Contaminated Man

For God's sake people, let's try to get it right. The Weller character isn't carrying a virus or a pathogen or anything else biological and the Hurt character isn't a disease expert. Hurt plays a hazardous waste clean-up guy for the UN. Weller gets a dose of pesticide in the face that metabolizes into a chemical that causes instant fatal allergic reaction to anyone he touches.

This may seem like a trivial difference but at least it's a new idea, not just a recycling on any number of other movies, dating back at least to the Satan Bug in 1965 if not earlier. I'll pass up judging the rest of the film as everyone else has, but you've got to wonder about the validity of anyone's attention who apparently didn't pay any attention to the freakin' movie.

"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)

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..

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.

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.