Outbreak (1995) More at IMDb Pro »

"Outbreak" disappoints. It starts out well enough as a medical thriller, and then, like the nasty virus of the plot line, it mutates, becoming a military thriller. It gets sillier and sillier, complete with airborne chases and dueling testosterone levels, while the medical-thriller aspect is relegated to an absolute contrivance of finding the host animal--an African monkey at large in the California woods--almost effortlessly. Major plot hole: this critter is supposed to be a carrier for an airborne strain of the virus, which means the little girl who finds him should catch the bug, spread it to her mom, etc. So why doesn't she?

Other quibbles are numerous. Dustin Hoffman is miscast in a Harrison Ford role in which Harrison Ford would've been typecast (whatever became of Richard Dreyfuss?). And speaking of typecasting, HOW many times can Donald Sutherland play a strutting, arrogant, villainous military brasshole? Renee Russo, too, plays essentially her "Lethal Weapon 3" role in scrubbies. Her character is recently divorced from Hoffman's, and we know, from their first tense scene together, that an eventual reunion is inevitable, a la Hack Screenwriting 101: an estranged couple MUST get back together if their estrangement is their defining--in, fact, their only remotely interesting--characteristic.

The cliffhanging climax of "Outbreak" is effective, but it serves to underscore that what could've been a drama has turned out to be a melodrama. "Outbreak" is well-made for what it is, but what it is is pretty hokey. For a medical thriller that remains a medical thriller, rent "The Andromeda Strain." For a medical thriller that drops all pretenses and plunges head-first into apocalyptic horror, try David Cronenburg's "Rabid."