Terrible 'Virus-Meets-Terrorists' Movie with No Originality
Tsuyoshi | Kyoto, Japan | 07/04/2006
(1 out of 5 stars)
"`Global Effect' is a B-movie starring Mädchen Amick, Daniel Bernhardt, Joel West, and Arnold Vosloo, that combines two things that are getting more and more serious issues these days: they are terrorists and deadly virus. This film has made an ill-advised attempt to mix these two factors to create a dumb and thrill-less action that is nowhere near `The Andromeda Strain' or even `Outbreak.'
Read the following summery if you please, and you will know the story of `Global Effect's is a real mess. After a weak opening that clearly imitates that of `Outbreak,' the film introduces us to the research team studying certain lethal virus that would kill the entire population of the world if it is spread outside the facility in South Africa. But they do find a cure by a very silly accident, and they are so happy that next day they decorate their lab like someone's birthday party. All these things happen in the first 10 minutes.
Now a terrorist group led by a fanatic leader (Bernhardt) attacks the place, and as these groups led by fanatics always do, they kidnap Dr. Sera Levitt (Amick) who just found out the serum effective against the deadly disease. As the only person who knows how to produce vaccine is kidnapped by the terrorists, US government sends a special assault team to South Africa, where they shoot lots of bad guys in a low-budget `Commando' fashion. In the meantime the virus starts to spread all over the country, and Arnold Vosloo's Dr. Hume says before the generals that he is very sorry for letting this happen, by keeping this lethal virus at the institute where no guards or no soldiers protect from the bad people. .
The story is a joke, and so are the actions, which are all done in a lackluster way. You never get any thrills while watching these by-the-number actions, where no originality can be found. Mädchen Amick is still beautiful, but is awfully miscast, and even Arnold Vosloo (as a cameo), who was much better in two `Mummy' films, has nothing to do except standing in front of the camera and delivering some uninteresting dialogues. Watching this film was total waste of my time, and don't let that happen to you by doing the same."