Global Effect (2002) Mädchen Amick, Daniel Bernhardt, Joel West, Arnold Vosloo Movie Review

Global Effect (2002)   2/52/52/52/52/5


Mädchen Amick in Global Effect (2002)

Viral Defect

With a deadly virus sweeping across Africa it is a race against time for a group of researchers lead by Dr. Sera Levitt (Mädchen Amick) to find a cure. Miraculously they do and during a little celebration in the lab they find themselves confronted by a small group of terrorists who not only steal the virus and the cure they also kidnap the good Sera. When the powers at B in America hear of this they send in a group of commandos to retrieve the virus and the good doctor before they are forced to take more drastic action and blow all those in contact with the virus off of the planet to eliminate its threat.

Have you ever questioned your own sanity? I have and seemingly on an increasingly frequent basis because despite knowing that a movie will be bad and is going to fail to entertain I still put myself through it just so that I can review it and warn others about it. Questioning my sanity was what I was doing within minutes of "Global Effect" starting, not so much during the opening scenes which I will kindly say were inspired by the movie "Outbreak" but when the researchers come across a cure and the next minute they have cracked the champaign and are drinking from test tubes. Of course I don't expect to see realism in a movie such as "Global Effect" but cure one second partying the next is far too ridiculous.

But the lack of realism in "Global Effect" is not my only issue as sadly what follows feels little more than a procession through ideas lifted from other virus/terrorist movies. We have the commandos in a race against time to rescue the doctor and the cure whilst we also have the girlfriend of a terrorist injecting herself with the virus to infect communities and to transport it outside of the area. It even uses ideas which were being more effectively incorporated in movies from the 70s such as "The Andromeda Strain" and "The Cassandra Crossing".

The thing is that all "Global Effect" had to do was make it entertaining as using ideas and familiar elements could work in its favour. But the non descript characters and bland dialogue alongside the even blander action all adds to why this movie is not only one you will forget quickly but also one which despite being an action movie has the ability to put you to sleep. Let me put it this way, whilst "Global Effect" stars the attractive Mädchen Amick you are more likely going to remember Arnold Vosloo's smaller performance because he looks stony faced the whole time and that is as interesting as a character gets in this.

What this all boils down to is that "Global Effect" is a below average action movie from the start of the 21st century. Not only does it peddle ideas used in other movies it fails to bring those ideas to life making this a not so surprisingly dreary experience.


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