Pandemic

It was spooky watching this in the middle of a real pandemic. They really predicted a lot of aspects of the disaster that we've seen happening with Covid. Spread from animals to people, traveling around the world through airplane travel, person to person transmission on surfaces and through coughing, people unwilling to quarantine, clearing out the supermarkets, hoarding, frontline and healthcare workers dying, needing cold facilities to store all the bodies as morgues and funeral homes are overwhelmed, mass graves, political jousting, and even "patriots" thinking it was a deep state conspiracy. It was amazingly prescient. They showed it progressing through different parts of society, but kept enough focus on the main characters to keep viewers engaged and caring. I'm surprised it doesn't have a higher rating.

Virus themed movies tend to follow the same formula, and for that reason I always struggle to enjoy them as I already know exactly how it's going to play out.

With an all star cast including Tiffani Thiessen, French Stewart, Faye Dunaway, Eric Roberts to name just a few they pull out all the stops and a couple give career best performances.

Telling the story of a new virus outbreak and how it breaks containment and spreads through Los Angeles like wildfire.

Standing at almost three hours in length nobody can say the movie isn't thorough. With fantastic character development, decent writing and a competent cast this rises above most films of this sub genre.

Thiessen surprisingly delivers like I've never seen her do so before and even Roberts is less hammy than usual.

I enjoyed this, for all it's flaws it's a well made film.

The Good:

Cast do a great job

Well written

Movie length really helps no end

The Bad:

A lot of it you'll have seen before

Spano is still stupidly unlikeable

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Gun toting right wing militia types doing stupid things?! LIES!

Ofcourse this is dated and full of plot holes but that adds to it's charm. The characters are clumsy and cliché but it's so watchable. Now we are living through a pandemic, it makes you feel like more of an expert to watch this and say, 'well that wouldn't happen'. It's fun.

I'm a can of disaster movies and I don't know why. A high rating from me for 90% of them would be a 5 out of 10.

But Pandemic has a good cast and even though it is lengthy, I'm watching on Amazon Prime so I can break it into pieces.

But I did manage to sit up and take not when the Guv, Fay Dunaway, delivered her Marshall Law address. She declared a "dawn to dusk curfew". So the hapless folks of LA can raise the roof at night but come sunrise, they have to be put away their fangs retreat to their homble abodes.

It amazes me that a mistake like that can make to the final cut. But that's what makes watching these types of films fun.

When I found "Pandemic" I was a bit hesitant to sit down and watch it, because it had Tiffani Thiessen in the lead role, and for some reason she will always be associated with playing Kelly in "Saved by the Bell" and Valerie in "Beverly Hill 90210". But I still decided to give it a go, because the synopsis did sound interesting enough.

Sure, the storyline is fairly generic and has been done many times before in other similar movies. The storyline is about a rampant disease that is out of control and threatens mankind. The future of mankind hangs at the balance in the hands of a very select few people determined to save it all.

"Pandemic" was entertaining actually for what it turned out to be, and despite being such a generic storyline, there were actually some enjoyable moments throughout the course of the movie. And the storyline actually was entertaining, although it has already been seen before in other such disease movies. The movie is not without its flaws, trust you me, but I will let you pinpoint them by yourself.

My initial reservations towards Tiffani Thiessen were actually put to shame, because she really performed quite well here in this movie, and proved that she has indeed stepped out of those "Saved by the Bell" and "Beverly Hills 90210" shackles. It was somewhat odd to witness French Stewart in a serious role such as this, and he did feel like a fish out of water. Faye Dunaway and Eric Roberts also made some short appearances in the movie and actually did flavor up the movie with their grace and charms.

"Pandemic" is nowhere near being a masterpiece, nor is it an innovative or revolutionary movie in the disease genre - if there is such a genre. But it still turned out to be entertaining and enjoyable.

If you have about almost 3 hours to spare, got "Pandemic" at hand, and have nothing else to do, then perhaps do sit down to watch it. Who knows, you might actually just find it surprisingly enjoyable as I did.

My rating of "Pandemic" is 6 out of 10 stars.