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Filthy

I have seen "Virus" at a sneak preview at a local cinema. That was luck for the producers! If I had visited the film intentionally and paid for it knowing it was to be shown, I would have been seriously worried about the way I spend my money. Not only the story was it, what was so horrible. In fact, there wasn't any story. A few good men enter a Russian ship and have to face an evil alien. Haha. there might be some people on this planet, who would've made a good movie out of this, but the producers of "Virus" didn't. The bad special effects, a mixture of elements of films like "Star Trek", "Alien" or "The Abyss", and the missing atmosphere make this movie one of the worst I've ever seen.

Average Sci-Fi horror at best, boring silly rubbish at worst.

Virus starts aboard the Russian scientific ship the Academic Vladislav Volkov as it makes radio contact with the Mir space-station, at that moment a strange purple electric alien life form passes through the Mir & gets transmitted down onto the ship. Virus then switches to the South Pacific 7 days later during a typhoon & the crew of a salvage tug named the 'Sea Star' are caught up in it. The typhoon creates huge waves which begin to damage & flood the Sea Star, Captain Robert Everton (Donald Sutherland) is at odds with his crew when he demands they carry on regardless. As it happens the storm severs the chain to their salvage behind them, they then decide to head into the eye of the typhoon where the waters will be calm. As they discuss their situation the boats radar picks up a large signal, that of the Academic Vladislav Volkov. Sensing it might be salvageable the Sea Star pulls up along side & Everton, the navigator Kelly Foster (Jamie Lee Curtis), two engineers Steve Baker (William Baldwin) & Squeaky (Julio Oscar Mechoso) & the token black guy Ritchie Mason (Sherman Augustus) venture on board. At first it seems perfect as no one is around but things soon start to turn sour as a dropped anchor destroys the Sea Star, the last two remaining crew members J.W. Woods (Marshall Bell) & Hiko (Cliff Curtis) also board the ship at this point. Eventually they discover one survivor, a Russina female scientist named Nadia Vinogradiya (Joanna Pacula) who tells bizarre tales of aliens which no one believes, at first anyway...Directed by John Bruno I thought Virus passed an hour and a half painlessly enough but isn't anything that's going to change the world. The script by Dennis Feldman & Chuck Pfarrer based on his comic book series of the same name is as clichéd as you could imagine. There's the tough female, the obligatory black guy, the Canadian comic relief character, the crusty old sea Captain whose main motivation is money, the handsome hero, the fish out of water character in the Russian scientist & you know the sort of thing. Now place these stereotypes into an isolated location with varying motives to maintain antagonism & add something, it doesn't really matter does it, that wants to kill everyone & is a risk to the whole World unless our clichéd hero's can destroy it or stop it from spreading, yep that's all here as well. While Virus isn't original in the slightest it does provide fair entertainment, it moves along at a nice pace & never became too boring or dull even if it was predictable. There is nothing particularly bad about Virus but at the same time there is nothing particularly brilliant about it, it was all average stuff that I felt I had seen many times before. Technically Virus has that nice Hollywood polish about it, solid production values & very well made throughout a few unconvincing special effects apart. Having said that the IMDb claims that Virus had a budget of around $75,000,000 which seems like a hell of a lot of money for what actually ended up on screen. Director Bruno fails to inject much life, pace or excitement into either the horror or action elements & Virus ends up feeling a bit flat. There is some gore here, brain operations, someone has a hole punched through their body & bloody half human half robot creatures but the violence is somewhat restrained. The huge robotic alien creation at the end is pretty cool looking & has nice spider like movement to it. The acting is as you would expect from a film such as Virus, just OK. Jamie Lee Curtis has apparently said in an interview that Virus is the worst film she has ever acted in, to which I will add nothing... Sutherland is obviously only here for the money. Overall I thought Virus was an OK watch, even though it rips-off many other better films Virus still comes out as a decent enough time-waster.

The Virus Is ... , (1998 Movie)

This movie is not that good, but if you're a fan of sci-fi then you will eventually have to see it like I did. Although I like the genre, fair is fair, and many other movies are better. The less you get your hopes up, the greater your chance to enjoy the movie. My fiancee, who never saw a sci-fi movie before asked me to turn this off after five minutes. We did go on to watch Aliens vs. Predator (AVP), which she loved, to give a comparison. However this, with all that being said, doesn't mean the movie won't be fun to watch.

As a trivia note, I inadvertently watched this movie back to back with AVP, and the similarities in the beginning at least were extraordinary. I presume this is due to both John Bruno on the set of both, and that both storylines were based on Dark Horse comic books.


This is a fun popcorn movie. The effects are gory on occasion and schlockey. There are the occasional presence of von Neumann machines, but are not as nearly threatening as the Replicators in the Stargate series. The movie title `Virus' works on a few levels.

HELLO ? IS THERE ANYBODY THERE !

THis is almost unbeliavable ! I think William Baldwin stil has time to turn around his career and get away from lousy productions like that. I like horror, but this is a completely heartless production, from a director who is beginning at this job. Sutherland is in his "Michael Caine" phase, accepting any script they offer him, what is a great thing, because producers generally have prejudice with older actors. About Curtis, I think she did great, because she didn't try to develop a character which had absolutely nothing to develop. Now, let's talk about the movie. The plot is ludicrous, nobody explains what were the reasons of the aliens. But there is one good point: at the end, there was absolutely no clue that we may have a sequence ! Great!

electric, its electric

This movie was fun yet funny. Very action packed, it cliched deep rising, alien, event horizon, and event horizon was a cliche! Yet, something about the creature that makes you think, whoa cool. I actually laughed in this movie, at the absurd character waste but yet i say it again, the movie had juuuuust enough action to be fun and just not plain old dumb. The lead actors should hang their heads low, Jamie Lee, sutherland, c'mon. I liked the plot of this movie and got out to a good start but then it got into nasty gore that turned your stomach.Action lovers who want a good time, go see this movie on your couch, with your popcorn and your dr. pepper. Dramatic, always-looking-for-a-deep-movie people stay away from this semi-bomb. 4/10

Nor good, neither bad

Before judging about the film itself, the only thing "original" was (according to the makers) the assimilation of human beings by electronic devices. A lot of people go into reference with the BORG from Star Trek, but I found another strikingly similar flick:"Moon Trap", anyone?Walter Koenig and Bruce Campbell,... SAME THING!!Personally, I found the movie satisfying. Expecting a Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror... thing from the Straight-to-video universe, hey, why not.Nobody expected a masterpiece...

Oh my god, it's sssooo bad!

How did such excellent actors get sucked into this horrid piece of cat-box droppings?! There's nowhere to begin in describing the utterly moronic mess that here pretends to be an action film.The characters of the story (I use that term loosely) deserve death - a hundred times over - and right at the beginning of the film! I have never encountered such a group of hateful cretins pretending to be heroes of any kind whatsoever in any genre.And the dialog! Some hippie fried his brain with LSD and wrote this in '67, no doubt; he tossed it in the basement of the flop-house he was evicted from; the scrip grew various shades of blue and green from mildew and other unmentionable molds. Then some idiot with a few million bucks accidentally dug it up when having the flop-house bulldozed and decided, hey, wouldn't it be nice to make a movie? Then he lost interest in it, and so did everyone else. You will too.This goes down in my little black book of DVDs I have ripped from my player and broken into bits of useless plastic, rather than suffer one minute more of such agonizing waste of time.

Great "B" Movie with Great Actors!

Some prominant actors in a great drive-in type classic. Some gruesome gore and a couple dark comedic moments. This has to be the worst virus you could ever hope not to catch. I saw this on the sci-fi channel and just had to own it. Virus takes erector sets to a whole new level. Highly recommended for good brainless fun!

Ok film from mundane and over-used plot outline

The following could fit at least 5 recent films made within the past few years (ie: Event Horizon, The Relic, Deep Rising, Virus, and others);ok; here are some similarities: First something evil (some bad-thought from beyond time and back, a disease/superstition, a lifeform, or a virus) takes over something (a ship, a museum, a ship, a ship). Second despite horror hints to the audience, the stupid people will not leave because of (salvaging the ship, salvaging a big opening, getting home on the ship, getting home and salvaging the ship). Coincidentally in Event Horizon, Deep Rising, and Virus the transportation ship was destroyed and in two of these cases (Deep Rising and Virus) the transport ship was carrying secret and expensive cargo. Next, bad things, like (phantom killings,dismemberments, interior/inside an amimals stomach digesting, and dismemberment into robots) occur. The crew starts to panic except for a few that have a plan (separate the ship and blow up the ship and then use the cockpit area to safety, get people to safety while tricking the amimal to follow another direction, blow up the ship, blow up the ship)In most of these films there is even some sort of hive were the evil lurks (the engineering room, the sewers, the bone-room, the robotic room or the engine/power)Do I even need to continue the similarities?....Oh yeah, the films are set up for sequels (Event Horizon, Deep Rising, and Virus)The lack of creativity makes me sick. All the films were relative bombs and none were received well.On this movie specifically: Virus' release (originally summer 1998) was delayed over 5 months. Acting was Ok and even top-notch actors were in it (unlike some of the other noted flics). The Russian aspect was good and the idea of a robotic virus is interesting. BUT THE PLOT is run-of-the mill. Even in the simplified similarity outline (given above) it is predictable cliched and stupid. Something more is needed as I keep waiting for some more originality in the film and was glad when the long 99 minutes ended. I could have written a better script.Perhaps the movie would be better if I had not seen any any the previous versions/works. Yet, doesn't Hollywood want me and all of us to see all the movies? A better product should be made then. As it is a saving grace is that through rentals and work most of the mundane movie viewing was free of everything, but a waste of time.

Is SFX everything?

First of all I have to say the idea behind the movie is quite OK. An intelligence that exists in the form of pure energy manifests itself with the help of robotics in a russian science vessel. ...

...It definately does NOT live from its actors. The Only character that has at least some depth is the Captain, played by Donald Sutherland. In the beginning we get to know him as a ruthless guy that would sacrifice his crew and even his life for a doubtfull cargo, then he's tempted to kill the only russian survivor to get his thirteen million Dollars of salvage for the ship. And at last he is selling himself to the extraterrestrials for the same thiteen million reasons mentioned above.

Curtis isn't giving an extraordinary performance. This Role could have been played by a dozend of other actresses. But in my oppinion this means that the role is badly written.

Baldwin...well he's there and I'm sure he was payed in the end...

The robots and the borg-like creatures on the other hand look pretty amazing and the action is pretty fast and furious at times. The special effects deserve at least 4 stars, but the acting and the story decreases this rating.

I wouldn't recomend this movie for someone who liked Alien 1, 2, 3 - He/She would be disapointed. But if you don't expect too much and if you are sick of the real good movies that you watch over and over again you can enjoy this one.

A misunderstanded movie.

I don't see why people hate this movie? Personally, I liked thewhole taking-peoples-flesh-and-put-it-on-robots thing. And thecast were excellent, when it came to the more frenetic scenes. Theonly thing that was bad about the movie, was when the captainwillingly makes himself a robot/dead guy. He didn't put up much ofa fight, and because he for some reason removed his legs, hiswalking capabilities were kinda non-existent. But overall... A good movie, which were put in my collection rightaway.8 out of 10

who was the VIRUS?

I liked it, for me this was somehow new, and DTS was there to compliment the movie. It was judicious to choose a decent cast because in such close atmosphere it needs to be convincing which it nearly did actually, I thought it was interesting to see what can be done with mecano parts.... ;-) and a bit of gore nevr hurt anyone, except the character pulled apart of course! huhuhuhu. the boat could have been a tiny bit better simulated for the fifth star, but we startled in our seat a couple of time...though!

*** out of ****

What I noticed about "Virus" is that ANYTHING can happen to ANY of the characters. They actually get the crap beaten out of them, even Jamie lee. The special-effects are fantastic for this film and the robots are actually menacing. The characters aren't too interesting but they suit the film. I was surprised at how the movie wasn't as predictable as I thought it would be. "Virus" takes a new direction. Instead of having a bunch of aliens or monsters running around, killing people, they have robots. It's an original idea that hasn't been tackled that often in this type of genre. A good movie.

Given the star actors, I thought it might be good...

...but it turned out to be boring drivvel.Same old formula - gothic background of dark corridors and scarey rooms and shadows. Could have been an old castle, spaceship or even a...Russian science ship (okay, 6/10 for originallity) Remoniscent of one of many of the genre that came before it - Alien springing to mind, mostly.Scarey? given it's Adult certificate - yet another disappointment. Poor special f-x, pieces of meat on radio-controled machines for monsters.
Talking of "machines" - the cute little spider-like ones looked a lot like the contraptions in "Runaway" (1984). Possibly a vacant lot?Tedious in extremis, and I couldn't have cared if ALL of the characters had been killed-off. The cherry on this insufferable cake was the very Bond-esque escape of the hero and heroine at the end. Not my favourite genre of film, "horror", but I recommend this one for a laugh, and to play the parlour game of "now what movie did I see THAT in?..."

Not What I expected, but GREAT!

WEll. the night started off slow when it was decided to go see virus. I was expecting a rip off of the alien saga. But I was surprised i enjoyed this wonderfully suspenseful movie. The cast was wonderfully put together and beautifully directed. In general I would give it a 6.5 on a scale of 1-10 10 being great.

Not as bad as its reputation suggests.

"The Terminator" meets "The Predator" and "Alien", and what we get is this routine but moderately effective horror thriller, which isn't quite as bad as its reputation might lead you to believe. Sure, it lacks substance and (except for a few details)originality, but the energetic direction, the fast pacing and some impressively filmed explosions keep it painless. Effects aren't particularly outstanding, though.

How to blow $75,000,000

Virus was an ill-fated title for many Universal Studio executives. Budgeted at $75,000,000, it was the last straw in a string of flops. Shortly after it was released, heads rolled. I can see why, as will you, if you see the video.

For one thing, successful horror movies have been set in many places - big cities [The Exorcist, The Omen], small towns [Halloween, Carrie], and even in outer space [Alien, Aliens]. Jaws, the biggest of them all, took place by and under an ocean, but every other one I can think of that was set at sea promptly capsized and sank. Virus is no exception. This is regrettable, because, as my regular readers know, horror movies are one of my guilty pleasures.

The movie begins in fine fashion. A Russian ship on a science mission is in contact with astronauts in the Mir space station. A transmission is about to be sent from the station to the ship. Suddenly an astronaut spies a beautiful purple cloud approaching. Just as the transmission begins, the cloud hits the station. Huge bolts of electricity surge through the station, which sends them down to the ship. Things explode, debris flies, crew members scream. Fadeout.

What comes next brings the movie down to earth. We see a crew being tossed about in a tugboat in the middle of a typhoon. This dinky little ship is in the Pacific Ocean towing a barge about a hundred times its size. As it turns out, whatever the barge is carrying belongs to greedy Captain Everton [Donald Sutherland], who threatens to kill any crew member who does the sensible thing, which is to release the barge. When the crew, which includes Kit [Jamie Lee Curtis] and Steve [William Baldwin], finally wins out, the barge promptly sinks. Everton is beside himself with grief. The storm intensifies. Then Kit has a bright idea - hey, gang! Let's sail over to the eye of the storm! There they encounter that Russian ship, which is sitting dead in the water. Everton has a thought - Let's board it and claim salvage rights!

What follows is a fairly decent tale of an entity which takes up residence in machinery and computers. It's mission is, of course, to destroy the human race. It creates some cool monsters and thinks the only thing people are good for is as spare parts. The problem for both the entity and us is those idiots from the tugboat. They are so cartoonish and predictable that we wind up not really caring who wins the battle.

Jamie Lee Curtis, who proved, especially in True Lies and A Fish Called Wanda, that she is a fine actress, has turned around and returned to her horror movie roots. Donald Sutherland, once a great leading man, has lately taken some roles that would be beneath even his son, Keifer. William Baldwin is also not doing his career a favor. What we have may be three stars in search of new agents.

This brings us back to those horror movies which succeeded. Regardless of where they were set, each had in common well defined characters that we cared about. Was there ever a better woman as hero than Sigourney Weaver in Alien? Didn't we root for Sissy Spacek in Carrie? Wasn't it dreadful when Lee Remick fell off the stair landing in The Omen? In movies like Virus, there is simple nothing about the characters to make us care what happens to them.

Good effects, but predictable

I suspect that the writers of this movie saw Event Horizon and said, I wonder if I can rewrite this movie so it doesn't COMPLETELY suck.It isn't a bad movie, but it doesn't exhibit anything original. If it takes you more than five minutes to figure out who survives, who is heroic or who turns bad, then either you have no deductive powers, or you slept through the first five minutes.

Jamie Lee Curtis was right

Jamie Lee Curtis was right when she said this movie was a piece of ****. The plot is unoriginal and stupid, the acting was near unbearable. I don't understand why, when the people making this film didn't realize how bad this was. I mean seriously, 8 years ago is not that different from now. how could they not realize how much of a pathetic excuse for a movie this is. its like a 2000 dollar budget film by the look of it. Im seriously,this was so terrible. The last and final thing I couldn't figure out was how I managed to sit through this entire movie without ripping my out out with a spoon. If I had a chance to go back in time and not watch this movie I would of taken it.

I AM AWARE.....OF THE LACK OF ANY QUALITY

Shame this. We had all the assets ready and waiting to go, a nicely assembled cast, a first time director coached by Mr Cameron and a potential plot. Pity it was wasted abysmally. Poor John Bruno must have cringed at the final cutting room display - as well as its cast if they have any ounce of taste. My heart sunk and continued to sink as weak displays (especially from our friend Sutherland), and an atrocious script enfolded before my eyes. Cliched, unimaginative and very suffocating, if this type of trash had been written by a pre-school child you would have given the kid a stern telling off for lack of effort! To put it kindly, this was a film that aimed to provide the raw tension of a 'Terminator' or 'Aliens' as the themes ran parallel. The difference was that the previous two remembered the key elements of plot, intensity, scripting and respecting its viewing audience. Virus didn't. Please, if you want to view a Sci-fi thriller watch 2001 or even Starship Troopers. As for if you have watched them....hey, still ignore this drivel. It will leave a sour taste in your poor VCR's mouth.