Film Review: Infected (2008)

SYNOPSIS:

Boston newspaperman Ben Mosher (Gil Bellows), disillusioned by his lightweight gig as editor of the mystery and science supplement, gets the scoop of a lifetime when aliens start taking over humans’ bodies. He teams up with his ex-girlfriend — beautiful star reporter Lisa (Maxim Roy) — to investigate the unsettling phenomenon. The sci-fi thriller, made for Canadian television, also stars Isabella Rossellini as an editor possessed by an alien.

REVIEW:

Originally a Sci-fi Broadcast that went to DVD, this story is a combination of science fiction and horror much like the Mimic movies. If that doesn’t ring a bell then what we are talking about here is bug (alien) people. Now right off the bat I can tell ya it took 3 viewings to get thru this film. I think the issue I had was that I couldn’t get engaged enough to want to stick around for long. But alas, I made it and for your reviewing pleasure ;) My first thought was that this reminded me of a longer X-files episode without the great lighting and music backings. Essentially that is what this film feels like on a lesser scale.

There’s some cool bug extension work but most is just above cheesy and scifi channel feeling. I don’t know how you feel about this, but i’m really not a big bug movie fan anyways. And when it’s alien bugs folks taking over human bodies it just feels like …geesh, doesn’t Scifi have any more original scripts on hand to invest money in?

I think Judd Nelson has become one of scifi channels “call-on” actors as I see him in alot of these films. Though to disclaimer a bit, I really like Judd Nelson as an actor and many times will just give the film a go based on that fact alone. In the film Infected, I think the director was requiring him to act like Renfield as that’s the feeling I got from his performance. Adam Weissman, director of the film, seems to be coming off of Disney channel directing…(no literally!) His ongoing stints include “ICarly”, “Drake and Josh” and “Zoey 101”. So I’m not sure how a horror thriller film got thrown in the mix? Now to summarize this up in quick but fair demeanor, Infected has a few cool moments. Just a few though, as the rest was drawn out drama-esque drool that was probably the reason it took me so long to finish this. These alien bug folks do a pretty cool camera sweep thing that enable them to move really fast. Reminded me more of “Flash” than aliens,but what the heck right?

To give you a nice overview of the story, the setting is the near future. A virus outbreak has fallen upon the people of the earth. The saving grace comes in the form of corporation “Whitefield industries” who runs commercials stating hydropure drinking water is the “water for life”. Apparently an illness and disease has taken over the planet that they are calling the Boston plague. Whitefield promises purified food and water free from any disease bacteria. Instantly you get the notion that a cover up is in place and that aliens are overtaking the corporate world. The method? 50 embryos are implanted into human hosts while the embryos fight it out within to take over the host. A retaliation effort is in effect that is out to prove the evidence suspected regarding the corporation and its leaders.

Lisa (Maxim Roy) and Ben Wallace (Gil Bellows) are both reporters who work for local tabloid. Ben leads a rather unsatisfactory living slinging out tabloid sensationalism. Lisa is a little more aggressive and hungry for a story. Both are going through marital issues that rebuilds itself as the primary story unfolds. In the background we have a sort of covert team of folks also dabbling around with DNA and running tests on some collected black vile filled blood. The aliens….they simply want to outnumber the humans and reproduce. The humans serve as a basic adequate food supply vessel for the aliens to reproduce.

Ok, you got all that? good, cause your better off now just fast forwarding to the end to get a few good scenes out of it. There’s not much more to add to this besides 1 cool scene where actress Isabella Rossellini who plays the role of Carla sports some insect tentacles that explode out of her chest. Slight observation…….Rossellini is looking like a man more and more every day, maybe its time for some “treatments”. Ok, there ya go, a sci fi snooze with some horror bug stuff to raise a glass to once in awhile and take a nap during the rest.