Contaminated Man

"The Contaminated Man" is an efficiently but also very routinely made thriller, unoriginal and unexceptional in the extreme, right down to the ruthless "national security" agents who value the secrecy of their projects more highly than human life itself. For what is essentially a chase film, there is not enough urgency in the story. Peter Weller is remarkably convincing in a role that requires him to look much older than he really is, but he fails to gain much audience sympathy - he may be captured or he may escape, but we don't care very much one way or the other. (**1/2)

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.

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.

In 1986, David is coming home to his wife Kelly, who is finishing an art work (which later appears on David's desk) and planning to put on something skimpy. The hot night they were planning never happens.

In 'present day' Budapest, Joseph has been fired after 22 years. He enters a room where he is not authorized to be, a room where most people have to wear 'space suits' because of dangerous substances. After an incident, David's HAZMAT team is called in. Holly is also investigating the incident--as a possible terrorist act. We know where this is going when Holly meets David and says, 'Cool suit! Are we expecting Martians?'

The company president won't reveal what is inside, calling the specifics 'trade secrets'. David must visit Lilian, the CEO--they have a history after something she did in the United States.

I won't say who 'Contaminated Man' is, or whether he knows what he is doing. I will only say that everyone he comes in close contact with dies within an hour, while this 'Typhoid Mary' only has a bad cough. One other person is immune, because he went through tests with the same chemical, a pesticide that has become very dangerous, possibly because there were plans to use it as a chemical weapon in war.

Whoever made this movie had trouble making up their mind what type it would be. There were some quite exciting chase scenes, especially in the second half, but sometimes it was quite slow. At one point, it seemed like the solution would be too easy, but the movie had thirty minutes to go, so a new twist was added to make it more interesting.

Sometimes the movie could be chilling, with otherworldly music, as danger was suggested. Once, the video looked normal but the audio resembled a 78 RPM record played at 33--quite effective. And sometimes it was more of a romantic comedy.

Overall, the result was pretty good--for a TV-movie, anyway. Not too much violence--though one person got shot and the blood just spurted out. Not every opportunity was taken to show gore (fine with me), even though there were plenty of chances.

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..