[Quarantine]
Plot:Television reporter Angela Vidal (Jennifer Carpenter) and her cameraman (Steve Harris) are assigned to spend the night shift with a Los Angeles Fire Station. After a routine 911 call takes them to a small apartment building, they find police officers Wilensky (Columbus Short) and McCreedy (Andrew Fiscella) already on the scene in response to blood curdling screams coming from one of the apartment units.

Unbeknownst to them, a woman has contracted a rare strain of rabies. When they try to leave the building with those injured from a wild attack by the infected woman, they find that they've been locked in. Indeed, there are police, SWAT and CDC crews securing the building. But phones, internet, televisions and cell phone access have been cut-off, and officials are not relaying information to those quarantined inside.

Cast: Jay Hernandez, Columbus Short, Steve Harris, Jennifer Carpenter, Jonathan Schaech, Rade Serbedzija, Greg German, Bernard White, Zulay Hanao, Marin Hinkle, Denis O'Hare.

My Thoughts:Not great, but better than "REC".

Review:"Quarantine" from the brothers Dowdle, is probably the first and only remake to beat out it's original. "REC" to me was boring, and while I really didn't see what other people saw in the film, overall alot of people who saw it liked it for some reason. Anyways, "Quarantine" is a remake of said film, following a reporter named Angela Vidal (Carpenter), who tags along with the Los Angeles fire department for a story.

But soon they get a call to a downtown apartment building, a call involving a woman who appears to be in danger...as it's reported that screams were heard coming from the residence. Upon managing to get inside, to the shock and dismay of the firemen and Vidal, the woman is in a crazed state of mind. She's infected with a deadly virus, but the others don't know that, that is...until one of them is bitten. They soon realize that what they're dealing with is viral and contagious, and so they gather everyone downstairs.

But that doesn't stop the virus from spreading, and when the CDC arrives...and quarantines the building, it soon becomes a fight for survival for Vidal, her cameraman, and all of those who've yet to succumb to the infection. "Quarantine" plays out like every other film of it's subgenre, which is the virus subgenre. People get infected, and become crazed. The crazed infected people bite others, who then turn crazed and infected themselves...and pretty soon the snowball effect kicks in and it's chaos within four walls.

Nothing new here, and the characters...which are a step up from the somber and boring ones from "REC"...are surprisingly the avoidance of the typical horror film stereotype. Which is one of the films brightspots. You can't say much in the realm of cliches about these characters, except that they make foolish decisions which get people killed or bitten from time to time. But hey, what would a horror film be without those eh? Jennifer Carpenter does a good job in her role as reporter Angela, and really takes on the lead role and makes it hers.

She goes through the number of different emotions which at first are excitement, then anxiousness, and lastly terror and panic. Hernandez's character is second in line to Carpenter's as far as screentime...but he isn't really given much to do in this film other than alot of yelling and heavy breathing. I felt more should've been given to his character to do as far as the film needing a hero was concerned.

In this movie, there is no real hero...and it would've been nice if someone had stepped up to the plate to try or atleast talk about saving the day. But in reality this movie puts all the characters at the mercy of the crazed-infected residents. Which worked in "REC" but not in this film because there weren't enough infected to start out with, that could make the viewer believe that someone not breaking out a nine and popping the few infected would've automatically saved atleast a handful of lives.

But instead it seems these characters just panic and wander aorund like chickens with their heads cut off waiting for someone else to get bitten so they can stupidly chase after them, resulting in another person getting bitten...and the beat goes on. But the fact that it's a shot-for-shot remake does give it some merit. The Dowdle brothers made "Quarantine" a REAL remake...a remake that you can literally compare to the original film, as no crazy liberties are taken with the films story to spice or spruce it up any.

That's a respectable way to handle a remake, even one with a few flaws. The ending of the film isn't much of a shocker, and if you've seen "REC" and think you know how ''Quarantine" wraps up then you're 100% correct. For those who haven't seen ''REC"...you'll like this movie more than I did. And that's who this film is for really...people who have not seen "REC". They'll find everything shocking, new, and fresh. But if you've seen "REC" and didn't like it, you probably won't like ''Quarantine" too much. And if you liked "REC"...you'll probably like everything about "Quarantine" except some of the characters.

Positives:Good performance by Jennifer Carpenter.

Negatives:Bad character decision making in a life-or-death situation, Jay Hernandez's characters wasn't developed enough or given enough to do of any relevance.

Overall:Two out of four stars.





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