Where to watch Virus
1 Star
Virus is so similar to 1998’s Deep Rising that it’s no surprise Walmart sells the DVD as a combo disc of both titles. There is no question that Virus had the bigger budget of the films and is also the inferior product. While Rising had humor and a streak of self-deprecation; Virus has long-stretches of monotony in its story and visual elements. The plot plays like Alien populated with the mechanical creatures from 1984’s Runaway.
When a typhoon cripples their boat, the crew (Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Sutherland, William Baldwin) of an American tugboat sails into the eye of the storm, where they discover a high-tech Russian communications and research vessel adrift. They soon discover that an alien life form has taken over the ship’s computers and is churning out mechanical warriors. With their own boat destroyed, the crew must battle the creature as the ship is englufed by the storm.
If you’ve ever wondered what Donald Sutherland looks like as ‘The Terminator’ then Virus is the movie for you. This is an embarrassingly bad blotch on Sutherland and Jaime Lee Curtis’ filmographies. Curtis, who has made a career of frightfully running from unstoppable killers, is miscast and seems as bored as the audience watching. After Backdraft I thought star William Baldwin would become a major leading man, but movies like Sliver and Virus are ultimately choices that killed a very promising career. Virus is a uninfectious concoction and a near disaster of a flick from start to finish.
Director: John Bruno
Stars: Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Sutherland, William Baldwin