Carriers

I've been hearing a lot of this new bird flu that has killed dozens of people in South East Asia over the last three years . Apparently it's on the thresh hold of mutating into something very contagious and millions upon millions of people are going to be wiped out in a global pandemic . Just thought I'd mention this in case you haven't got round to writing your will yet .

I'd also thought I'd mention it since I was watching something called CARRIERS tonight which wasn't about naval warfare but opens with a scene that's a cross between OUTBREAK and an episode of THE X FILES I saw many years ago . I thought I'd be watching something with added resonance after hearing the stories about the danger posed by bird flu but after the not unimpressive opening CARRIERS descends into a cheap and cheerful TVM and like every other TVM you'll see the lead characters are female , one of which is a ballsy authority figure while the other lead female is a mother of young children . It goes without saying there's a sick child subplot too

What is irritating about the TVM format is that it overwhelms the potential of what could have been quite a good film if it was made for cinema . There's a fairly gory scene of someone coughing blood all over a nurses face and a very impressive jay walker getting run down stunt but these bits are quickly forgotten as the mood descends into family sentiment since this - And just about every other TVM ever made - was made for an essentially female audience

OK, imagine that every state in the US, nay, every country has exactly the same trees growing and ground foliage. Imagine, also, that a monkey-trapper's camp so far off the beaten track you had to do the first half of the approach by river has a beautifully tarmac'd, perfectly straight road leading up to it. Imagine a world where you have to wear a full biohazard suit to collect a floppy disk, then you just drop it in a ziploc bag and transfer it to your pocket with no precautions as soon as you get back to the office. A world where two nine-year old girls are happy to give lots of blood without complaining. This is the world this movie is set in.

On top of that, it's one of the most cliché-ridden pieces of excrement it's been my misfortune to witness in many a year.

I liked it. :)

There is an outbreak of a virus unfamiliar to science. It leads to a "hemorrhagic fever" of some sort. An army doctor, a major, played by Judith Light, accompanied by her black colleague, is designated to investigate it and uncover its source and its treatment. They manage to trace the infections back to Africa, thence to a mysterious government facility in Alabama. It turns out that the virus was developed (somehow) as part of a government-sponsored investigation by a private research organization into genetic restructuring. That's basically the source. The treatment is discovered serendipitously through the exposure of identical twins to the virus, one of whom had a transfusion from an immune person and who's blood now carries the antibodies. That's it.

Did you find that confusing? I can only call them as I see them. There is the germ of a great, suspenseful movie in these ideas, and the production blows its chance. This has to be one of the murkiest plots ever. Murky plots are okay in some kinds of movies. I suppose I'm still not sure what "2001: A Space Odyssey" was about. But this is supposed to be a scientific detective story. A subplot is thrown in about a despairing mother, Pamela Reed, whose two children disappear while visiting their father in Gabon. We get time-wasting discussions between Reed and Light about how it feels to be a mother and worry about your children. The time wasted should have been spent on exposition. There is nothing about various levels of protection against infection, about how those alien-looking suits work, or about sterilization procedures. (They use Lysol!) As the story unfolds we learn practically nothing about viruses, let alone THE virus. (There's a ten-second glimpse of what looks like a strand of spaghetti during a slide show.) If only we had learned as much about viruses here, where it's essential, as we learned about ants in "Them." Or about alien microorganisms in "The Andromeda Strain," before that story collapsed during its last few minutes. As it is, "Andromeda" stands next to this flick as a model of explanatory clarity. At any rate, I couldn't follow this plot. It's too bad. Because anyone who wants to learn just how thoroughly creepy the real possibilities of such an outbreak are should read a well-written book about the subject, "Hot Zone," by an author whose name now escapes me. The symptoms of the ebola-like virus are described in this film by offhand references to the liquifying of internal organs. Read the book, if you can find it, and discover exactly what this involves. We've already had a couple of close calls in real life that virtually no one seems to know or care much about. The influenza outbreak of 1918 flattened the United States and Europe, but that was nothing compared to the viruses we are on the verge of unleashing on the world because of our penetration of heretofore unfriendly environments like tropical rainforests. In these secluded areas, a virus may be endemic among a population of monkeys or wild boars, where they may cause no more serious symptoms than a common cold. (HIV was basically a nuisance to chimps.) But we are in the process now of providing them with a new host, the largest, most populous land mammal around, and one who travels rapidly all over the place by airplane. In the movies, when there is a threat posed like this, science comes to our rescue. The experts are called up. Only, as regards this particular threat, there are no experts -- and no protection at all.

The acting in this film is perfunctory. Judith Light is pretty convincing as a commanding officer, or commanding person. You can probably count on the fingers of one hand the number of times she blinks while the cameras are rolling. The big military/industrial conspiracy is the usual stuff, detracting from any realization that the real demon here is so small.

I've watched the first 15 minutes and I can tell that there was no consultation with any military type personnel. Judith Light's charactor (an officer) has her hair down past her shoulders! One of the first officers that greets her as she walks in to the medical facility she works at is so overweight that his pant pockets gap! No - there was no military advising them on this movie. Even an ex-military enlisted could have assisted here.

Although I wasn't in the movie but some of my co-workers were. It was fimed in the old East Cooper Hospital in Mt. Pleasant S.C. either in the Day Surgery or else where. I know because I was the security guard at the time they were filming it. I didn't actually see them filming because I had the duties of a security guard but one of my friends kept me informed of what was happening. Later I saw the movie on t.v. it was an awesome movie with suspense !!!!!