User reviews

This is a terribly great film, everything that is wrong with this flick just couldn't stop me from laughing, got to love 90s sci fi sorta b movie level, though we do have quite the cast everything just feels very off with the film, yet if you want to enjoy something for a laugh this would be the film, the effects are poor, the acting is very wooden, and the plot is well been done many times before. I first court this film on late night tv in the uk back when channel 5 used to do there late night films that were always guaranteed to be a terrible movie and had the wonderful pleasure to rewatch the film found on YouTube, this is a little bit of a guilty pleasure. Enjoy!

"The Terminator" meets "The Predator" and "Alien", and what we get is this routine but moderately effective horror thriller, which isn't quite as bad as its reputation might lead you to believe. Sure, it lacks substance and (except for a few details)originality, but the energetic direction, the fast pacing and some impressively filmed explosions keep it painless. Effects aren't particularly outstanding, though.

I've heard people trash this movie left and right yet I found that it kept my attention for the duration of it's running time and all the technical aspects were top-notch (especially Tippett Studio's CGI realization of Goliath). The characters weren't great and weren't bad either. Sure, we've seen it all before in other films but I have little hope of finding a film that's completely original. Frankly, I got about what I expected out of it - motion picture fastfood. You enjoy it as you take it in and digest it and forget about it after you leave the theater. It's just entertainment and not bad for what it is. Unlike LOST IN SPACE or BATMAN AND ROBIN, this film isn't boring. It moves at a quick enough pace to where you don't find yourself checking your watch all the time. I'm not sure what the deal was with Donald Sutherland's character who displays no sense of logic whatsoever. Had they dropped the stuff with his character, it would've helped the film. If you're bored, check it out. It's worth at least one viewing.

Decent sci-fi horror/thriller. OK, it's not exceptional in any way but it's also not the steaming pile of poo that its rating here would suggest. I was expecting it to be a real stinker judging by some of the reviews I've read. On the contrary, it was a perfectly watchable movie of its type. Entertaining to a small degree but never dull. The cast isn't bad. Jamie Lee Curtis is the best of the lot. Donald Sutherland hams it up some with a silly Lucky Charms accent. I ask you though -- in what way is that not fun? Maybe people hate it because it has a "dumb action movie" quality about it. Sci-fi fans can be a prickly sort sometimes.

Virus is based on a Dark Horse comic book. It has a lot of behind the scenes talent such as Gale Anne Hurd (Terminator/Aliens.) Director John Bruno is an Oscar winner for visual effects for The Abyss and he also did the VFX for Terminator 2 and Titanic.

It is no surprise then that the film rips off many of these films in the genre especially as it becomes Aliens meets Robocop meets Terminator.

An electrical based alien life form views humans as a virus, only useful for spare parts and slowly converts the humans into cyborgs.

The film starts off in a Russian space station before settling in a Russian ship. Our heroine is Jamie Lee Curtis a navigator in a tugboat with uninsured cargo destroyed in a typhoon.

The salty captain of the ship, is mean, a drunkard and on the verge of catastrophic failure. He is played by Donald Sutherland.

They stumble on the now abandoned Russian ship and want to take it as valuable salvage before they realise something else is also aboard.

Lee Curtis shows a lot of spirit, she is assisted by a bland William Baldwin. Sutherland is the hissable villain, a mixture of Captain Hook and Quint from Jaws.

The special effects are very good but the script is a let down and the film is rather dull.

The Virus (1999) is currently available on Tubi. The storyline follows a tug boat that comes across an empty vessel. They feel they can claim the vessel because no one is on it; little do they know life like they've never seen remains onboard with a goal to keep the boat empty. This movie is directed by John Bruno (Heavy Metal) and stars Jaime Lee Curts (Halloween), Donald Sutherland (Invasion of the Body Snatcher), William Baldwin (Sliver) and Cliff Curtis (Doctor Sleep). The storyline for this was very uneven. They did a good job of making you feel the characters were trapped and had limited options...but the "villain" seems like some bad mix of Aliens and Batteries not Included. I can't say it worked for me. Sutherland played a great ruthless tugboat captain and Curtis and Baldwin were solid in their roles as well, but not solid enough to over come this painful plot and delivery. I'd score this a 4/10 and recommend seeing it once with appropriate expectations going in.

I love cheesy underrated movies like this! It really is like a mix of X-Files, Alien, Robocop, and Terminator. Loaded with an awesome cast and some ridiculous mindless writing not meant to be taken seriously. Sci-Fi like this really should be appreciated more!

Washed up captain of Sea Star, Robert Everton( played by Donald Sutherland) and his crew of 5 fail to transport their cargo due to a big storm that leaves their ship heavily damaged. They find hope in a high-tech Russian ship that seems abandoned at first. They decide to board the ship and start looking for any crew members. Unfortunately things don't go as planned and they soon find out that they are not alone. Virus is based on a dark horse fiction novel baring the same title. The movie tries a lot to recreate the atmosphere of the movie alien by isolating people with a dangerous extraterrestrial force. The alien itself has no physical form which is a new touch at least for the movie era and consists mainly of electric energy. So in order to survive on the ship it needs to live inside electric devices or create hybrid humanoids with the flesh from the crew. The movie has some gory scenes but it can't be classified as true horror genre since the alien takes the form of robots meaning it bares more resemblance to an action movie like terminator rather than alien. Jamie Lee Curtis plays the role of the good protagonist while William Baldwin does a mediocre job as the hero who tries to save the girl from harm. Once again Donald Sutherland steals the show as a washed up captain who sees an opportunity to make a fortune while your typical black guy in a horror movie, Richie played by Sherman Augustus is the smartest and funniest character by far. Virus doesn't deserve all the bad reputation it has gotten over the years but make no mistake it is not gold stuff also. Some characters exist just to die easily with no background story making us not care at all. One thing that bugged me is that one character's decision near the end of the film makes no sense at all. I must say the special effects of the humanoid- robots get the job done and are surprisingly good for a 1995 movie. Overall virus won't bore you or leave you unsatisfied. It has a semi-decent plot for a horror movie and it's the closer you can to a good alien movie on a ship. It has its flaws but It makes for an easy watch if you are bored or have some time to waste.

A mediocre storyline (i.e. Titanic) can become a world class film with character development, believable dialogue, and, for lack of a better word, some Hollywood magic. This film could have been a blockbuster with less action, less noise, less effects and more humans being human. Look at 2001 A Space Odyssey, Jaws, Titanic and countless other films, and you'll see that the story was about as interesting as Virus, and the actors, equally talented. Virus failed to deliver characters that we could believe and identify with.

I still recommend this film highly, as its interesting, it contains Jamie Lee Curtis (a hottie) and Donald Sutherland (a 20th century legend), lots of effects and action. In a way its sort of fun to watch quality actors attempt to make the best of horrible dialogue.

A 7 out of 10 for storyline and casting

Missed viewing this film and greatly enjoyed the film from beginning to the very end. The actors all did a fantastic job and the special effects were outstanding. Jamie Lee Curtis,(Kelly Foster),"Drowning Mona",'2000, for a while played the only female with quite a few men on a simple tug boat. However, Kelly was the daughter of an Admiral in the US Navy and could handle herself quite well. The captain of the tug boat was Donald Sutherland,(Capt. Robert Everton),"An American Hauting",'05 who drank most of the time, but still was capable of handing his Tug. There is also a Russian Space Ship that is involved in the film along with some very unusual Aliens who cause havoc on a very large Russian ship. William Baldwin,(Steve Baker),"Last Hour",'06, gives a great supporting role, acting as a know it all, and is taught some very serious lessons. Great Sci-Fi, considering it was produced in 1998 or 1999.

Say what you want about this movie not meeting expectations of the 90's but it was very entertaining and thats most of what I expect from any good movie.

Bad aliens, greed, bravery, bravado, science gone bad and survival all play major parts in this flick.

Strong women, brave men and treacherous men are a good mix for any story and this movie has them in abundance.

The aliens seem to want something from humans and its not in the best interest of these humans to meet their needs.

Try not to be comparing this movie to other sci-fi and just enjoy an interesting twist on the genre.

I want to compare this to 'the thing' but with a technological twist to it. Effects are top notch, creepy, and well crafted. Story suffices and characters are alright but the real star is obviously the effects. It is a great Sci fi horror film.

OK, by the half way mark Virus is turning into a pretty typical aliens are here to destroy us movie, but till then it's a reasonably suspenseful, not badly written, well cast and well acted film. Jamie Lee Curtis looks remarkably normal playing a sailor, Donald Sutherland delivers another good villainous performance, and new actor of the year Cliff Curtis (Three Kings, Bringing Out the Dead) is excellent. This is a good popcorn movie, much better than most genre films.

Laughable, extremely poorly scripted and acted effort about a small crew boarding what seems to be a "dead" huge Russian science ship that has been taken over by an alien life form in the form of electrical current. The small crew from the other ship quickly find out that boarding the ship was a bad idea, and soon they begin to, I know this will surprise you, ...DIE. Okay, for starters the film is very derivative of other films, most notably Alien with the same premise of a small group investigating a large "foreign" vessel and ultimately led by a strong female protagonist. Ther are many other obvious similarities, but time and a total lack of desire to rehash that drivel must excuse me. I could live with a less than original story if it had some better dialog and some characters you might give a hoot about, but Virus has none of that. Jamie Lee Curtis does a serviceable job at best and gives the film's best performance, but that is not saying anything as virtually everyone else is just awful. This is a surprise when one sees Donald Sutherland's name attached to this project. I have never seen him give quite as bad a performance as he does in Virus. He goes for every cliché and stereotype of an old sea captain save a wooden leg and a parrot on his shoulder. The accent he uses I found excruciating. The rest of the crew has a group of guys that you will not care about in the least. None of the guys can act. This applies mostly to male "lead" Wiulliam Baldwin who looks like he is lost at sea playing an actor. The script aids the actors in being inadequate as half the time it just makes no sense and other times begins to show promise and ends abruptly. Wow, the way Jamie Lee Curtis gets out of a jam near the film's end was so ridiculous. What about the captain and why he was almost going to shoot himself in the beginning of the picture? What was that all about? It was never brought up again. What does Virus have going for it? It is the very embodiment of mindless entertainment with almost no thinking required. The special effects are pretty good too. But for me the film was a great big let-down. Not that I was expecting something great, but I was expecting something suspenseful. I was laughing and turning my head a lot more times in this one then I was on the edge of my seat - except when I was ready to turn the movie off!

Absolutely the best film featuring Donald Sutherland doing an 'accent' on a boat.

What I noticed about "Virus" is that ANYTHING can happen to ANY of the characters. They actually get the crap beaten out of them, even Jamie lee. The special-effects are fantastic for this film and the robots are actually menacing. The characters aren't too interesting but they suit the film. I was surprised at how the movie wasn't as predictable as I thought it would be. "Virus" takes a new direction. Instead of having a bunch of aliens or monsters running around, killing people, they have robots. It's an original idea that hasn't been tackled that often in this type of genre. A good movie.

As a typhoon approaches the South Pacific, some mysterious outer space force attacks a Russian "missile and satellite tracking" ship. Nearby, a small America tugboat barely weathers the storm. Led by steadfast navigator Jamie Lee Curtis (as Kelly "Kit" Foster) and handsome engineer William Baldwin (as Steve Baker), the crew barely makes it into the eye of the storm. Hoping to make repairs, they instead encounter and board the Russian ship, which is seemingly deserted. The huge vessel has 42 labs and is valuable as a salvage ship. If no Russian personnel survive, those returning the ship will be paid millions of dollars. After losing his tugboat's cargo, heavily-accented Captain Donald Sutherland (as Robert Everton) wants to collect the cash. Naturally, he hopes to find no survivors. This puts him at odds with attractive scientist Joanna Pacula (as Nadia Vinogradova)...

Special effects wizard John Bruno directs this Dark Horse comic book adaptation. Not surprisingly, "Virus" is a special effects movie. It starts off with an attack and storm. The subsequent, short characterization period really doesn't endear us to the cast, who seem very stereotypical. We should have a much stronger time getting to know the characters. That we may not want to know them is another problem. Also, there is also no real suspense as things immediately get rough for the crew; consequently, there is little time to dread the villainous presence or care what it kills. An ambiguous ending jolt seems to be setting up a possible sequel, but we were probably better off letting this "Virus" run its course.

***** Virus (1/15/99) John Bruno ~ Jamie Lee Curtis, William Baldwin, Donald Sutherland, Joanna Pacula

This is a cult classic.

Its not a bad film. Its blend of scifi, horror and action in the same vain as "Leviathan" (1989)

Think of Cyberdyne factory contaminated with alien lifeform "Thing" but inside a Russian research vessel and voila, you get "Virus".

Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Sutherland and William Baldwin.

After reading less than favourable reviews, I was concerned this movie would not live up to the potential of the plot scenario. That is, an Alien entity arriving on Earth and fusing humans, or parts of humans, with mechanical technology to further it own existence.Fortunately, the movie lived up totally to my expectations. We start off with a BANG! and than it's non-stop, sit on the edge of your seat stuff until the end. Anyone who watches STAR TREK knows the BORG. This movie makes what we've seen of the Borg look like a stroll in the park. Whilst extremely graphic in nature, VIRUS's depiction of this Aliens handiwork is as it would be...gruesome! Without giving away the plot, you have a claustrophobic situation reminiscent of ALIENS with Jamie Lee and Bill Baldwin & crew being hunted down one by one. Chase scenes involving a multitude of half human/half machine monstrosities keep coming at you like Arnie in TERMIMATOR. The special effects and art concepts are original and really make this movie stand out. Interestingly you'll see Mr. James Cameron thanked in the fine print of the credits. The mechanical marvels are certainly up to his standard. I loved the movie and now on DVD its straight into my collection.

The space station MIR is communicating with the Russian research vessel Vladislav Volkov, when the astronauts witness a surge of energy coming to Earth, killing them at the station and reaching the ship, attacking the captain, officers and crew. The tugboat Sea Star is towing a barge with cargo not covered by insurance when she crosses a typhoon and loses the cargo. The alcoholic Captain Robert Everton (Donald Sutherland) is informed that the engine room is flooded and the bilge pump does not have enough capacity to pump all the water overboard. Captain Everton is ready to commit suicide when the tug stumbles upon the Russian vessel and he believes the salvage would worth about thirty-million dollars. Captain Everton and his crew goes onboard of the dead ship considering derelict and soon they find the Russian officer Nadia (Joanna Pacula), who tells an incredible story. She explains that an alien force needs electrical power to build robots and destroy the human race, but they believe she is haywire. But soon they find the threat on board.

"Virus" is a 1999 film with great special effects. However, the story is not so good, despite the cast with Donald Sutherland, Jamie Lee Curtis and William Baldwin. Anyway, it is worthwhile watching especially for those that like the marine environment and sci-fi. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Virus"