Alexander Ross
I did thoroughly enjoyed this modest scripted, but well shot, and presented sci-fi thriller : it was fun to watch without too many false pretenses. I read some of those earlier reviews on here: some should be reported . It's (especially in a couple of those above) so obvious that they haven't even given to this well produced effort a chance, but just watched it with judgmental disdain, and a personal hate so obvious that truly gets offensive . Those are what I call trolls, since if you (even would take the time) to just check them out they have a profile that's only reviewed this film, and, in ways that are unbearably silly, and should not be permitted by such a serious site like IMDb. That being said, it is not Academy Award's material, but, I believe someone with a little brain, and class would have figured it out at the premise. It's an average campy, suggestive, and standard sci-fi movie that is as derivative as thousand of others films that have been already made many times before but without deserving such offensive, ludicrous tones: guess one can only pity folks killing themselves with their own self admitted, widely demonstrative ignorance. I can only tell you that I was certainly not expecting much at all, and, that actually a friend almost had to force me to watch this. But, then, I was quickly pleasantly surprised and hooked into it by the slick cinematography, the special effects, the incredible music score composed by Shawn Klement, the good special effects, and over all accurate make up supervision. Sound design was also first class, and, if the script was trite, the direction was very promising, extremely professional, and, obviously savvy focused onto fighting sets that were "arranged" to cover up for some warehouse, or cheap sound stage's labyrinthine claustrophobic sensation and lack of better props. But, thankfully, the obvious was avoided thanks also to the use of extremely poignant angles, and, of some solid filmmaking's style that ends up making a good use resulting for the most part always highly effective, and never depressing, but, as chilling as it is frantically, increasingly harrowing. The climax was good, and there was even an attempt at some character's development: something you can hardly find in much more over hyped productions made with costs that "Virus X" did not have even in the sum of their catering services. However, it's just a shame Lions Gate hasn't put a tiny bit of effort to market this little cult movie with some respect, in order to keep away trolls with serious personal issues, from being almost the only ones to review and trash cowardly some good, decent work, I was at the very end almost shocked to find so professional, and over all, very entertaining. The cast was a mix of fresh faces, all interesting types, not only watchable, but actually for the most part all believing in what they were saying. Sybil Danning was a hoot as the billionaire villain, still looking great, and changing outstanding prime wardrobe in virtually every sequence she appears. Joe Zaso was believable as a shady professor, and, Domiziano Arcangeli's performance was strong, and unique in its own, despite what some may think of an arbitrary choice of look, and appearance: however, again here we are not meant to take things so seriously since he's just playing a robot becoming progressively envious of human feelings! That per se is one thing that could make many laugh just at the idea, but how do we actually know it could be impossible, since "the creature" is a manipulation of a genre's flawed script? He looks great, and makes the most of it, often stealing the show. Again, I might have given a little less positive review if I had been made believe to be watching a major motion picture, made with million of dollars, or an art house cult. But, we know that Grindstone releases normally what is primarily bad filmmaking, picked and offered often without much of an artistic criteria. Nonetheless, they are still way above some SyFy original presentations, and, not even to be compared to those really dreadful products, made by minor studios like the Asylum. And, "Virus X" against all odds, was a true confirmation of their much better intents. Watch for yourself and you won't be disappointed !
christopher-libby-993-746535
Why did I somehow lose my brilliant hatchet job of a review of this monster before posting it?!? God hates me. The ghost of Gene Siskel is out to destroy me.SPOILER ALERT!!!!This movie sucks. It is hateful in every way. It relies on a dead hooker for a critical plot point for God's sake. That might be a first for a virus movie.How is it possible that movies like this get made? It features a god damned robot that looks like Dieter from Sprockets wearing Edgar Winter's hair for Christ sakes!The evil mistress owns a frigging life-like robot, and yet she wants to create a super-virus so she can then turn around and provide an antidote so she can presumably destroy and/or rule the world. Or maybe just have a really killer IPO. Who knows?Here's a little game you can play: donkey punch your date every time they show an exterior shot of the "viral research lab". It is a power station for God's sake! And the interior? Jesus, whose trailer park home did they shoot the head doctor's office scenes in? This guy definitely got screwed on the office amenities.Oh, oh, and guess what gang, turns out your common household dust mask is perfectly suited for a level 4 viral research lab. Yeah, no problem, just toss one of those suckers on and you'll be fine. I mean, why not, it's not like we don't already have HVAC ducts big enough for a grown man to crawl through that lead to every area of the facility, completely unimpeded by any sort of filtering system.It looks like they shot it in a local laser tag facility, including the storage room, which they quickly turned into a locker room for that day's shoot. The bathroom at your local gas station has better virus protection protocols than this place.Hateful. Every aspect of it. It is not worthy of your consideration. You will consider this when nothing else is on TV and you've seen all the stuff available on pay per view or on demand or whatever.Just go to bed. Go to bed. Go. To. Bed.
Paul Magne Haakonsen
From the movie cover for "Virus X", I had expected something else entirely than what it turned out to be. The cover looked fairly interesting, but the movie turned out to be far from it.The story in "Virus X" is somewhat captivating in some aspects, but the overall picture is a tarnished and dull result. It was like the air went out of the balloon way before the movie had reached the mid-point of the length. However, the approach to the H1N1 virus strain was perhaps the best take in the movie.As for the cast in this movie, well I can't say that I am familiar with any of them, nor do I even recall having seen any of their faces anywhere. And that is a good thing, because you don't need to be a big, famous Hollywood star to be a good actor. There were some fairly good performances in the movie, but there were also some mediocre ones. And I would say the overall acting scale was just above mediocre, so don't get your hopes up for this one.I had expected more suspense and thrills, perhaps even the occasional scare, but there was no such things. There were some build-ups for some, but they turned out in an anti-climatic way unfortunately."Virus X" comes out on the other side of the tunnel with a flat tire, so to speak. It was, to me, a disappointing movie, and I will not be making a second return to give it another chance. For movies of this caliber, there are others available that have better story lines, plots, and that are more interesting. Sadly, "Virus X" failed to deliver.I found a cure to "Virus X" and that was the 'Stop' and 'Eject' buttons.
trashgang
You don't have to watch it for originality. You have seen it a thousand times, a deadly virus being made by a mad scientist (Joe Zaso) being under control of someone (Sybil Danning) who wants world domination. Here the virus is simple, it's just a deadly influenza, know as H1N1. The scientist working for the dominator got intoxicated by the virus. So it's a fight between life and death. The directing by Ryan Stevens Harris wasn't that bad. And the simple effects used were okay too, just some blood on faces and some sickening vomit, but it surely worked. Even the acting was okay, Joe played his typical role. But of course there is Sybil. She's the main role in it and only appears for a few moments but she's still okay. She's aging but still got the skills. It's just a simple flick that keeps you attracted by the editing, the only problem I got was that at the end, from around 55 minutes, it drops a bit of suspense and even the scene were Sybil got infected is a bit too long. Nice effort.
