The Plague (2006) starring James Van Der Beek, Ivana Milicevic, Brad Hunt, Joshua Close, John P. Connolly, Dee Wallace, Brittany Scobie directed by Hal Masonberg Movie Review

The Plague (2006)   3/53/53/53/53/5


James Van Der Beek in The Plague (2006)

Children are a Nightmare

In 1983 something weird happened all of a sudden leading to almost all children under the age of ten to fall in to a coma and any child born subsequently to be born in a comatose state. Now the year is 1993 and Tom Russell (James Van Der Beek - Texas Rangers) having served time for killing a man in a bar room brawl is out and is returning to his hometown to see his brother who like many has a now grown up son in a coma. But for some reason all the children suddenly come out of their collective comas and not only seem to be super smart but hell bent on killing the adults. Tom along with his ex wife Jean (Ivana Milicevic) must lead a small group of survivors to safety.

"The Plague" is a tale of two ideas and it is a case of one is interesting the other is ordinary. The interesting one is the idea that all of a sudden almost every child on the planet falls into a coma as it immediately makes us wonder why not only are children dropping but why is it almost all children, something highlighted in an early radio broadcast. It also gives us some wonderful visuals as the story leaps forwards 10 years and we get some depressing sites from abandoned playgrounds, quiet streets to shoe shops where the children's shoes are collecting dust. You can also add some mystery to this surrounding the character of Tom as we don't know everything about him right away as he walks through his hometown which is like a ghost town.

But this interesting set up only leads to the ordinary as whilst we then have these children awakening to become devil children now in grown up bodies it descends in to zombie movie territory. In this case it means a small group having to battle to survive and reach safety at a military base so many miles away. It is a shame as the set up has potent ional as it sets up questions over why this has happened but then delivers nothing on it other than what you can watch in dozens of over movies.

And that sadly spoils the acting as early on James Van Der Beek delivers an interesting performance of a loner, a man who is deeply troubled. But once things kick off and he has to go survivor the character becomes a cliche who is accompanied by an attractive woman, in this case Ivana Milicevic who has some impressive cheek bones.

What this all boils down to is that "The Plague" starts off well with a reasonable idea but then dispenses with in favour of cliche ideas drawn from numerous zombie style movies. If you enjoy zombie movies you will probably enjoy this as well.

Tags: Zombie Movies


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