This is a bad, bad movie. From the first appearance of its main character, the whole thing starts to fall apart. The characters are flat and uninteresting stereotypes. The plot is banal and predictable. The acting, while not horrific, is at least bad enough to put "Contagion" in the B- or even C-movie category. And any fans of "Outbreak" will be able to see how much of this film is a blatant ripoff. There's one particular scene involving an air vent that might as well have been copied verbatim, right down to the melodramatic dialog. And for science-nerds who enjoy virus movies, the misapplied, inaccurate, wishy-washy soft science in "Contagion" is almost painful.<br /><br />Still, it has some good elements. Credit where credit is due: there were some amusing parts, and I suppose there haven't been many movies that made the President of the United States seem as much like a human being as "Contagion" did (the movie also gets the prize for the closest a movie has ever come to an actual Presidential sex scene).<br /><br />All in all, though, "Contagion" is a very weak movie. It's inaccurate, inauthentic, insincere, and uninspired.