The all-star action/sci-fi/thriller, “Contagion”, directed by the same person who brought us “Oceans 11, Oceans 12, and Oceans 13″ and “Traffic”, Steven Soderbergh, opens with a cough from Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow), a woman traveling back to Minneapolis from Hong Kong. She collaspes in the kitchen on Day 2 as the subtexts show and dies with her husband, Mitch (Matt Damon, “Hereafter”/”True Grit”), watching helplessly. Soon, their son follows. A main character and a big name actress dying at the start of a film just is a waste.

This overwhelms Mitch and his daughter, not to mention the city. Fast forward to Chicago, Hong Kong and other countries and states and sets up a health investigation world wide from the W.H.O. (world health organization) in Minnesota and this is clearly an air born virus that seeks out hosts rapidly. So, the word’s out. No hand shaking, cover your face and don’t touch anybody who you think might be infected.

Is this H1N1? Is this the bird flu? Is this HIV? Thanks to the outstanding work of Microbiology departments in labs, the key players in this film such as Dr. Ellis Cheever (Laurence Fishburne, “CSI” 2008-2011 and the upcoming “Man of Steel” as Perry White) of the CDC in Atlanta; Dr. Erin Mears (Kate Winslet); and Dr. Leonora Orantes (Marion Cotillard) from the W.H.O. and Dr. Ally Hextall (Jennifer Ehie) who tries to perfect a vaccine.

There are a lot of top notch actors in this film and with that, there is a lot going on. Too much happening to keep up with. It also is slow moving by giving us day to day events as they take place. Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, etc. The makeup is just so-so and the shooting locations can look prominent and blockbusterish and some don’t seem so sharp. Soderbergh has been out of the picture since his last big score, “Oceans Thirteen”.

Although Jude Law is a fine actor, his role in “Contagion” is some what of an unnecessary element. His character, Alan, is a blogger who dogs drug companies. He, along with Matt Damon, had plenty of screen time but Law’s part just seemed to have nothing to do with the plot and therefore was more of a distraction. But that is a collaboration of both Soderbergh and writer Scott Z. Burns (“The Informant”).

This is not a sensational film and even left some of the screening crowd wondering what happened to Dr. Sussman (Elliot Gould) who was researching the virus and seemed to have been on to something then he just fell off the earth. His character wasn’t finished but with so much of an all star cast, who does have time to finish something as boring as “Contagion”? It’s not a bad movie considering it’s been done before (“Outbreak”). It just failed me on all levels. The most exciting event (this is when most woke up) is when people waiting in lines for hours for food, water and vaccines, rushed the crowd.

“Contagion” is rated PG-13, runs 105 minutes, is not in 3-D, because that would make it more disappointing than it already is. It opens in theaters on September 10, 2011 and is distributed by Warner Bros pictures. Now, lets all stock up on hand sanitizer, shall we?

By Hustlin Bob Higgins 2 stars