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)

The movie starts right off with a flashback to earlier days when David R. Whitman (William Hurt), a biochemist, accidentally dispatches his family with a virus. Years later a guard at a chemical plant is dismissed and, in an attempt, to get his job back he accidentally causes a spill of the same virus.

Now the chase is on to catch the contaminated man. In the process we have questions. Was it the first incident and accident? And is this time an accident?

We watch the standard team of good guy hazmat team and bad guy NSA banterer as the contaminated man keeps getting away and causing havoc.

So, what is new about this film? NOTHING So, is there any socially redeeming value? NO Is the ending any message? NO

Some people like to watch the same formula over again to see the nuances of actors or scenes.

There ain't any nuances here.

Still, it could have been worse.

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.

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..

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!