FILM REVIEW OF "CONTAGION" (2011)

Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Elliot Gould, Sanaa Lathan, and Jennifer Ehle all contend with a mysterious global virus in "Traffic" director Steven Soderbergh's nimble global disease thriller "Contagion" (*** out of ****) that Gwyneth Paltrow precipitates. Mind you, "Contagion" is nothing like director Wolfgang Petersen's germ warfare thriller "Outbreak"(1995) with Dustin Hoffman. Soderbergh and "Bourne Ultimatum" scribe Scott Z. Brown maintain an impersonal rather than a glamorous tone as this international medical procedural maps the spread of a pandemic which can kill an individual in three days. Researchers christen the virus, MEV-1, and stare in horror as the virus wraps its lethal tentacles around the globe, killing one in every four people and terrifying everybody else. Not long after the viral outbreak, people become leery of mingling in public. The policemen and hospital workers strike. Society and the rules which govern it collapse, and pandemonium engulfs everyone. Indeed, Soderbergh has assembled an impressive celebrity cast, but limits their presence throughout the matter-of-fact 105 minutes so nobody stands out like in his "Ocean's" franchise. The characters belong to one of three groups: first, the field agents who encounter the disease first hand; second, those behind the scenes who struggle to develop a vaccine; and the administrators who must control the hysteria. Unfortunately, despite his admiral efforts to give "Contagion” a documentary flavor like the classic 1965 "Battle of Algiers," Soderbergh sacrifices the usual Hollywood heroics which would make the action appear charismatic. Doctors and researchers disobey their superiors and take chances that they are ordered not to take. Predictably, mankind survives but the pandemic takes the world to the brink. Watching "Contagion" is like watching the anatomy of a disaster on Public Television. You will exit “Contagion” knowing that you touch your face 2-thousand times a day. When you aren’t touching your face, you are touching something else or somebody else who may be infected with germs. Inevitably, as liberal-minded as Soderbergh is, "Contagion" boils down to a cautionary yarn about tampering with Mother Nature. While the Asians play a major role in the virus, the virus come about as the result of an American corporation that destroys the wilderness with no thought about the consequences. You might not want to dine out at an Asian restaurant after you watch this atmospheric thriller.

“Contagion” opens during the second day that the pandemic has spread. Traveling business executive Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow of “Country Strong”) has attended a groundbreaking for a new factory in Hong Kong. Afterward, she celebrates with several colleagues at a casino in Macau. What poor Beth has no way of knowing is that she has become infected with a virus that came about as a result of the construction of a new factory. The company bulldozers drove huge bats out of their nesting area, and the bats relocated to a swine farm where they infect the pigs with their guano. Beth flies back to the U.S. and squeezes in enough time for an extra-marital fling in Chicago before she goes home to her dutiful husband Mitch (Matt Damon of “Hereafter”) in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Meanwhile, other people that Beth came into contact with in Hong Kong are dropping like flies. A waiter collapses, and one of Beth’s colleagues dies aboard a commuter train in Japan. Initially, when Beth left the casino bar, she forgot her drink. A Ukrainian woman hands Beth her cell phone that Beth had forgotten. The woman is found dead in her motel room later by motel authorities. Eventually, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, investigate and suspect that Beth is patient zero for the epidemic. Meantime, things worsen for Mitch when his elementary school age son Clark (newcomer Griffin Kane) dies from the virus, too. Incredibly, Mitch learns that he is immune from the disease and he takes his daughter Joy (first-time actress Anna Jacoby-Heron) out of school and refuses to let her boyfriend visit her for fear that he may contaminate her.

In Atlanta, Dr. Ellis Cheever (Laurence Fishburne of “The Matrix”) sends Dr. Erin Mears (Kate Winslet of “Titanic”), an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer, to fly to Minneapolis to supervise the investigation. Meantime, the World Health Organization in Geneva dispatches its top epidemiologist Dr. Leonora Orantes (Marion Cotillard of “Inception”) to China to search for the origins of the disease. Not long afterward Mears comes down with the virus via infected motel workers. A brilliant civilian scientist, Professor Ian Sussman (Elliott Gould of “Ocean’s Eleven”), at Stanford becomes the first to create the virus in his laboratory, while one of Cheever’s own CDC staff physicians Dr. Ally Hextall (two-time Tony-winner Jennifer Ehle of “The Adjustment Bureau”), concocts a vaccine by experimenting on herself rather than waiting. Ironically, both Sussman and Hextall achieve their discoveries because they violate CDC policy. They discover that the disease contains genetic elements from bat and swine viruses. At this point, virtually everybody around the world is wearing a mask for safety’s sake. Cheever confides in his wife that she must leave Chicago and come to Washington. Thieves break into Cheever’s home and threaten his wife Aubrey Cheever (Sanaa Latham of “Love and Basketball”) while they ransack the premises vainly for the vaccine. The CDC establishes a lottery to determine who gets the first vaccine shots. Throughout this global crisis, a lone-wolf journalist, Alan Krumwiede (Jude Law of “Cold Mountain”) who believes in criminal conspiracies has been blogging about the disease. He claims that he came down with it and used another prescription drug to cure himself. Homeland Security officials eventually arrest him for spreading rumors.

Although Soderbergh and Burns do an exemplary job of covering all the points on the compass of the global pandemic, they end up giving their one-dimensional characters the short shrift, especially the WHO epidemiologist in China. We never get to know any of the characters beyond the glimpses that we are given. Laurence Fishburne, Kate Winslet, and Matt Damon fare better than Jude Law, Elliot Gould, and Marion Cotillard. Indeed, Soderbergh shows us the frightening logistics that complicate finding a cure for an unknown virus, but “Contagion” never generates any charisma.

FILM REVIEW OF ''THE GREEN HORNET'' (2011)

“The Green Hornet” (***1/2 out of ****) isn't just another jaded crime fighter movie. Those dreadful movies include “The Shadow” (1994), “The Phantom” (1996), and “The Spirit” (2008). Actually, “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” director Michel Gondry and co-scenarists Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg have done a commendable job with their revival of this long dormant franchise. This cinematic reboot remains largely faithful to “The Green Hornet” radio series of the 1930s. Nevertheless, Rogen and Goldberg have taken marginal liberties with their adaptation. Our misunderstood protagonist endures an abusive father and fritters away his life as a party animal until he awakens to his true potential. The cars that our heroes cruise around in pay tribute to the 1966 ABC-TV series more than the two 1940s era cliffhanger serials, "The Green Hornet" (1940) with Gordon Jones and "The Green Hornet Strikes Again" (1940) with Warren Hull. Although the radio series occurred in Chicago, the film takes place in Los Angeles where the Reid family owned newspaper "The Daily Sentinel" is published. Meantime, the people who made the new “Green Hornet” ridicule the clichés and conventions of the crime fighter film genre and refrain from making the action appear hopelessly outlandish. Not only does the film examine the essence of villainy, but it also insists that wardrobe does not a villain make. Basically, “The Green Hornet” unfolds as an origins epic. Gondry and his writers ensure that the protagonists make a realistic transition from ordinary to extraordinary. Our heroes spend at least half of the action battling each other over their respective roles as hero and sidekick when they aren’t clashing with a lethal villain who will stop at nothing to ice them. 

“The Green Hornet” opens as young Brett Reid is escorted to his father’s newspaper office at “The Daily Sentinel.” James Reid (Tom Wilkinson of “Rush Hour”) berates his elementary school age son for being expelled for fighting. Sure, Brett’s father understands life is tough for his son. After all, Brett has no mother. Brett argues he was trying to thwart some bullies. James tears the head off his son’s superhero action figure and trashes it. Brett never forgives him for this act of cruelty. Twenty years elapse, and Brett turns into a no-holds-barred, thrill-seeking party animal until his father drops dead from an allergic reaction to a bee sting. Of course, there is more here than meets the eye. Anyway, public officials flock to James’ funeral and erect a statue in his honor. 

Meanwhile, Brett still smolders with resentment toward his father. Along the way, Brett has grown accustomed to his morning coffee. When he discovers his coffee doesn’t taste as delicious anymore, he starts screaming and learns that he fired the man who made it. Brett is surprised when he meets Kato (Taiwanese pop star Jay Chou) and the two guys bond. Kato is a chauffeur/inventor. He maintained James Reid's fleet of automobiles. Moreover, he rebuilt James’ cars and incorporated bullet-proof glass in the windshields and armored plated the vehicles against gunfire. Neither really liked Reid. Brett convinces Kato to join him for a late night prank. Brett decapitates his father’s statue. As he is lugging the head away, our protagonist tries to intervene when thugs attack an innocent couple. Kato arrives in the nick of time to save Brett and demonstrate his superb martial arts skills. A surveillance camera captures Brett stealing the statue head, and he appropriates this opportunity to introduce Los Angeles to its newest nemesis.

Chudnofsky (Oscar winner Christopher Waltz of “Inglourious Basterds”) is the most dangerous criminal in Los Angeles. You either join Chudnofsky or die. An ambitious crystal meth dealer, Danny Cleere (James Franco of “Spider-Man”), berates Chudnofsky for his old-school apparel and advises him to retire. Not surprisingly, Chudnofsky wipes out Cleere and company with a devastating double-barreled automatic pistol. Meantime, Brett uses “The Daily Sentinel” to propel his mysterious alter-ego to heights of notoriety. Unfortunately, Brett realizes almost too late that he doesn’t have a clue about fighting crime. He relies on his savvy newspaper secretary, Lenore Case (Cameron Diaz of “Knight and Day”), who has a college degree in journalism and criminology. As he watches the Green Hornet’s ascent to prominence, Chudnofsky calls for a meeting. The first encounter between Chudnofsky and the Hornet is pretty spectacular. Meantime, when Brett isn’t matching wits with Chudnofsky, he tangles with District Attorney Scanlon ( David Harbour of “Quantum of Solace”) who wants him to halt his news coverage about escalating crime. Scanlon is campaigning for re-election, and “The Daily Sentinel” is undermining his claims that Los Angeles crime is under control.

As a crime fighter, “The Green Hornet” resembles "Batman" and Bruce Wayne. James Reid was a newspaper tycoon, and Brett appropriates his father’s millions to pay for his exotic Green Hornet regalia and hardware. At the same time, Brett is like Zorro because he dons his emerald mask when he isn’t at the office. Of course, the chief difference between “The Green Hornet” and most crime fighters is that he behaves like a villain so criminals cannot take advantage of his virtue. In a sense, the Green Hornet emerges as an anti-heroic hero who fights for justice. Rogen and Goldberg never miss a moment to mock the crime fighter formula. What makes “The Green Hornet” doubly entertaining is that our heroes must learn the ropes of crime fighting as they are dodging lead. As they learn from their stupid mistakes, they acquire greater polish. Half of their success comes from ‘the Black Beauty.' Kato has tricked out a jet-black Chrysler Imperial so it amounts to a rolling arsenal with hood-mounted machine guns, a flame thrower, and rockets.

For the record, George W. Trendle and Fran Striker created “The Green Hornet” on January 31, 1936, at Detroit radio station WXYZ-AM. Comparatively, artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger created “Batman” about three years later in 1939. Seth Rogen makes a sympathetic hero and Christopher Waltz is a terrific villain. Altogether, “The Green Hornet” qualifies as an above-average reboot of a classic crime fighter with a stimulating car chase and some memorable confrontations.