Monday Movie Review - CONTAGION

I was all set to see another major kick-ass story about a virus nearly destroying the world's population. I loved "Outbreak" and hoped this one was another edge-of-your-seat nail biter.

Contagion is none of this. But neither is it a bad movie.

It starts on Day 2, where an American woman re-enters the US after a business trip to Japan. She is ill, and everything she touches immediately becomes contaminated. The film continues forward one day at a time, two days, then a week. In the process we see how the virus spreads so rapidly, humanity can't cope. Violence breaks out, and millions upon millions of people die - including the stars. That fact alone blew me away. Six major A-list (and most of them Academy Award winners) in this flick, and some of them die in the movie. Wow.

If you're looking for gore or scary effects, you'll be disappointed. The film is slow, very slow. But the acting is superb. There is a lot of tension and suspense. There's a poignant happy ending. Oh, and all questions are neatly wrapped up in the final five minutes.

But because of its very slow yet methodical pace, my recommendation is that you