"The Contaminated Man" is an efficiently but also very routinely made thriller, unoriginal and unexceptional in the extreme, right down to the ruthless "national security" agents who value the secrecy of their projects more highly than human life itself. For what is essentially a chase film, there is not enough urgency in the story. Peter Weller is remarkably convincing in a role that requires him to look much older than he really is, but he fails to gain much audience sympathy - he may be captured or he may escape, but we don't care very much one way or the other. (**1/2)
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gridoon22 August 2003
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gazineo-19 April 2003Dull, predictable and uninteresting story of a man contaminated by a chemical substance (Weller) who goes on across the country just to find his ex-wife and children; meanwhile, he kills everyone in his way only by a single touch of his hands. In his dangerous track, a doctor (Hurt) and a young reporter (Natasha) try to stop the man. The movie has a not original premise but even though could be much better. The final result is just a movie without suspense or gritting moments. Even the good cast is completely waste. I give this a 4 (four).
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JoeytheBrit11 October 2007When a film starts with a man unintentionally killing his young family with an immediately-fatal virus within the first couple of minutes you know that A) you're in a world that bears only a passing resemblance to reality and B) you're probably going to wish you hadn't bothered watching it by the time the film is over. I started watching mostly because William Hurt is a quality actor (it's unfathomable to me why he would accept such a badly-written part in such a ludicrously told story) and also because I have a weakness for killer virus stories even though this genre of film is rarely worth the effort. Even a relatively ambitious project like Mick Garris's TV adaptation of Stephen King's The Stand was disappointing in the extreme.
Anyway, I soldiered on, and increasingly began feeling as if a creeping virus were taking over my own body. One that made me at first restless and then sleepy. After the film's prologue in golden California we are transported to the cold grey winter of Budapest, presumably because production costs are cheaper there. A lab worker (Peter Weller, virtually unrecognisable from his Robocop days) accidentally becomes infected with the virus but, like Hurt's character, is able to live for a week or so as a carrier while those he touches die within a minute of contact. Hurt shows up, looking a little geeky it has to be said, with long hair and no hairpiece, to at first lock horns with Natasha McElhone before they join forces to track down Weller (who, bizarrely, goes on the run with a large model airplane) with whom.Hurt shares an increasing affinity.
Things get progressively sillier as the film blunders towards its daft climax, and we are left to (presumably) cheer two 'heroes' who gleefully infect a hardnosed government agent with the very virus they had been attempting to stop Weller from spreading. Weller and McElhone belong to that breed of second-string actors who live off the pickings those higher up the pecking order instantly dismiss, but William Hurt is clearly slumming here, and presumably only in it for the money a fact which is almost as disappointing as this film. -
jbartell-112 January 2003For God's sake people, let's try to get it right. The Weller character isn't carrying a virus or a pathogen or anything else biological and the Hurt character isn't a disease expert. Hurt plays a hazardous waste clean-up guy for the UN. Weller gets a dose of pesticide in the face that metabolizes into a chemical that causes instant fatal allergic reaction to anyone he touches.
This may seem like a trivial difference but at least it's a new idea, not just a recycling on any number of other movies, dating back at least to the Satan Bug in 1965 if not earlier. I'll pass up judging the rest of the film as everyone else has, but you've got to wonder about the validity of anyone's attention who apparently didn't pay any attention to the freakin' movie. -
Note: I will reveal a key part of the plot, but if you've looked at the DVD cover or any promotional material, you'll already know it.
This movie seems to have been written by an eleven-year-old who isn't very bright and was probably very tired when he wrote it. The writer doesn't know the difference between a chemical and an organism.
Forget the fact the the UN and the NSA seem to be running the show in Hungary. Forget the fact that when these master intelligence agents go chasing after someone whose mere touch will kill you in about a minute they don't wear protective gear (not even gloves). These are quibbles in the context of this movie. In the scientific world within this story, 2+2=6.34 and gravity goes sideways.
The fact is that the people in this movie do not (with a few exceptions) behave the way human beings behave. Almost every time a character responds to something it is inappropriate. The love story (of course there is one) makes soap opera scripts seem like Shakespeare.
I can't believe we wasted a free movie rental on this thing. -
joeflaco7 July 2003I really cant think of anything good to say about this film...not a single thing. The script is a nightmare.. the writer blurs the line between chemical and biological traits and doesnt seem to understand the difference. You'd think they would at least get a technical advisor. The performances were bad by most of the cast... although I dont really blame them.. the material really stinks. The editing was equally bad.. I'll just stop now.. its all bad 2/10
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BigGuy23 January 2003For a science scare movie to work well it has to be either truly original or a very good retelling. This movie is neither. Sure there is a pseudo-original twist in that the guy kills people because of a toxin and not because of a disease, but that is a very minor twist. There is the government conspiracy angle, the crusader protagonist who has personal experience...
And one real drawback of this movie is that the contaminated man has no pathos. Although the character is scripted to be someone who should be pitied, he is not. Without the pity the movie is pointless. The other characters are so cookie cutter they are ridiculous. The subplots are convoluted and annoying. And the saddest thing is the movie is too flat to even be enjoyed as mock material. Make the movie a 45 minute short and it might be worth watching. -
mrnews9729 September 2001This movie is so bad, you almost feel contaminated by it. Actually, there is a strong sense of relief when it's over, relief that you can now put the cassette back in the rewinder and RUSH this back to the video rental store before it contaminates the rest of your video collection. I jokingly suggested when we rented it that it looked like the kind of film where William Hurt would "phone in" his performance. I meant that he would not be trying very hard. But lo and behold, in a huge number of scenes in this film, Bill Hurt is actually ON THE PHONE! Our realization of this irony was the only pleasure we derived from this confusing mess. The cinematography and editing are murky and befuddled, the story is chaotic, and the soundtrack is barely audible. There is a very slight resemblance to "Falling Down", but that film had a boldly disturbing story-line, great writing and acting, and an engaging soundtrack. "Contaminated Man" is just some kind of broken down old European tourist trap, and watching it is like driving along some unfamiliar back road in an unknown country where you don't speak the language in a steady rain just after nightfall as the windshield keeps fogging up. You get the picture? Don't get this one.
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Bimpen11 February 2002Really, everybody in this movie looks like they want to be someplace else! No wonder, the casting is done not with the left hand, but rather not at all. I haven't seen anything worse than Natascha McElhone impersonating some sort of agent, carrying a gun. You don't use a spoiled city-brat-look in such a role. The only worse thing I can imagine is casting Doris Day as a prostitute. The rest of the cast is likewise awful, possibly with Hurt as the sole exception, sometimes you can see him trying, but suffering. Oh, did I mention that it is a completely insane story? Jeopardizing many peoples lives because you are divorced and want to see your family? Well, it must be because the guy (Weller) is German?
2/10, because the photography could be worse. -
dee.reid19 March 2001Now I had the pleasure of first viewing Contaminated Man when it premiered on TV back in December of 2000.
An infectious disease expert (William Hurt) looses his family when an unknown disease enters his home and kills them. Now some years later he is now in Russia or someplace. I'm not sure where exactly, all I know is it takes place somewhere in that area. Anyway, because of budget cutbacks at an infectious disease laboratory, they are forced to lay off most of their workers. One of them, a disgruntled security guard named Joseph Muller (played Peter Weller, best known for his role as the indestructible Robocop) goes in there and demands that they give him his job back. He needs this job because he is divorced and he needs it to pay child support. So he goes in there, a fight breaks out, and some things get knocked over, dangerous things. It's soon discovered that Muller has been infected with a deadly pathogen. In fact it's so deadly, one drop of his blood will kill a person in matter of seconds. Soon word gets out and the disease expert (Hurt) is called in to investigate and he later teamed up with an American reporter. Now Muller is determined to get home to see his wife and son and will stop at nothing even if he has to infect the entire Russian population.
Now as I said before this film is a lot like Falling Down. We have a disturbed person (Weller here, Michael Douglas in Falling Down) who will stop at nothing to accomplish there goal even if they have to kill a few people in the process. Next we have a hero-type person (Hurt here, Robert Duvall in Falling Down) who is both sympathetic and determined to stop the antagonist.
Contaminated Man is in fact a very good film with a good story line and some very good performances.
8/10 -
jaybob5 June 2002For a change we have what could have been a good movie, I did like the premise, BUT some weak characterizations & poor sound recording hurts the overall impact. Wm Hurt & Peter Weller have done much better films & whoever the actress playing the reporter is,needs voice lessons. Without creating a spoiler I wish the toy submarine exploded in the water, It would of made the film less dull.
rating a low **1/2 68/100 imdb 5 -
vchimpanzee18 April 2004In 1986, David is coming home to his wife Kelly, who is finishing an art work (which later appears on David's desk) and planning to put on something skimpy. The hot night they were planning never happens.
In 'present day' Budapest, Joseph has been fired after 22 years. He enters a room where he is not authorized to be, a room where most people have to wear 'space suits' because of dangerous substances. After an incident, David's HAZMAT team is called in. Holly is also investigating the incident--as a possible terrorist act. We know where this is going when Holly meets David and says, 'Cool suit! Are we expecting Martians?'
The company president won't reveal what is inside, calling the specifics 'trade secrets'. David must visit Lilian, the CEO--they have a history after something she did in the United States.
I won't say who 'Contaminated Man' is, or whether he knows what he is doing. I will only say that everyone he comes in close contact with dies within an hour, while this 'Typhoid Mary' only has a bad cough. One other person is immune, because he went through tests with the same chemical, a pesticide that has become very dangerous, possibly because there were plans to use it as a chemical weapon in war.
Whoever made this movie had trouble making up their mind what type it would be. There were some quite exciting chase scenes, especially in the second half, but sometimes it was quite slow. At one point, it seemed like the solution would be too easy, but the movie had thirty minutes to go, so a new twist was added to make it more interesting.
Sometimes the movie could be chilling, with otherworldly music, as danger was suggested. Once, the video looked normal but the audio resembled a 78 RPM record played at 33--quite effective. And sometimes it was more of a romantic comedy.
Overall, the result was pretty good--for a TV-movie, anyway. Not too much violence--though one person got shot and the blood just spurted out. Not every opportunity was taken to show gore (fine with me), even though there were plenty of chances. -
KenM009 February 2005I watched the entire movie recognizing the participation of William Hurt, Natascha McElhone, and Desiree Nosbusch. I'm glad that I had no idea of the presence of Peter Weller. At the end of the movie I said "THAT was Peter Weller?" Kudos to Mr. Weller for an outstanding performance. Weller played a major character, and his performance was such that I didn't even recognize him.
Overall the plot was bad, the writing was bad, and the performances, aside from those of Nosbusch and Weller, were subpar. The scenery and setting were interesting, and Weller was amazing.
4 stars, of a possible 10. -
Phillycop1904627 May 2008William Hurt scuba diving scientist??? US agents running the investigation abroad? The sick contaminated man kicking butt after falling 20 feet on his back and running away? Sniper missing and not killing Hurt (just wounding him) but the second "kill" shot is dead on ? Waste of time. To compare this to falling down as other reviewers did is ridiculous. Oh and by the end of the movie they decide to start wearing gloves on their hands except for the "evil" agent and Hurt decides to kill him by giving him the "virus handshake". What? BTW...when did IMDb require 10 lines of text? I'm just babbling here. Doesn't this just dillute the content of reviews if you are required to have x amount of lines?
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Bernie444424 October 2023The movie starts right off with a flashback to earlier days when David R. Whitman (William Hurt), a biochemist, accidentally dispatches his family with a virus. Years later a guard at a chemical plant is dismissed and, in an attempt, to get his job back he accidentally causes a spill of the same virus.
Now the chase is on to catch the contaminated man. In the process we have questions. Was it the first incident and accident? And is this time an accident?
We watch the standard team of good guy hazmat team and bad guy NSA banterer as the contaminated man keeps getting away and causing havoc.
So, what is new about this film? NOTHING So, is there any socially redeeming value? NO Is the ending any message? NO
Some people like to watch the same formula over again to see the nuances of actors or scenes.
There ain't any nuances here.
Still, it could have been worse. -
lazur-225 May 2008Opening scene 'explains' why Hurt is later 'immune' to the 'Contaminated Man'. Too bad it doesn't explain anything else: How did he get whatever he 'caught'/what was it/why does it work so fast. Then we go to "Present Day Budapest". OK, was the opener in the past or the future? It turns out to be the past, of course, but for a minute it looks just as likely to be the nd of the movie moved to the beginning. Sorry, I should have paid closer attention, huh? Or maybe it's just badly done. Then a lot of confusion about the different jobs he's had in related fields, and finally a mention about how he should have died from the original experiment the n s a did on him. Aha! So the n s a and private industry got together to poison one of their top guys to watch the effects? He must have been one of the top guys, he's friends with the c e o of the Chemical company, for God sakes. Then there's the substance itself: Technically a poison, but it mutates in immune 'carriers', so we can have whatever we want; a poison, a disease, an allergic reaction, all very different things in real life. Magically, it's not contagious from one dying victim to another, only from the carrier. How convenient. Then there's the h a z m a t protocol: They jump into a situation without having any idea what's in store, or how prepare for it. Did the producers not have enough money to show a proper wash-down after the crew just left the scene of a deadly unknown substance? I kept thinking Hurt was going to die from bad cleanup technique, and the open scene would turn out to be the closer after all.
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cobb82 February 2002I couldn't agree more with the other comment, it's like Falling down. Peter Weller is OK and William Hurt great as always, except in Lost in Space. This is a good movie. With pretty good performances. Very recommendable. If you like Falling down you're going to enjoy this one. 8 of 10
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stevewest-110 May 2002If you're in Australia you're probably seeing 'The Contaminated Man' appear on video store shelves right about now. Even though it has Peter Weller and William Hurt in it, you can tell from even the title itself that this is going to be an average film at best. And having watched it, I can say that this is an okay film, the snow-covered scenery being reminiscent of Screamers (Peter Weller's last film of note), but with the story being coherent and making sense unlike Screamers. If I was Roger Ebert I'd have to give this a thumbs down but it's worth watching if you've got a couple of hours to kill or if you've seen all of this month's new releases.
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Movie Nuttball22 August 2005The Contaminated Man is a good film that has a good cast which includes William Hurt, Natascha McElhone, Peter Weller, Katja Woywood, Michael Brandon, Nikolett Barabas, Hendrick Haese, Désirée Nosbusch, Arthur Brauss, and Christopher Cazenove.The acting by all of these actors is very good. Hurt and Weller are really excellent in this film. I thought that they performed good. The thrills is really good and some of it is surprising. The movie is filmed very good. The music is good. The film is quite interesting and the movie really keeps you going until the end. This is a very good and thrilling film. If you like William Hurt, Natascha McElhone, Peter Weller, Katja Woywood, Michael Brandon, Nikolett Barabas, Hendrick Haese, Désirée Nosbusch, Arthur Brauss, Christopher Cazenove, the rest of the cast in the film, Actio, Thrillers, Dramas, and interesting films then I strongly recommend you to see this film today!
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This story could have become a good movie, on paper it must have looked great. The story reminds me of " The Carrier(1988)" that was a fun movie, this one is not. The movie starts with William Hurt and his Wayne's World hair, dumbed look in his eyes and then you will know it already, this is another movie good old William slept all the way through... like in so many other movies he is acting like a zombie with his "I'am only here for the money" attitude. ofcourse there's more to make is a sinker, you have Peter Weller, quite a wooden actor but fun to watch in Robocop and screamers, gives the best performance of the entire cast but if you can believe the moves he make to see his son you are the type of person who still stays awake at night when it's christmas to see santa. The plot starts of rather good but becomes a tight budget chase movie combined with some MacGyver. I gave this one a chance for about an hour before searching for the remote controll and forward button.
Just watch "The Carrier" roughly the same plot, made with a shoestring budget but a hell of a lot more fun than this.. -
The story has been told before. A deadly disease is spreading around... But the extra in this film is Peter Weller, his interpretation of Muller on the run is real. He is indeed a desperate person just going home to see his child. This person could be working next to you.
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STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All Costs
If you like your films either direct-to-video or limited release,Anthony Hickox is a generally reliable guy.His previous two Dolph Lundgren films,Storm Catcher and Jill Rips,have been proof of this.But the one thing that bogged those two films down,his mysterious quiet audio dubbing,is just one of many things that bog this plodding hash.The mighty really have fallen in the case of Peter Weller.One time lead star of quite possibly the greatest film of all time,Robocop,he has now been reduced to playing a bumbling menace who spends the majority of the film jarringly carrying some model airplane around with him.William Hurt and Natasha McElhone,one time big screen actors,should also be noted in nauseatingly stereotypical,ineffective roles as the action hero and romantic interest respectively.Throw into this a tired,cliche ridden killer virus story (with the government corruption and everything)which relies too heavily on subtitles at the beginning and all you have to occupy your time is the beautiful photography of the snow capped hills.And you didn't mean to spend an hour and a half watching that.* -
Back away from the movie. Do not touch it with your bare hands. The director must have been away shooting another film. Edited by monkeys. Ug.
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robertconnor31 January 2005It's 1986 in the U.S. Hurt wears a bad wig and forgets to wash his hands. Disaster strikes...
It's 'present day' in Eastern Europe. Robocop's grandpa causes a bio-hazard explosion. Hurt now just has bad hair, and after Ronin ("yull gart yuh monnar"), McElhone slaughters another accent, this time American, all the while simultaneously filming a commercial for Diet Coke.
No surprise that this didn't get a distribution deal in the U.K. and went straight to DVD/video. The kind of movie that killed Hurt's career. Absolute garbage! -
robert2193 August 2003Who the hell is Joe Flaco? What movie did he watch. I thought it was well built and very current. Peter Weller was amazing. William Hurt is well, William Hurt. The same kind of bumbling US Black Ops have been getting us jammed up for years. Pay attention Joe.