Customer Reviews

Pandemic

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I watch alot of really truly bad lowbudget movies. I even give them a their own ratings. after all how can a cheap horror movie compete with a top notch film? But many of them had some sort of charm and some were good at that low budget level. This one however is bad on so many levels that it truly is at the bottom of the pile. As others have said there is barely a epidemic on screen, next too many people out there are determined to make endless movies in which the army or U.S. government is the real enemy. It's never any other government either, why not a hideous terror state like Iran as the focal point of human experimentation? Sure we've seen this plot endlessly. But really the U.S. government is supposed to be so dumb that they in 2009 would unleash a biological plague on their own people? Just to test it? It's beyond cynical, stupid and as bad as the 9/11 people who think that the U.S. government did that to make money, and this movie is even bad timed when we are faced with a true enemy: Radicalized islam (not Islam) that destroys everything it touches. But ever since the 70's we have had these conspiracy movies and some were actually decent thrillers but this isn't one of them. The acting is ok; but this is just a sinisterly bad movie.

Merriam Webster defines the word Pandemic as "an outbreak of disease occurring over a wide geographic area and affecting an exceptionally high proportion of the population." The title and DVD cover would lead you to believe that you're going to watch something in the vein of 28 Days Later, or at the very least, some Apocalytpic movie about a rapidly-spreading virus.

Instead, you're subjected to 90 minutes of Outbreak Lite. No pandemic, just a bizarre conspiracy theory movie with a low budget and sub-par acting. Like most movies that go straight to DVD, Pandemic features only one notable actor: TV and film veteran Ray Wise (Senator Morton from Rising Sun). But even his performance isn't enough of an antidote to save this ailing movie.

The film also falls victim to the formula of casting an attractive yet untalented actor (Alesha Rucci) as the lead. In all fairness, even if this movie had better casting and an improved budget, the storyline isn't remotely original. Do yourself a favor; buy Outbreak with Dustin Hoffman and Morgan Freeman if you're in the mood for a suspenseful virus movie.

I'm writing this review to warn against wasting your time on this video. It is basically a conspiracy theory type movie, but it lacks any interesting story, dialogue, or concept. It's just a deadly virus, that's it. Yes, the government is experimenting on its people for a biological weapon they want to use. You now know as much about the movie as anyone who has seen the picture. And man, is it slow. It crawls along, and just when you think maybe it might start get interesting, it doesn't. You think, "surely there is going to be some twist to this and it will get better." Trust me, it wont, right up until the end.

Pandemic is one of the worst movies that I have seen in a while.
It is filled with senseless constant swearing, lack of plot, and NO PANDEMIC - I mean like somewhere around 5 people, a horse and a dog were affected with some unknown virus throughout the entire movie!?
Now get this, at the very end of the movie the director indicates that the disease is spreading and then the movie ends - oh, my.
This movie was probably supposed to be based on military corruption where the US Army goes around injecting people with a deadly disease to see how they react. The reason I say probably, is I never really came to a conclusion what the movie was about.
The reviews really had me hopeful that this would be an intense, intriguing, edge of the seat, end of the world movie - and it turned out to be a big let-down.
Seriously, don't waste your time watching this - it is an utterly useless film.
Too bad, because I think the main actress had talent, but she either had a very bad director or the director had no budget.

After watching this movie, I feel like suing the director for wasting 91 minutes of my life. I have not seen a movie this terrible since...actually, I can't ever remember seeing a movie worse than this one. The plot is fragmented and the acting is absolutely atrocious. The only redeeming quality is that the star of the movie, Aleesha Clarke, is eye candy. Please do not waste your time seeing this movie.

I wouldn't waste any time on this movie. I enjoy horror flicks and this wasn't very good. It wasn't the worst movie I've ever seen, but it ranks up there. I'm actually taking the time to use my wife's account to write this review, and I never do that. I wasted my time, and a $1.07 renting this movie. To the guy who recommended buying this- You must be making a profit off this movie.

The review by R.B. is the one that can be trusted the most. This movie was not picture of the year material, but, on the flipside, it was no way near as bad as these other reviews say it is. I had no problem understanding the plot, and the acting was average, but NOT terrible. Also, it doesn't take a few dead bodies to warrant a "pandemic" but what the director was after here, is to paint a picture of what could happen when it spreads into populated areas. One thing I do have to agree on, is that Alesha Clarke is indeed eye candy. Don't let these off-key reviews scare you away. It is not near as bad as they say it is.

I've read every novel in this genre, I've seen every movie, I own copies of every reference book available in the English language on the topic of virii, epidemics, and pandemics, including Fields Virology and the U.S. military handbook on chemical and biological warfare. Perhaps my expectations were too high, or perhaps this movie would have really stunk no matter what my expectations were, but I cannot recommend this movie at all. To anyone. The script had a decent idea buried deep inside. Unfortunately, I cannot access what is deep inside. I can only access the steaming collection of garbage that was randomly shoveled on top of that idea.

Here's the plot: The U.S. Army is testing a biological weapon, a "virus" which causes some kind of weird combination of embolism and hemorrhage. For some unexplained and completely implausible reason, it has decided to test this biological weapon not in some foreign country, but on the rural population of "Diablo County" New Mexico. Among the people being used as guinea pigs is the son of the commanding general. This son is the most unlikely former special forces whack-job I've ever laid eyes on. (Picture Mel Gibson in "Conspiracy" merged with Jethro Clampett and that nerd at work who keeps trying to hit on the cute girl.) The army puts this substance in the local water, and various large animals die a horrible, bloody death. Then people do the same. I must say that the special effects makeup of the blood vessels in people as they are dying is actually pretty nicely done. But it's ruined by just about everything else in the movie. So anyway, back to the alleged plot: When the local veterinarian (who is pretty cute, but drives a pickup with the word "Veterinarian" and a phone number on it...not her actual name, mind you, but just the generic identifier "veterinarian")...when she comes into contact with this virus (which acts more like a toxin, since it seems actually NOT to be contagious person-to-person, but only upon drinking contaminated water), she gets suspicious and fights the army's quarantine. The Mel-Gibson-Wannabe son gets shot by an utterly un-military idiot who moves like a puppet and whose only purpose in the movie seems to be to spout patriotic vomit. The general decides the veterinarian is too much trouble and spikes her water with the "stuff", and she dies on a dusty road trying to escape the quarantined county. Oh, and after she dies, her dog hitches a ride to Los Angeles, where I'm guessing we're supposed to be scared about the pandemic starting because of the dog. In the final scene a middle-eastern terrorist is reported dead from a strangely familiar disease (along with his goats, apparently), and the military puppet smiles wryly at the news story. The end.

On a scale of 1-10:
Plot: 1
Dialogue: 1
Music: 1
Cast: 1
Production value: 1
Makeup: 6
Pacing: 1

Sorry, but that's the way I see this. I would have liked to have liked it.

I really enjoyed this movie. It is thoroughly entertaining and moves fairly quickly. There are several plot twists and it keeps you guessing up till the end. It's better than you would expect for this type of movie. Overall, a great film. Definitely worth buying.

I rented this movie from Netflix to see if it was any good before I bought it from Amazon. There is 91 minutes of my life I will never get back. The DVD cover looks cool. The movie on the other hand may qualify for worst film ever made (Although I don't know. There's a lot of really bad movies out there. I know. I've seen most of them)The Director of this steaming pile needs to go back to his job at the local Video Store and watch some good films. Maybe they'll stimulate his creative juices because this script didn't. I usually watch almost anything from this genre so I sat through the whole thing, I just couldn't break the guy's heart using that new camera Mom and dad bought him last year for Xmas. So I gave the film one star. Sorry pal, filmmaking may not be in your blood.