I already saw this movie but since it was a while back and since we're all currently involved in a worldwide pandemic with the coronavirus, I thought I might as well check it out again. Back then, the first time I watched the damned thing, even though I thought it was fairly entertaining, it didn’t really impressed me though. However, nowadays, since we have all become virus experts thanks to the constant flow of information concerning the Covid-19, I was actually amazed and quite terrified by how scientifically accurate this movie actually was after all. The only thing that really bothered me was that everything was just rushed too much. Indeed, only within a couple of days, the deadly virus arrived in the US, spred itself, killed 100s of people, but a cure was found and the town was saved. It would have been so much more efficient and realistic to spread the action over several weeks, even a few months. Concerning the rest of the movie, it was also rather pedestrian and predictable. It was like the relationship between Dustin Hoffman and Rene Russo. Russo's character turned out to be really passive and, of course, Hoffman's character was a workaholic and they divorced but, to save the day, they had to work again together. I mean, seriously, that’s a very old gimmick. However, the chase during the final act was even more problematic as it was terribly far-fetched. Still, the whole thing was well made, there was a terrific cast involved (Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey, Cuba Gooding Jr., Donald Sutherland, Patrick Dempsey) and they all delivered some solid performances. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its a flaws, I have to admit that it is still a decent virus-related thriller and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.
6/10