The Caucasian Report - "Contagion" (2011)

~Mutating Viruses and Moldering Corpses~
It was a Tuesday night at dinner, and two of my friends and I were discussing what we could do to avoid homework. That’s when one of them said that she had to see “Contagion” for a class, as she was supposed to report on five inaccuracies in the film. So, we decided, what better time than the present? We were looking for an excuse to get away from our studies anyway. So, a few hours later, we were headed to the theatre. I had absolutely no idea what to expect from the movie, but the fact that there were at least five inaccuracies did not help me form a positive impression. But hey, at least we accomplished the goal of evading our homework for the evening. That is, two of us did.

As the title describes, the movie is about the spread of disease. It starts off by depicting the story of the first victim of a new virus, Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow). She is on her trip back home when she starts to feel ill. By the time she gets home, she is so sick that there is nothing doctors can do for her. Her husband, Mitch Emhoff (Matt Damon), receives the news of his wife’s passing in a fit of denial and rage. Soon, people in the area start dying at an alarming rate, but Mitch finds himself immune. At this point the CDC starts to get concerned, and we meet Dr. Erin Mears (Kate Winslet), an epidemiologist. She starts tracing the source of the disease by researching how victims are related and travels the country to set up clinics. Despite the efforts of the CDC to contain the disease, the epidemic becomes so serious that millions die in a matter of weeks. People desperately try to find home remedies for the disease, as the development of a vaccine turns out to be trickier than anticipated. The rest of the film follows Mitch, Dr. Mears, and the CDC in the race to stop the devastating virus.

This movie is very pretty to watch. What do I mean by that? I mean that it gets an A+ for cinematography, specifically with camera angles and movement. The movie was able to tell a story just with the filming technique employed. Most movies just film people, and therefore rely on people to tell the story. However, this film relied on people and places to tell the story along with seamless transitions and unique shots of inanimate objects. This technique worked very well with the theme of the movie, as we all know how important inanimate objects are in the story of the spread of disease. The parts where this technique is the most salient is at the beginning and the end of the film.

Storytelling is all well and good, but you must be dying to know what the five inaccuracies were. We actually found six! The first inaccuracy is the film explains that half of your immune system comes from your mother, and the other half comes from your father. This is not true, as genetics have nothing to do with immunity. Your immune system develops by coming into contact with foreign things, such as viruses, and creating antibodies to be employed in future defenses. The second inaccuracy is that the movie leads you to believe that a vaccine will work almost instantly, where in reality it takes about 26 days to incubate in your system before you acquire immunity. The third inaccuracy is that doctors tell Mitch he is immune to the virus before they knew what the virus really was. Therefore, they really had no way of testing for the presence of antibodies against the virus in his system. Fourthly, the incubation time for the virus was 24 hours in the film (to make it more threatening) which is a little too short. It usually takes 7-21 days for a virus to incubate and that’s why viruses are so difficult to detect. People can carry the virus without symptoms for awhile and unintentionally infect others. Fifth, the CDC said that the virus mutated and no one mentioned the need to develop another vaccine against the new strain of the virus. The last inaccuracy was the film employed the term pleomorphic to describe the virus, which is a little strange because this term is usually used to describe bigger cells, such as cells belonging to bacteria.

Now that the inaccuracies are out of the way, and that your inner nerd is satisfied, I have one more thing to give you a heads up about: you will wash your hands excessively for a few days after watching this movie, and will probably slightly panic if you sneeze or get a sore throat. This movie is like watching the journey of a tiny spec of paint as it grows and transforms into an unbelievable masterpiece.


By WhiteChick

The Minority Report - "Inception" (2010)

“What's the most resilient parasite? An idea. A single idea from the human mind can build cities. An idea can transform the world and rewrite all the rules. Which is why I have to steal it.”
This movie has been on my “to watch” list for the longest time. Ever since I saw the 1st commercial about a half year ago, I was hooked on finding out how the production of the movie was going and when it was going to be released. Considering the fact that in the US it was released a week before we got it, there was a lot of talk about it over Facebook, Twitter, the newspapers, and movie review websites. It was hard to avoid spoilers and keep up to date with all things Inception, but somehow, I managed to do it. The day it came out here, I was immediately there.

The basic premise of the movie is that a man by the name of Dominic Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a type of futuristic extractor of information. The process involves the extractor infiltrating the dreams of someone that possesses information that could not be obtained through normal methods. Because of his experiences with his family and what he now does, he cannot sleep well or dream and he also can’t return to the United States. The recurring appearances of his wife, Mal (Marion Cotillard), in his missions because of his subconscious have almost compromised a couple of missions, but when he is offered a chance to see his family again if he completes a mission, he can’t help but accept. The man that hires him, Saito (Ken Watanabe), is rich and powerful, and can make basically any wish come true. At his behest, Cobb searches and finds a new dream world architect called Adriadne (Ellen Page), a forger that can change personas and identities within dreams called Eames (Tom Hardy), and a chemist that makes a strong sedative not available on the market called Yusuf (Dileep Rao); all of these people will join him and his friend and colleague, Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), as they pull off the mental heist. The target is a man named Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy), who is the son of Maurice Fischer (Pete Postlethwaite), a man who is terminally ill and also happens to be Saito’s business rival. The mission is meant to plant the seed of a thought in the mind of Robert Fischer through a process called “inception,” which will make him want to break apart his father’s company as soon as he passes away. What begins as a simple plan quickly turns into a major commitment with many troubles and many dream levels that winds you down and bends your mind almost as much as it bends the storyline.

After I walked out of the movie, I was in love. It was intricate in both plotline and visuals. The way that the scenes were set up made them perfect eye candy for people that enjoy sets and special effects—specifically the scenes involving changes in gravity. The plotline was all but genius, and the way that the story moved along was just right to successfully transmit the information that was going on in all the dream levels. The only thing that went without much of an explanation after being mentioned was the timescale of the dreams. It was brought up in an off-handed way, but not clearly visible in the actual movie. Apart from that, though, the movie was a wonder to behold. Christopher Nolan did an excellent job as director and producer, but specifically as the writer of such an exciting adventure. I recommend everyone to see it if you can. This movie is definitely not like watching paint dry within paint drying within paint drying within paint drying.

By Kulguy