Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo, Cuba Gooding Jnr and an Infected monkey, what is not to like about this film? If you have seen the recent Contagion which I looked at here, then this is the predecessor to that done on a different scale. It takes the idea of a monkey illegally brought into the country and given to Patrick Dempsey and subsequently released into the wild and the fact that this monkey carries a highly infectious, highly deadly disease that through the course of a serious of unfortunate events goes airborne and spreads through a small US town. You follow Dustin Hoffman and Rene Russo a recently separated couple, he works for the Army and she is at the Centre of Disease Control and they are both involved in doing the same job, identifying, curing and controlling Infectious diseases.
This is small scale compared to Contagion as it focuses on a small town and only a few characters and does not explore the larger implications but does have a slight feel of the Crazies as you see a lot from the military's point of view and the lengths they are willing to go to contain the disease. You have an excellent supporting cast with Donald Sutherland, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Spacey. Another film that has flaws and falls in to the trap of if you think about the timescales too much you realise it is a movie based requirement to make the timescales impossible and the likelihood of success impossible which makes it more tense and exciting from a film watching perspective but logical brains cannot always accept this and just think of as ridiculous.
I enjoy this and wish that Cuba Gooding Jnr had done more roles like this as he is really likeable and I always want him to succeed in whatever role he is in. This film in itself is good if you like the idea of an outbreak and seeing where it can spread to and if you enjoyed Contagion it is worth revisiting this film which I give a 3 star recommend.
