Contagion 2011

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Big ideas and small-mindedness threaten to turn "Contagion'' into unwieldy world-affairs and family-values allegories, but Soderbergh and Burns are moving too fast to think. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: I couldn't look away, and neither did I touch my face with my hands. Read more

Soren Anderson, Seattle Times: While the movie is undeniably riveting, it's a little too precisely engineered and emotionally detached for its own good. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Though modern in its style and gloss, Steven Soderbergh's "Contagion" has the feeling - the welcome feeling - of one of those epic disaster movies from the 1970s. Read more

Kathleen Murphy, MSN Movies: Though far from a likeable movie, Contagion is admirable as a highly controlled, verging-on-Kubrickian exercise in directorial vision and style. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: As ruthlessly effective as the malady at its cool, cool center. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: The rush of A-listers combined with apocalyptic dread creates its own kind of dizzy pleasure: Who's going down next on this Poseidon Adventure? Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Contagion is compelling. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Contagion is more unsettling than 1995's Outbreak or the disaster movies of the '70s. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: Soderbergh places a queasy emphasis on the way the things that make the world we live in smaller make us that much more vulnerable. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Soderbergh knows exactly how to dredge up the dread, showing us in several scenes the many things we touch - including our own faces, noses and mouths - during the course of a day and the dangers they contain. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: Soderbergh takes us from suburban living rooms to labs at the Centers for Disease Control to remote Asian villages with equally clear-eyed realism. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Along with the stars, Contagion has plenty of scares, though in contrast to Matt Damon and Kate Winslet, they're things you encounter every day. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: The result is not quite medicine and not quite cotton candy. But it works. It's made for grown-ups. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Steven Soderbergh's Contagion, written by Scott Burns, begins on a state of high alert and stays there for the rest of the movie. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: [A] curiously inert new thriller from Steven Soderbergh. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Steven Soderbergh​'s viral "who brung it" is a mostly style-over-substance affair. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Contagion could have been a blood-curdling scream; instead it comes off as Soderbergh's star-powered science project. Read more

Laremy Legel, Film.com: Decent, but not completely viral. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: The pressure cooker plot calls for intense performances all around but first among equals are Winslet and Ehle. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: This may not fit any conventional definition of entertainment, but it certainly keeps your eyes on the screen. Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: Contagion may be the most expensive public-service ad ever filmed, but it's also a surprisingly light-on-its-feet action thriller. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: The presence of movie stars helps: their authority is part of what keeps us fascinated by the gruesome fable, juicing it a bit, so that we can actually enjoy it. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Soderbergh himself has modestly likened "Contagion" to a '70s-style, star-driven disaster film. But it's smarter than that, and a lot closer to medical thrillers like "The Andromeda Strain." Read more

Jeannette Catsoulis, NPR: The most terrifying aspect of Contagion, ultimately, is the plausibility of its premise. Meticulous and low-key, the film reminds us that disaster lies in the most mundane interactions. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: There's a sense of dread in "Contagion," but it never spreads to us. When Day 1 is finally shown, it makes you want to eat better, which isn't the same as saying this is a great movie. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Takes great pains to present its situations realistically, and includes a lot of intelligent speculation about what sort of political, economic and ethical questions would be raised by such a disaster. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: Telling a complex story in a coherent narrative arc has never been one of Mr. Soderbergh's strengths, and chronicling the day-by-day panic of a killer virus jumps all over the place. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: By the time this globe-hopping, movie-star-crammed disaster saga - directed with petrifying efficiency by Steven Soderbergh - comes full circle, you'll never want to touch a subway pole or elevator button or ATM again. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Contagion is the best movie made to date about an epidemic/pandemic. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: "Contagion" is a brilliantly executed disease outbreak movie. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: "Contagion" deserves praise for taking the scientific method seriously when so much hogwash is floated about regarding vaccines. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: All this germ procedural offers is the sight of people behaving badly, willing to do their worst to get first dibs on a vaccine. Sadly, that's no surprise. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: Delivers the gripping, tick-tock tale of an epidemic that threatens to destroy civilization, but presents it virtually without comment. Read more

Forrest Wickman, Slate: If Contagion is a "horror movie," as Soderbergh has described it, then you can think of it as the most believable zombie movie ever made. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: "Contagion" will do for hand sanitizer what "Jaws" did for shark repellent. Read more

Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "Contagion" is a thoughtful, provocative and ultimately chilling film. Read more

Christopher Orr, The Atlantic: The film resembles its viral subject a little too closely: an intricate, formidable mechanism with no evident purpose. Read more

Stephen Cole, Globe and Mail: It's the dark comic moments and the film's sci-fi, B-movie, race-to-develop-a-vaccine subplot that prevent Contagion from being a gloomy two hours in the dark. That and Soderbergh's delight in characters. Read more

Leah Rozen, TheWrap: [An] intellectually stimulating new drama about the terrifyingly rapid spread of a lethal virus. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: For a good hour, a very good first hour, the film efficiently accumulates small, terrifying incidents and images. Read more

Dave Calhoun, Time Out: Adopting a clean, chronological and punchy approach, Soderbergh holds a steady eye on panic and chaos. It's a disaster movie with a brain and conscience. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Sobering reality for our interconnected world. Read more

Peter Debruge, Variety: Without fully rounded characters, it's hard to care who lives or dies in what amounts to an extended procedural on how disease prevention orgs might respond to such a scenario. Read more

Karina Longworth, Village Voice: If Contagion truly is the first leg of Soderbergh's retirement victory lap, this harrowing film is a potent reminder of what we stand to lose. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: If this is an action-thriller, it's one that makes med school look sexier than the Marines. Read more