Review: Outbreak

Dustin Hoffman is an Army Colonel who is in charge of investigating viral outbreaks. Currently investigating a situation in Zaire of a particularly nasty fever, he is told by his superior and friend Morgan Freeman (a General) to regard the virus as non-lethal. Hoffman vehemently disagrees, and defies an order to stop his investigation into the matter. Before long, a diseased monkey from Zaire has been brought into the US illegally via Patrick Dempsey (as an idiot pet store worker named Jimbo!), and the deadly virus soon starts infecting people left and right, killing within hours of infection. Working with his ex-wife Rene Russo (as a disease specialist) and his best friend and colleague Kevin Spacey, Hoffman attempts to track down the source of the outbreak as they race against the clock. Meanwhile, Donald Sutherland turns up as the hawkish Major-General who is at the head of the conspiracy, a conspiracy that traces back 30 years and also involves Freeman. Cuba Gooding Jr. plays the relatively inexperienced major and helicopter pilot who flies Hoffman around in search of the monkey, Dale Dye (a real-life former military man turned technical advisor and actor) plays an arse-kissing Lt. Colonel who earns Sutherland’s ire when the latter is in a particularly bad mood, and J.T. Walsh turns up as an impassioned White House Chief of Staff.

Overlong, but well-acted, very effective 1995 disease-thriller well-directed by the underrated Wolfgang Petersen (“The NeverEnding Story”, “Enemy Mine”, “Troy”) who makes this more than just a corny Irwin Allen-style all-star disaster film. It’s a bloody good B-movie with a cast that probably looks even more A-grade today than it did at the time. Petersen peaked early as a filmmaker with the stunning children’s fantasy “The NeverEnding Story”, but this film, “In the Line of Fire”, “Troy”, and “The Perfect Storm” each have their merits, especially “In the Line of Fire”. This one’s probably a little lesser than “In the Line of Fire” but very enjoyable nonetheless.

Dustin Hoffman is said by some to have been miscast here, but although he doesn’t seem much of the military-type to me, he is nonetheless one of the keys to the film’s success. He’s instantly likeable and sympathetic, and that goes a long, long way. The co-star of “All the President’s Men” is certainly an appropriate choice for a guy who simply refuses to listen to his superiors and continues to try and get to the bottom of things here when he knows something just isn’t right. The other key to the film is Petersen, not known as an especially critically-acclaimed director outside of his initial “Das Boot”, but a terrific, reliable craftsman of genre pieces. Here he deserves particular credit for keeping things on the move, despite the film being too long. It may be long, but it’s never slow or dull. He also does a great job in making the audience feel extremely uncomfortable from the moment Patrick Dempsey gets sick. It’s a good movie before that point, but the thrills and chills really take off after 30 minutes and don’t let up. Also worth a mention is the excellent, thunderous score by James Newton Howard (“Glengarry Glen Ross”, “The Fugitive”, “Signs”), one of the very best things about the film. It’s an essential element, because it gives a very long thriller some juice, an urgency to it. Meanwhile, like any good disaster/disease thriller, this takes science fact and throws out anything that gets in the way of entertainment. So it’s not complete BS, but like the later disaster movie “The Day After Tomorrow”, everything gets exaggerated for dramatic (or thriller) purposes.

The film also has a helluva impressive supporting cast to back Hoffman up. Rene Russo’s acting career probably suffered a bit from her being frequently cast as the love interest/partner/ex-partner, but she was always great at it. I was really happy to see her get a role outside of that mould in the more recent “Nightcrawler”, but here as Dustin Hoffman’s ex-wife and fellow expert in diseases, she’s perfect. Morgan Freeman gets to play a military man with a guilty conscience and reluctance to rock the boat, and it’s a perfect fit for him, too. Freeman has played plenty of authority figures, but this might be one of his more complex ones. He has been a part of bad deeds previously, and we wait here to see if he’s going to stay silent once again or if his guilty conscience will finally be too much for him. 1995 was Kevin Spacey’s year, with roles in this, his unforgettable cameo in a certain serial killer film, and of course his Oscar-winning turn in “The Usual Suspects”. Here with a slightly strange red-tinge to his hair, he steals his every scene with humour and empathy. As with Hoffman and Russo, you instantly like his character. Likeability isn’t always necessary, but it definitely helps in drawing you into a story if you actually care about the characters in it. Spacey makes you care, with probably the least amount of screen time of the main players in the film. In fact, he’s one of two guys whose performances in this I think get overlooked. The other one is a brilliant cameo by the late, great J.T. Walsh. Playing the White House Chief of Staff, he’s a guy willing to sign off on drastic measures, but making it perfectly clear that everyone needs to be aware of the gravity of the situation. It’s a real one-scene wonder that makes you sit up and take notice. He might just walk off with the whole film in that one scene. Meanwhile, I’m not going to say this is one of Donald Sutherland’s best performances, nor is it much more than a two-dimensional role. He is, however perfectly cast and having a whale of a time verbally kicking Dale Dye in particular, in the balls. I know some will see the character as one-dimensional, but for me I saw him as yes a total prick, but also a hard-line, ruthless military figure trying to save lives on a bigger scale by sacrificing a smaller number. A villain, most certainly, and I’m not in agreement with his character, but I still think it’s a little more than one-dimensional. However, his best scenes are clearly when he’s being a complete and total prick to poor Dale Dye, a long-time technical advisor on military-themed movies who has probably never had a better role than this one.

I have to say that I couldn’t help finding it hilarious seeing the film in 2016 and noting that the whole damn thing spreads to the US because of Dr. McDouchy, Patrick Dempsey. I know Dempsey from his 80s/early 90s nerdy youthful period more than the hunk from “Grey’s Anatomy” (Not as much of a turnaround as Jerry O’Connell’s, though!), but it did strike me as funny here nonetheless. I’m not entirely sure why Cuba Gooding Jr.’s cinematic career crapped out and he’s now playing O.J. in a TV miniseries about the infamous football star turned probable double murderer. Maybe he didn’t deserve the Oscar for “Jerry Maguire” after all. Maybe he took one too many roles in shitty Disney films that derailed his stardom. I don’t know, but I certainly don’t think he’s cast to his best advantage in his recent crop of direct-to-DVD action-thrillers, either. No matter what the reason, he deserves better work than he has lately been receiving, in my view. It’s obvious even in this film that the man has charisma and that’s something you can’t teach. Either you have it or you don’t, and Cuba had it here in this small role, and still has it now. I hope he finds himself doing good work in worthy projects in the years to come. Look out for a very brief appearance by South African-born character actor Zakes Mokae, in one of his last high-profile film projects. It’s only a fleeting cameo, but he’s always a welcome presence in any film.

One of the best films of its type in recent decades, this is an exciting, uncomfortable, and well-acted disease thriller. It suffers from being overlong, but in such good company and a fine genre director in Wolfgang Petersen, I didn’t mind so much. The screenplay is by Laurence Dworet (who only has one other screenwriting credit to date, a Spanish film called “Berlin Blues”) and Robert Roy Pool (the underrated “The Big Town”, with Matt Dillon and Tommy Lee Jones). 

Rating: B