Outbreak: This is the film that tried to cash in on the ebola scare back in 1995. It starts out promising with the discovery of a deadly virus spreading throughout a small town in the U.S. However, the film quickly devolves into a stupid action thriller with a dash of government conspiracy. The filmmakers seemingly didn't believe audiences would be interested in the science of this plot and abandoned it for chase scenes and explosions. It would be interesting to see another film like this now after the sucess of shows like CSI, which prove science can be equally as engaging as action. What saves this film is a strong cast that not only has Dustin Hoffman in the lead role, but also Rene Russo, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey and Donald Sutherland in supporting roles. Rating: ***
Sphere: I've moved from John Grisham to Michael Crichton, but the result seems to be the same; crappy adaptations of fun, engaging novels. Another decent cast here with Sharon Stone, Samuel L. Jackson, and Liev Schrieber along for the ride with Hoffman. However, in this case, the cast can't save this film. They play supposedly brilliant scientists in various fields yet their actions don't support that. The audience figures things out way before the characters do. Then we get too many exposition scenes that unnecessarily overexplain everything. The special effects also could have saved this film, but look rather cheap. An all in all disappointment here. Rating: **
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