“Side Effects”, the latest (and possibly last) film from famed director Steven Soderbergh is a story of pharmaceutical conspiracy, intrigue and murder. When a woman suffering from depression visits a new doctor, he puts her on an anti-depression medications. When the medications cause her to start sleep walking, though, there are unforeseen consequences.
Murder.
Ok, boys and girls. The Holiday Season is over… and the Spring Season, full of mini Blockbusters, is still months away.
Between now and then lies Hollywood’s dumping ground. The Hollywood fields lie fallow in the winter, bearing little quality product. It’s the two months of the year we need to “Get through”. While January typically offers some limited releases from the prior year going wide, there’s typically little else to get excited over.
Will this year be different? Are there any movies to get excited about these next two months? Let’s take a look at the release slate and see what we’ve got!
The latest film from Director Steven Soderbergh (“Traffic”, “Erin Brokovich”, “Contagion”) and the first for MMA superstar Gina Carano hit theatres this weekend. “Haywire” is the story of a double-crossed secret agent on the run from her agency. Set up and sold out, she’s on the run and out to get revenge against those who wronged her.
Sound hackneyed? Been there, done that? Well, it is to a certain extent. With the exception of the fact that it features a female action lead, “Haywire” certainly isn’t out to blaze any new trails.
What it does do is feature first class directing, an excellent cast from top to bottom, and incredible fight sequences. This movie could wind up being the debutant party for future action heroine Gina Carano.
Contagion tells the story of the sudden appearance of a hyper-virulent strain of virus known as MEV-1.
MEV-1 is an airborne virus. If a person passes close enough to someone carrying the virus, and they breathe, they could contract the virus. It can also be contracted through tactile transmission. If a healthy person touches something a carrier touched, they could contract the virus. Between these two methods of transmission, and the fact that ground zero was the highly populated city of Hong Kong and patient zero was an international traveler, you have the recipe for disaster on a global scale.
And “Contagion” serves it all up for us in a stylistic, engrossing, high calibre movie experience.
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