Review by Tim-O
Starring: Gil Bellows, Isabella Rosellini, Judd Nelson
Directed by Adam Weissman
Sometimes you just need to check your brain at the door, pop some popcorn, and settle in for the night with a fast and fun flick. Last night was one of those nights for me. So, after some debate over which movie would sufficiently entertain me without any danger of sparking an intellectual thought for 90 minutes, I decided that the 2008 Canadian Sci-Fi thriller “Infected” should do just fine. I was right about one thing. There wasn’t even a hint of intellectual sparkage induced by this piece.
“Infected” has a plot you’ve seen a thousand times. Aliens are already living here and are disguised to look like humans. The aliens have a plot to give us some kind of flu and take advantage of our weakened state to kidnap us and use us as hosts to grow their worm-like offspring that hatch by eating their way out of our bodies. Yep. It’s “save the world from the alien invasion” time.
Gil Bellows plays a Boston reporter who is disillusioned by his lightweight assignment as editor of the “mystery and science supplement” of the newspaper where he works. His boss (Isabella Rosellini) constantly tries to convince him that his job of reporting UFO’s and conspiracies is an important public service. To make things worse, Bellows’ ex-girlfriend with whom he is still in love with is the paper’s star reporter. Bellows receives a vile of blood taken from Boston’s mayor by a gun wielding maniac. The man tries to convince Bellows of the alien plot and that even the mayor is an E.T. and his blood is the proof. The aliens catch wind of this and seek out the vile of blood while killing anyone who stands in their way. Of course, Bellows ex enlists to help him so the viewer can endure an awkward and very annoying romantic subplot. Judd Nelson shows up as a friendly alien trying to thwart his race’s plans and who just wants to get along with living beings. He explains to Bellows that a genetic disorder he has is lethal to the aliens. Nelson plans to use Bellows’ blood to infect the alien offspring and convince them to move along to the next planet…I guess.
“Infected” has a lot going for it and almost all of it is bad. The acting/directing/writing are uniformly clumsy. Gil Bellows’ acting is all over the place and not very convincing. Nelson and Rosellini are horribly miscast. It was produced for Canadian television but has a definite made-for-sci-fi channel feel to it. The “invasion” is really more of an “infestation” that only seems to target Boston. (I’m not sure what the Canadians have against Boston. It must be a hockey thing.) The FX are just fair but the CG aliens look pretty good. (Although you really only see one alien at the very end.)
I watched “Infected” with very low expectations except to be amused and entertained. The movie failed on both levels. It’s not even bad enough to be fun or funny. It just ends up being stupid. Stick with one of the countless versions of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”. They’re ALL better than this piece of junk. 3/10