. But really, the only people who are going to bleed from the eyes are the ones who watch this movie.

If the plot interests you at all, watch "Outbreak" instead.

What do David Fox, Leah Pinsent, and Eric Peterson have in common? They're all great actors stuck in a bad movie with other actors with only a quarter the talent and skill they have. But that's not what turns me off. What turns me off is the fact that the plot isn't interesting at all. Even those three are bored with it! And what can they do? It's not like every producer in the country is after them for their next movie break. It's not like we have much money to spend furthering their careers either. They deserve more. I only saw this movie because they were in it. I just hope they appear in a much better movie, with more integrity than this one.

Brian Bosworth stars as a government agent who is sent to stop the outbreak of a deadly virus which has been dumped, also there are guys trying to steal to use for an assassination on a politician or something(It's never made clear) add in a lame subplot about Bosworth being an ex-football star as well as dull love interest subplot and you are in for an excruciating 90 minutes. Candian actor Chuck Shamata probably gives the best performance but his scenes are few and far between, also his overall character is hilarious since (as others have pointed out) that he comes off as Columbo and his death scene is hysterical, in that he does an exaggerated fall. Also the beginning is also hysterical in that it's so over the top it becomes hilarious. Sadly these are the only elements in an otherwise awful film, which is dull and horrible. So don't see it. After all there are far funnier disaster movies, and certainly much better made than this fiasco.

1/2* out of 4-(Awful)