Review of Outbreak (1995) by Allan C — 17 Jun 2017

I remember this film being better. It now seems rather silly and boils down to Dustin Hoffman and the US Military trying to catch a monkey. Kind of Tom Clancy meets "Monkey Trouble." Okay, maybe that's a bit glib, but this film does seem a bit hysterical in it's race-against-time virus epidemic plot-line.

The story involves a CDC team led by Hoffman, which includes Rene Russo, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey, and Cuba Goding Jr., trying to track down the source of a deadly new virus in order to develop a vaccine.

That source happens to be a monkey. Directed by Wolfgang Petersen, the film has many exciting chases and solid suspense, as you would expect from the director of "Das Boot" and "In the Line of Fire," but the story just comes off as silly.

With "The Hot Zone" having just been released around the same time as this film, "Outbreak" was a ripped-from-the-headlines type of film upon it's original release, but I think this film has not aged as well, despite it's credible cast and solid talent behind the camera.

The best part of the film was an uncredited one scene appearance by J.T. Walsh as the White House Chief of Staff, who just tears into the scene and cows a room full of very talented actors.