Terminal Error

We're supposed to believe a computer goofball gives a 'virus' to a kid in a song which gets on the kid's dad's computer and infects multiple city facilities...killing people and blowing up phone booths. Yeah, and the virus is a 'smart virus' which makes judgement calls. No thrills, no monsters to watch (unless you count Timothy Busfield (goofball); or Michael Nouri looking very old, and not even remotely giving a performance. Marina Sirtis is very ill-used here. I hope she smacked the screen writer and the director after she saw this drivel.

I should have read the reviews first. But then I would not have witnessed how bad acting and directing can be.

For the director, just looking at his abysmal ratings over his career tells it all. Why would any producing company invest in such movies? Money, even if profits are low?

The acting: the performance of Dylan, played by Matthew Ewald is exceedingly irritant from start to finish. When I read that he received numerous nominations and awards, I discovered that two of his best decorated performances (coffins ...) had no rating and no reviews.

In conclusion, the movies industry follows the same Gaussian pattern as the one for IQ.

In the '50s the standard low budget movie monster was some innocent insect enlarged by radiation; today, it's a computer or similar technological device run amuck, often infected with a virus or some such. Neither premise was ever much grounded in science, but at least followed a series of familiar conventions, both with respect to the human and non-human protagonists. "Terminal Error" fits the genre, though, of course, made for the drive-in has succumbed to direct to video or (in this case)made for cable .

That said, this is an ominous enough little film that its ambitious, but ultimately cheesy special effects (thankfully limited to a small screen) and entirely predictable plot don't keep it from being entertaining in the same way those old drive-in films kept you watching.

In brief, a disgruntled employee uses the teenaged son of his ex-boss to infect the company's computers with a virus designed for revenge. Since these computers are widely used as control devices, the area's power grids, elevators, traffic signals, Army missiles are all put in the hands of our evil doer until the virus begins to mutate and turn on humankind in general.

The acting is competent enough, and there is even a bit of witty dialog between the boss and his Stephen Hawking-like associate.

If you don't expect much from this movie and need a monster fix, that's what you'll get, and you probably won't be too disappointed.

Marina Sirtis should fire her agent for getting her in this. Her talent is thoroughly wasted here.

Machines-gone-berserk story that builds upon a goofy premise. This time, a computer virus is downloaded into a sensitive program, in a manner beyond the sublimely ridiculous. The perpetrator of this nasty scheme is a psychotic guy who giggles like a baboon and sweats from his forehead a lot. He's an irate employee who got fired, and his unwitting accomplice is the teen-angst-ridden crybaby son of the guy that did the firing.

Once downloaded, the virus blows up things in Russia, takes over appliances, shoots rockets at cars, plays with traffic signals, talks too much, and does a pitiful impression of Hal 9000 from "2001."

The kid, the dad, the psycho, and Hal 9000 Jr., all get on your nerves pretty early on. There is one character, apparently based on Stephen Hawking, who had the potential to be interesting, but the film does not give him much screen time, nor does it develop the character enough. Marina (as teen-angst's mother) really tries, but she is given very little to do, other than scream or run in terror.

If you turn your brain off for 90 minutes, and just want a good laugh, the film is OK for that. However, if you're looking for a plausible story, this one is just a terminal error.

There's a massive amount of criticism with this movie . The CGI is terrible ? Yes it is especially the opening scene in the Ukraine . The plot is stupid ? yes it is . Very stupid . It's full of scientific nonsense ? Indeed it is . You'll fall out of seat how ludicrous everything plays out . However none of this would mattered if the film had realised its potential

The problem with the potential is there's a lot of scope for cruel things to happen . Certainly an idea of a super intelligent self aware virus is a good premise which could have ended up as a cross between PULSE and TERMINATOR 2:JUDGEMENT DAY . Unfortunately we once again endure TVM style kitchen sink dramas when we should have been watching lots of people suffering a grisly fate like the occupants of a lift , so the potential is sadly wasted