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Features
• Anamorphic
• Closed-captioned
• Color
• DVD-Video
• Full Screen
• Widescreen
• NTSC
In Theaters : 10 March, 1995
DVD Release : 21 May, 1997 |
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Outbreak description
When Warner Brothers was unable to secure the rights to Richard Preston's terrifying nonfiction book The Hot Zone (purchased by a rival studio), they took the basic idea of a fatal virus on the loose in the U.S., added Dustin Hoffman and director Wolfgang Petersen (Das Boot), and produced an unusual thriller--a surprise hit--called Outbreak. The other picture, slated to star Robert Redford and Jodie Foster, fell through. The premise of Outbreak, which owes something to Elia Kazan's 1950 plague-scare movie, Panic in the Streets, is as terrifying as it is timely. As developers slash their way deeper into the previously unexplored tropical rainforests, they are exposed to radically new forms of life, including diseases, that in these days of commonplace international travel could turn into deadly epidemics almost before we know it. Hoffman's character and his estranged wife (Rene Russo) are disease experts called in to identify the unknown killer, which was carried into the country by an illegally smuggled monkey. The best sequence shows the disease spreading--through recycled air on a passenger jet, or a sneeze in a crowded movie theater. The final chase is pretty conventional, but the cast is terrific, including Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey, Donald Sutherland, Cuba Gooding Jr., J.T. Walsh, and Zakes Mokae. --Jim Emerson |
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Outbreak Customer Reviews
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♥♥♥♥♥
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Scarier than any horror flick -- and ultra-suspenseful
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THE PLOT: After a deadly incurable African virus is brought to a Northern California coastal town via a monkey, the military moves in to quarantine the village. While Dustin Hoffman seeks to find an antidote, the two generals in charge of the quarantine (Morgan Freeman & Donald Sutherland) strangely decide to annihilate the town. Can Hoffman find a cure in time? And, even if he does, can he stop the firebombing?
I remember when Wolfgang Petersen's "Outbreak" came out in 1995; the idea just never interested me. Big mistake, because this is an outstanding picture. Although viruses are so small they're invisible, they have the potential to be the biggest monsters of all. Certain deadly viruses, if let loose, can easily wipe out an entire town in a mere couple days. This is the scenario in "Outbreak." It could happen and is therefore realistic, which naturally makes the story more horrifying than most horror flicks or monster movies.
But "Outbreak" is more than just a scarey what-if story, the second half involves a military cover-up and is edge-of-your-seat suspenseful, all the way to the final minutes. It's like an avalanche that slowly builds momentum.
Cuba Gooding Jr. is also on hand in a significant role as Hoffman's partner in the race-against-time. And, for those who care, there's a romantic subplot about Hoffman and his ex-wife Rene Russo. Will they get back together?
The locations are magnificent, filmed in the coastal towns Eureka, Arcata and Ferndale, California, all in the extreme Northern part of the state, just South of the Redwoods and West of Bigfoot territory (i.e. Willow Creek). The African sequences were filmed in Hawaii.
BOTTOM LINE: This is top-of-the-line cinema -- equal parts scarey, dramatic and suspenseful. |
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