Dustin Hoffman, Renee Russo, Morgan Freeman and the Wolfgang Petersen movie ‘Outbreak’

The 1994 Richard Preston book The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus was the inspiration for the Wolfgang Petersen movie Outbreak (1995) that premiered a year later. The story of the communicable disease landing in America from Africa is a primary story of the Petersen movie.

(From left, Morgan Freeman as General Billy Ford and Donald Sutherland as General Donald McClintock in the Wolfgang Petersen movie Outbreak).

Outbreak focuses on a fictional Motaba virus mixed with Ebola that shows as a fever within four hours of exposure. A horrifying bleeding death with 100% mortality follows infection, which attracts the attention of army generals Billy Ford and Donald McClintock, portrayed by Morgan Freeman and Donald Sutherland respectively, when encountered per the movie in the late 1960s. The two sanction the use a fuel bomb to incinerate an army camp infected with the disease.

(From left, Cuba Gooding Jr. as Major Salt, Kevin Spacey as Lieutenant Colonel Casey Schuler and Dustin Hoffman as Sam Daniels in the Wolfgang Petersen movie Outbreak).

The film opens with the underlying fact of the bombing, followed by the introduction of Sam Daniels as portrayed by Dustin Hoffman. Daniels is helplessly devoted to Robby Keough, his ex-wife as portrayed by Renee Russo. Both Keough and Daniels are committed doctors who trust the others medical instincts in fighting the outbreak of contagious disease, yet struggle with a comic relief of a relationship that ping pongs through the movie.

(Renee Russo as Robby Keough in the Wolfgang Petersen movie Outbreak).

Lieutenant Colonel Casey Schule, as portrayed by Kevin Spacey, is part of Daniels’ army of medical doctors. Both answer to General Billy Ford, who functions to protect the secret weapon that he and General Donald McClintock are bent on aiming to maintain in the American military arsenal. As things transpire, Major Salt of the US Army, as portrayed by Cuba Gooding Jr., joins the team.

(Patrick Dempsey as Jimbo Scott in the Wolfgang Petersen movie Outbreak).

An underlying truth that brings much of the film’s dramatic impact to bear begins with Jimbo Scott, as portrayed by Patrick Dempsey, who unwittingly smuggles a diseased monkey named Betsy from the country where the fictional disease of the movie originated. Betsy, as portrayed by Binx, brings multiple threads of the film together.

(Binx as Betsy in the Wolfgang Petersen movie Outbreak).

The movie Outbreak offers points of humor in speaking to a difficult subject. A difficulty I have with the film is the largely simplistic nature of the dramatic conflict in portraying a naturally complex subject in less than complex terms. The interpersonal stories simply were not the equal of the acting talent that this film had to offer, which is unfortunate. With my rating of 3.5-stars on a scale of one-to-five, I am suggesting that you determine your appetite for Outbreak with caution.

Matt – Wednesday, February 10, 2021

Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins and the film ‘Bull Durham’

As the boys of summer are poised to soon give way to the fall classic, the Matt Lynn Digital cinematic journey into the great sport of baseball returns with the film Bull Durham (1988). Released a year before Field of Dreams (1989) and eleven years before For Love of the Game (1999), Bull Durham reflects the first of three films starring Kevin Costner pursuing a passion somehow touching baseball.

(Susan Sarandon as Annie Savoy, left, and Kevin Costner as Crash Davis in the film Bull Durham).

The film Bull Durham follows the happenings of the low minor league baseball team the Durham Bulls of Durham, North Carolina. Two major lines of storytelling include the assistance offered Ebby Calvin ‘Nuke’ LaLoosh by Crash Davis (played by Kevin Costner) and the ostensible love triangle among these two as initiated by Durham Bulls fan Annie Savoy. Susan Sarandon plays Savoy. Tim Robbins plays LaLoosh.

(Tim Robbins as Ebby Calvin ‘Nuke’ LaLoosh in the film Bull Durham).

The character Crash Davis is a fictionalized as a catcher tasked with helping the up-and-coming player LaLoosh mature into a player ready to play in the major leagues. In taking a bit of a superficial look into the film, Bull Durham itself takes a lighthearted look into the tension between LaLoosh and Davis due to their being two really different people while also betting on some romantic tension that Annie Savoy has in pursuing a more experienced relationship interest that comes with age. Davis was inspired in name by a real player named Lawrence Columbus Crash Davis who played shortstop, second base and first base, which in some ways mirrors a romantic tension that is told through the duration of one baseball season with the Durham Bulls baseball team.

(Bull Durham director and writer Ron Shelton).

The true magic of this film that makes it one that endures visits some clubhouse themes visited in the film Major League (1989), as well as some themes of romance that comes up more strongly in For Love of the Game. Renee Russo does a baseball double play in her roles in Major League and For Love of the Game. Bull Durham screenwriter and director Ron Shelton offers an enduring baseball film that isn’t so much a romantic comedy as it is cynical and unaware in matters of love while knowing a bit about baseball. There are quiet moments of truth about life and baseball interwoven into this film, and overall the film works on an almost sophomoric level at times. Exiting with the song love ain’t no triple play by Dr. John, Bennie Wallace, and Bonnie Raitt, the film Bull Durham gets 3.75-stars from me on a scale of one-to-five.

Matt – Saturday, October 19, 2019

Tom Berenger, Charlie Sheen, and Corbin Bernsen in ‘Major League’

“There’s a red moon rising…On the Cuyahoga River…Rolling into Cleveland to the lake.” Ostensibly, that introduction with the movie Major League (1989) introduced a city and a nation thirty years ago this week to the notion, with the hypothetical start of a new baseball season, to the notion that Cleveland and the Indians were lovable losers worthy of hope, success, and a rebound to be immortalized with humor against some heavy odds.

(Margaret Whitton, left, and Charles Cyphers in Major League).

Opening Major League was the love song, Burn On, to Cleveland, Ohio. Performed by Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Randy Newman, the song establishes a feeling of place and desperation matched soon after by the litany of despair that was the town’s baseball team, the Cleveland Indians. A lengthy run without a world championship is spelled out, followed by a long run of consecutive losing seasons with a dwindling fan base. We then meet team owner Rachel Phelps (played by Margaret Whitton), who is intent on running the team into the ground so the team can move to Miami. General Manager Charlie Donovan (played by Charles Cyphers). is drafted to help the effort.

(James Gammon as manager Lou Brown, formerly of the Toledo Mud Hens, in Major League).

We get to meet the ragtag band of misfits with manager Lou Brown, as played by James Gammon, at their spring training facility in Tucson, Arizona. We meet washed up catcher Jake Taylor (played by Tom Berenger), convicted car thief and pitcher Ricky Vaughn (played by Charlie Sheen), and overpaid and poor performing third baseman Roger Dorn (played by Corbin Bernsen).

(Corbin Bernsen, left, Charlie Sheen, center, and Tom Berenger in Major League).

A large portion of the movie’s storytelling around the clubhouse, interpersonal conflicts and all, revolved around these players three players in moving from a ragtag bunch of misfits that later defy the intentions of the team owner to make a run at a division title. Jake follows-up with Lynn Wells (played by Renee Russo) while Ricky needs to grow up while getting needled by Roger. Hijinks ensue.

(Renee Russo as librarian Lynn Wells, love interest to Jake Taylor, in Major League).

Cuban refugee Pedro Cerrano, as played by Dennis Heysbert, has the distinct personality of a Cuban refugee and Voodoo practitioner seeking help hitting curveballs from a made-up idol named Jobu. Long before becoming President Palmer in the television series 24 (2001-2010) or a spokesman for an insurance company, Haysbert at Cerrano played a power hitter that offered comic relief of his own accord as well as through his relationship with pitcher Eddie Harris.

(Dennis Haysbert as power hitting Pedro Cerrano, voodoo practitioner and Cuban refugee, in Major League).

Eddie Harris was a curmudgeonly older pitcher played by Chelcie Ross. Besides taking a pro-Christianity bent against the improperly portrayed voodoo of Cerrano, the bag of ice offered in the image of Harris below immediately follows an offering of rum and cigars Cerrano made to Jobu to help Cerrano hit better. Harris is clubbed in the head with a bat, ostensibly in retribution for swiping the rum. Much fun is had with regards to Harris cheating as a means of continuing his career.

(Chelcie Ross as veteran junk ball pitcher Eddie Harris in Major League).

Wesley Snipes plays the character Willie Mays Hayes, a rookie that essentially walked onto the team without an invitation to Spring Training. Willie offers a high spirited and enthusiastic personality that is endearing to those who want him to succeed, as in fans of the Indians‘ team he was portraying in Major League. Hayes runs afoul of manager Lou Brown and the team early in the movie, opponents in spring training, and later becomes a player of much appreciation of fans within the movie.

(Wesley Snipes as base stealing rookie Willie Mays Hayes in Major League).

The arc of the 1989 season portrayed in the movie is best described for the “fans” through the feelings and experiences of radio announcer Harry Doyle. Bob Uecker plays Doyle, and gives voice to the struggle of the slow starting season, the struggles of Ricky Vaughn in becoming “Wild Thing” for the fans, and then the ascending ballclub that was up and coming to a chance for the playoffs. The corner on that larger narrative comes as the team has a chance to play themselves into the playoffs against the Yankees when Vaughn comes into to a version of The Troggs song Wild Thing as used in the movie.

(Bob Uecker as radio commentator Harry Doyle in Major League).

Major League is an irreverent yet fun look into the workings of a baseball clubhouse circa 1989. The team chosen for that story was the Cleveland Indians, with a bit of love offered to the fans of the team and the city, Cleveland, that had and has long suffered for the want of a successful baseball club. The movie gets 3.75-stars from me on a scale of one-to-five stars. In the words of the Randy Newman song that started the movie, “Burn on, big river, burn on.”

Matt – Saturday, March 30, 2019