Contagion? Outragion!

Forgot to post my review of Contagion from last week. It's basically an all-star version of the killer virus plot we've seen before in Outbreak, The Stand and countless other movies and books. The film has a few surprises, including killing off Gwyneth Paltrow and showing her head being cut open (don't worry, that's not really a spoiler - it happens in the first ten minutes). The cast, especially Kate Winslet and Laurence Fishburne as two of the investigators trying to unravel the source of the virus, is superb and Steven Soderbergh's low key directing actually adds to the believable scariness of the story (though some may find it a little slow and talky in parts). If the miracle vaccine resolution is a little too pat, the coda where we finally learn who patient zero is provides a nice circular ending. Not quite the apocalyptic epic you might have hoped for, but worth a watch.