Based on other reviewer comments, I have probably not seen this film in its entirety. That is indeed unfortunate, as it does have some aspects which may have made it a pretty decent film. Based on a Japanese novel, the story tells about the evolution of a virus that mimics everything and anything and has the ability to multiply at astounding rates. This virus, in the opening scene, is lost in mountains of snow waiting for the thaw that unleashes it on the world. Soon the world's populations begin to die with sundry sicknesses(Italian Flu I believe being the most predominant). Whilst all this chaos is going on, we get to see the reactions of the president, Glenn Ford, his secretaries, notably Robert Vaughn, and his military advisers, Henry Silva really carved thickly. This section of the film is done reasonably well, but the budget strains here and there. The script is also way too taxed. An epic is needed and a regular film is delivered. The second half of the film detours to the only place that can hide from the germs - Antartica, where all the countries representatives have convened and set up house. Now, they must decide to divide up eight women with 800 men. Hmmm, I'm not to keen at math but I know the odds there are pretty bad. They deal with other problems and we soon get to know several of the people involved: a Norwegian woman(inexplicably played by Olivia Hussey), a Japanese scientist, head of it all - George Kennedy, an Argentinian representative - Edward J. Olmos, Chuck Connors playing a member of Her Majesty's Navy(Yeah right!), and Bo Swenson as a hard-drinking, two-fisted American. None of the roles is really developed, and to make matters worse, a romance of sorts is thrown in to make sure the viewer is really confused. Is Virus(or whatever title you have seen it under) any good? Yes, it has some good to it. I liked the pace of the film. Much of the story was very interesting. But there are many detractors at least for me. None of the acting is very convincing despite having such an established cast. Ford is pretty good in his role, but Connors is just ridiculous as a British naval man. Henry Silva's wooden histrionics also are just too much. As I alluded to earlier, the scope and breadth of the film is not conducive to a feature-length film. This would have been great as a mini-series broken down into several evenings. Instead, too much is crammed into too short a period and obvious breaks occur. And I haven't even gotten to the most ridiculous aspect of the film which is the ending? It defies even the logic that the film had been using. Interesting concept but flawed execution.
Review of Virus
