152, Contagion

What do you get if you cross a Bird, a Bat and a Pig?  Well, in Hollywood it appears a strain of Swine Flu unrivalled in history and set to devastate the world as we know it!  But is a movie about a pandemic really enough to fill our cinemas in the lull between Summer and Christmas Blockbusters?

Well, not for me.  Its a shame though as great names such as Gwyneth Paltrow, Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Kate Winslett, Jude Law and Elliott Gould have all signed up for it but for me I just did not get it.

Okay, we all were witness to a near global pandemic over the past few years which did result in the sad loss of life however this movie manages to go one step further and bring in the chemists and scientists tasked in producing a vaccine by using terminology lost on most cinema goers and sadly, my interest was dwindling quicker than the Greek Credit Rating.

To pad out the story of which is just basically an outbreak of Flu on a global scale as well as the scientists and the sick we meet the "immune".  Groups of people who are not effected by the virus but herded like criminals, all thought to be infected with Martial Law in effect and a big surge on borders and hospitals.

The individual performances each stand out though.  Jude is great as the conspiracy theorist and Laurence Fishburne as the Medical Honcho play blinders.  Gwyneth as the 1st infected plays "ill" beautifully even though all of the girls in this have a great excuse no to look their best"

This movie, Blog, No. 153 marks the 2nd Anniversary of my Movie Blog and it appears we are starting its third year with another turkey as I did with the 1st anniversary and Skyline.  Its not as bad as that one though to be fair but for me personally, a movie about bird / Swine Flu just made me itch and worry about the guy coughing next to me!  Thanks Hollywood, now I'm a damn hypocondriact.

But, a saving grace at the end is when we luckily get a short sneaky peak at how and where the outbreak all started and lets just say this, Remember to wash your hands!