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Pandemic (TV)
R1 - America - Genius Products Review written by and copyright: Pat Pilon (22nd September 2007). |
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The Film
 Imagine a virus that spreads through the air of a major city, infecting everything it comes into contact with and killing the infected in less than 48 hours. No, I'm not talking about 'Outbreak', but there are only so many different ideas you can have with this type of movie. In more recent years, viruses have turned people into zombies ('Resident Evil', '28 Days Later'), but this movie is more traditional than that. This is your typical disease-of-the-week movie, only this one is well done. There are no real surprises in how the plot unfolds. In a typical disease movie, everybody is quarantined, except one, who escapes the doctors' grasp. (Indeed, this would have to happen, or else the movie would simply be called 'People in Quarantine' and would be quite yawn-inducing.) As the one escapee walks around, he infects more people, who infect more people, and so on until the doctors run around the city, trying to undo the damage that carrier has done. It's basically the same thing you've seen in every disease movie since 'Outbreak'. Because this is a three-or-so-hour movie, there's time to concentrate on the people infected instead of just the doctors. In fact, the film takes a decidedly disaster-movie feel, where you spend time with the people affected by the disaster, and emotions are tied to them, as well as the doctors. The result is mixed. Some of the people are annoying and idiots, as in the realtor, so you don't really care much about what happens to him. You just get irked at his stupidity. Some others, however, are a bit more sympathetic and you do feel a bit more for them. The acting has a strong correlation to this basic idea. With the bigger stars, Tiffani Thiessen, French Stewart and to some extent Faye Dunaway and Eric Roberts, the level of acting draws you more into their story more than some of the other, more supporting actors. To be fair, the latter two just fight over politics and power, but Mrs. Thiessen does a nice job handling her starring role. She has a nice, authoritative attitude and you can believer she's a doctor. As the disease spreads and the outlook seems grim, the movie definitely gets better. If you put in the time, the last 40 minutes or so are pretty good. As I've said, the movie breaks no new ground, but it's well done and gets to be pretty entertaining. The climax is exciting and the outcome of everything is nicely done. If you enjoy virus movies, then you might want to check this one out. It doesn't have any zombies in it, but you do see a lot of blood and pale faces.
Video
1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen. With a nearly-three-hour movie on a single disc, the picture quality isn't the best. It's softer than it should be and it's had a lot of mosquito noise, especially in the dark, shadowy areas. Other than that, the colours are nice and accurate. The contrast is okay, though shadow detail could probably be a bit better. The picture does look a bit flat at times. On the plus side, there's a very slight sheen of grain, which gives the movie a nice look. Overall, it's a nice picture for what it is, but it'll look better on a tube than an LCD TV.
Audio
The only audio track is an English Dolby Digital 5.1 track. Ambient noises are heard throughout the movie, which is a nice touch. They're not constant and not perfect, but you do hear birds and wind when scenes demand them. Most of the sound comes from the front, and the stage is pretty open. The dialogue is clear, though may be a bit stifled due to a short dynamic range, but that might be my imagination. The music comes through all the speakers very clearly. Everything is mixed in very well, though most of the sound is centered. There are no subtitles.
Extras
The first thing is Discovering Pandemic (10:56), which has a narrator telling you about the project. This works as a kind of film school thing, because the actors tell you about how they worked, how much absolute fun it was working in the biohazard suits. The narrator also talks about shooting many takes, editing and shooting action scenes. It's a different approach and makes this more original than usual EPKs. The information given is not particularly new to anybody interested in filmmaking, but it's a nice way to present information. After that, there's some Interviews with the Cast (13:45). These interviews are basically an extension of the making-of, but they do give out some basic information. Tiffani Thiessen and French Stewart talk about getting the roles and their impression of the movie as a whole. They also talk about being doctors and the jargon associated with it. Later on, Vincent Spano, Eric Roberts, Faye Dunaway and Bruce Boxleitner talk about their roles and about how scary the movie actually is. These are a nice set of interviews, though they're a bit general and short. Some trailers finish off the disc. The Original Trailer (1:34) is actually really good. It's filled with tension and gives away the setup. The problem is that it has all the important lines of the movie, so if you watch the movie, it'll feel a bit long. Then you get a couple of Start-up Trailers, 'Marco Polo' and 'Son of the Dragon'.
Overall
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