 For absolutely no reason whatsoever, I decided to re-watch and debate two virus-attacking films, its outbreak versus contagion on movie feuds. This rule about a pandemic is you can't fight one without a star-studded cast. Outbreak and contagion both deliver. Dustin Hoffman commands the screen and outbreak as Sam Daniels. He's a known nonsense colonel for the United States Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases. Or for shorthand, USA MRI ID, it rolls right off the tongue. Morgan Freeman plays his superior officer General Ford, which you remind Sam of several times in the film. Renee Russo, Kevin Spacey, don't worry he dies, Cuba Gooding Jr, and Donald Sutherland play great supporting roles. Young Patrick Dempsey has a role in this too as Jimbo Scott, aka patient zero. And if I know my Cougars, which I think I do, a little Jimbo Scott goes a long way. Contagion doesn't shy away from the stars either, although the focus can be a bit more sporadic. Matt Damon plays Mitch, a fellow Minnesotan for me to relate to. Then there are the other government workers, CDC officials, and other medical experts around the globe coming and going throughout the film. Kate Winslet is easily my favorite as Dr. Erin Mears. Her unrelenting mission to stop the virus at all costs is compelling stuff, and it's a shame it doesn't last longer. Her interactions with her superior, Dr. Ellis Cheever, played by Lawrence Fishburne are some of my favorite moments. There's some really good heartfelt chemistry between these two, even if it's only in short doses. Jude Law plays a character that's far more frequent in real life than ever before, unfortunately. The con artist, snake oil salesman in the form of a blogger. Posting viral videos full of propaganda and misinformation to sell a fake cure. I believe Alex Jones is doing this exact same thing as we speak. Elliott Gould, Brian Cranston, and Sana Lathan round out the cast. I think the strangest character has to be Dr. Lenora Oriantes, played by Marianne Cotillard. She's so separated from the rest of the cast, and her story ultimately goes nowhere, the whole thing could have been removed, and we wouldn't miss anything. I get that it's given a bit of social commentary about political greed and priorities, but it felt like a separate film whenever she was on screen, and I'll dive into that a bit more in round two. Outbreak opens on a small unsuspecting village attacked by this vicious virus, only to be saved by the USV. And good old America liberates the living hell out of these people. We drop a bomb on that village, killing everybody in its wake, and potentially destroying the virus. Or did we? Fast forward 30 years later. What we're presented with is an infected monkey that's made his way into California, an infected poor Jimbo. It doesn't take long for things to spread and go completely out of control, especially when one of the dumbest lab techs ever decides to go to the movies and cough on everyone he possibly can. Luckily for the world, Colonel Daniels is on the case, and he's determined to cut the head off this snake before it grows any larger. As the story unfolds, we learn that this virus was no accident, but that it was in fact developed as a weapon by the US. Just goes to show you can absolutely not trust Donald Sutherland whenever he plays a character. Like 95% of the time he's the bad guy people. The second half of the movie is essentially Daniels and Gooding's major assault, flying to different parts of California to help contain the spread and occasionally outrun the army. The first half of this movie is really solid stuff, but unfortunately the second act is just kind of silly and stupid. It's a Hollywood blockbuster more akin to day after tomorrow than a more serious think piece, which is fine. I just got really sick of helicopter chases after about 10 minutes, and they went on for like another 20. Contagion goes the complete opposite direction. It's been stripped of all the thrills and pomp, and it can honestly be a bit of a downer. Gwyneth Pultrow's patient zero here. She gets a good old fashioned celebrity misdirection death. I remember her being all over the ads for this film, only to be taken down five minutes in. She's kind of a real life snake oil salesman with her goop bullshit, so haters of Gwyneth Pultrow, you'll be happy to know she dies of very painful death on screen, and we get to see her head get cut open at one point. It's disgusting. After a really bad trip to Hong Kong, Pultrow and her kid get ill and go down real quick. Mitch is left to mourn, but he also has to worry about keeping his daughter Jory alive. The good news? He's immune to the virus. The bad news? He's not immune to gunshots to the face, which is a real threat down the road as this thing starts to get a lot more messy. People are going nuts. They're looking for food wherever they can find it. They're murdering. They're pillaging. They're plundering. And it's really disturbing to see unfold, especially when it revolves around something that's kind of happening right now in the world. The film doesn't shy away from killing lead characters off, which makes the moment to moment scenes feel all the more dire. Since director Steven Soderbergh comes at this story from different character vantage points, not everything wraps up nicely or in some instances even at all. Which is my biggest grape with the movie. It's almost like the thing was edited down a bit too much, leaving a lot of story left on the cutting room floor. I don't know if that's true. It's just that's that's the feeling I get from watching. So we have two very different approaches to a similar concept. Outbreak goes for the ball's out action adventure approach, while Contagion offers up a slower grimmer burn. But how do they look in sound you ask? Let's find out. 1995's outbreak still looks pretty good. It helps that there's no real big budget effects needed. Air Force One director Wolfgang Petersen must have a thing for military vehicles, specifically filming them. As I mentioned earlier, the latter half of outbreak is almost a montage of different helicopter chase scenes. There's even a section dedicated to some randos trying to escape from the containment zone, only to get mowed down by military officers. I would have been fine with all this spectacle if it looked good or was engaging, but I found myself checking out by the end of it. There's some pretty bad green screen effects going on with the helicopter stuff, but just the overall premise of the general like going after guys during this outbreak just seems really juvenile and just kind of stupid. It reminded me of the scene in Titanic towards the end when Billy Zanes running around with a handgun trying to kill Leonardo DiCaprio while the ship is sinking. It's like, come on guys, we have bigger things to worry about here. There are some really cool sections too though, mainly earlier on when we follow a sneeze trail as it enters the mouths of movie goers. The music's frantic and it really works with the breakneck speed of the film. 2011's Contagion has a few different interesting things going on. The color palette for instance changes from location to location and even matches the tone of the scene. Flashbacks are told with a bit of a drug-like effect, warping things a bit. This gives a sense of unease and allows the viewer to really pay attention to the details. There's also a couple interesting montages throughout. They're just these small sections of the film that have no dialogue and this awesome music playing over top showing time progression without having to dive into anything real specific. You just see like shuffling of papers and then people kind of like, you know, scouting out locations and setting up tents and it just really does a good job of moving the story along. Speaking of that music, Cliff Martinez did the score with many concepts in mind. He wanted the music to reflect the anxiety, the fear, some hope and all the other emotions people experience when going through something like this. And speaking of feelings, let's see how the voters felt about these two films. I polled my audience as I always do on my YouTube community tab at Adam Does Movies. Here are the results. I was honestly shocked to see that 35% voted for outbreak, making Contagion the clear winner with 65%. I remember seeing outbreak a long time ago and thinking it was this amazing thriller. So I assume people would have those nostalgia goggles on as well and vote for that one. Contagion is just a far better movie in pretty much every aspect. However, it's also a very tough movie to watch due to the drab nature and the subject matter. Outbreak starts out so good too, but halfway through the thing just flat lines. Please subscribe and like the video if you did, share it around and I want you to remember this is more than just reviews. This is Movie Feuds. Oh and also side note about the show. I film in my studio basement and it's a one-man operation so business hasn't changed for me. I'm already self-quarantine and I just want you all to be safe, wash your hands, respect each other and hopefully I'll see you around.