Toxic Skies (2008)

Number Rolled: 70

Movie Name/Year: Toxic Skies (2008)

Genre: Thriller

Length: 90 minutes

Rating: NR

Director: Andrew C. Erin

Writer: Andrew C. Erin, Kyle Hart

Actors: Anne Heche, James Tupper, Tobias Slezak, Daniel Bacon, Kevin McNulty, Barclay Hope, Nicola Anderson, Cheryl Uphill, Laura Bertram, Jamie Switch, Patricia Mayen-Salazar, David Milchard, Ralph Alderman, Gerry Rousseau, Todd Zatwarnitski, Colin Decker, Carolyn Adair, Peter Abrams, Michael Cromien

There is an outbreak of a serious and fatal virus sweeping across the nation, after seeming to first spring up in the state of Washington. Dr. Tess Martin, a highly respected virologist, is called into the hospital to aid the locals in discovering what kind of virus is plaguing the patients. She is soon met by a mysterious man who does his best to convince her that the outbreak is part of a government conspiracy.

This was a watered-down version of “Outbreak” (1995). It followed the same basic recipe, almost to the very letter. The only real differences were some of the relationships between the characters, some minor plot details and the fact that Anne Heche and James Tupper couldn’t hold a candle to Dustin Hoffman and Rene Russo.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying either Heche or Tupper are terrible actors.  They both did alright in this movie and I don’t know enough about them outside of it to make any general assessments otherwise. I’ve only seen one other movie with Anne Heche, “I Know What You Did Last Summer”, and I haven’t seen that since it came out in 1997. I’ve only seen James Tupper in “Me & Orson Wells” which I only watched the one time when I did it for an earlier entry in this blog. They did well enough in this movie to keep something highly predictable and overdone from being crap, but they only really pulled it up to mediocre. I wouldn’t choose, or pass up on, another movie because of either of them.

If I’m going to watch this kind of movie, in the future, I’ll wind up choosing “Outbreak” over “Toxic Skies” any day of the week.

Aside from that, I have one issue with this brand of story. I have a couple of the greatest doctors ever (in my opinion), but I have never had a doctor as nice or invested as they are portrayed in these movies – and my doctor was at my Sweet Sixteen. I think that’s the main reason I watch these movies without getting engulfed. It’s supposed to feel real and it just doesn’t to me.

Overall Opinion – 2.5/5