Contaminated Man

It's 1986 in the U.S. Hurt wears a bad wig and forgets to wash his hands. Disaster strikes...

It's 'present day' in Eastern Europe. Robocop's grandpa causes a bio-hazard explosion. Hurt now just has bad hair, and after Ronin ("yull gart yuh monnar"), McElhone slaughters another accent, this time American, all the while simultaneously filming a commercial for Diet Coke.

No surprise that this didn't get a distribution deal in the U.K. and went straight to DVD/video. The kind of movie that killed Hurt's career. Absolute garbage!

If you're in Australia you're probably seeing 'The Contaminated Man' appear on video store shelves right about now. Even though it has Peter Weller and William Hurt in it, you can tell from even the title itself that this is going to be an average film at best. And having watched it, I can say that this is an okay film, the snow-covered scenery being reminiscent of Screamers (Peter Weller's last film of note), but with the story being coherent and making sense unlike Screamers. If I was Roger Ebert I'd have to give this a thumbs down but it's worth watching if you've got a couple of hours to kill or if you've seen all of this month's new releases.

This story could have become a good movie, on paper it must have looked great. The story reminds me of " The Carrier(1988)" that was a fun movie, this one is not. The movie starts with William Hurt and his Wayne's World hair, dumbed look in his eyes and then you will know it already, this is another movie good old William slept all the way through... like in so many other movies he is acting like a zombie with his "I'am only here for the money" attitude. ofcourse there's more to make is a sinker, you have Peter Weller, quite a wooden actor but fun to watch in Robocop and screamers, gives the best performance of the entire cast but if you can believe the moves he make to see his son you are the type of person who still stays awake at night when it's christmas to see santa. The plot starts of rather good but becomes a tight budget chase movie combined with some MacGyver. I gave this one a chance for about an hour before searching for the remote controll and forward button.

Just watch "The Carrier" roughly the same plot, made with a shoestring budget but a hell of a lot more fun than this..

Back away from the movie. Do not touch it with your bare hands. The director must have been away shooting another film. Edited by monkeys. Ug.

For a science scare movie to work well it has to be either truly original or a very good retelling. This movie is neither. Sure there is a pseudo-original twist in that the guy kills people because of a toxin and not because of a disease, but that is a very minor twist. There is the government conspiracy angle, the crusader protagonist who has personal experience...

And one real drawback of this movie is that the contaminated man has no pathos. Although the character is scripted to be someone who should be pitied, he is not. Without the pity the movie is pointless. The other characters are so cookie cutter they are ridiculous. The subplots are convoluted and annoying. And the saddest thing is the movie is too flat to even be enjoyed as mock material. Make the movie a 45 minute short and it might be worth watching.