Critic Reviews
| 80 |
Hollywood Reporter Ray Richmond
It's an exceptionally well-produced, -written and -directed cautionary tale that's more than worthy of its sweeps scheduling. |
| 60 |
The New York Times Alessandra Stanley
It is a soberly and compellingly told tall tale, and quite alarming. |
| 50 |
USA Today Robert Bianco
The good news for those who are pressed for time is that if you've seen the ads for Fatal Contact, you've pretty much seen the movie. |
| 40 |
Chicago Tribune Allison Benedikt
With its sterile, facts-on-the-ground approach and stilted dialogue, fleshed-out characters are secondary to scary numbers here. |
| 30 |
Washington Post Tom Shales
The docudrama style carries an aura of awful, if not awesome, authority. |
| 30 |
Los Angeles Times Robert Lloyd
I admire the producers' decision to not go all Charlton Heston with this, yet they have still made what is, in spite of the docudramatic veneer, a disaster film (social chaos, plucky survivors, essentially hopeful) crossed with a horror movie (mortal bodies fatally altered by contagion, fundamentally unsettling). Just a dull one. |
| 30 |
Orlando Sentinel Hal Boedeker
Fatal Contact looks limited, wan and cheap. |
| 30 |
Newsday Verne Gay
Just substitute the words "Bird Flu" in the title with "Sharks," or "Bees," or "Hurricane," or "Twister," or "Large Gorilla," or "Mothra," and you end up with (and almost always have) pretty much the same story line. Killer attacks! People die! Human kindness and compassion prevail! Fade to credits! |
| 30 |
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Rob Owen
That we don't care [about the characters] is just testament to the paint-by-numbers nature of this sweeps flick. |
| 25 |
Chicago Sun-Times Doug Elfman
Is it so bad it's good? No, not even close. |
| 20 |
Variety Brian Lowry
Unfortunately, the producers appear to have chosen a title and then cobbled together a movie to fit it, albeit one that lacks a story structure or, for that matter, an ending. |
| 10 |
Wall Street Journal Dorothy Rabinowitz
"Shameless" has always seemed a term best reserved for rare occasions, especially in this age of reality shows... Even so such an occasion has arrived with the scheduling of ABC's May sweeps entry, "Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America." |
| 10 |
Boston Globe Matthew Gilbert
This is an excruciatingly dull movie. |
| 0 |
New York Daily News David Hinckley
A wretched disappointment.... "Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America" doesn't just have the smell of death. It also reeks of failure. |
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