Movies “Not for Binging” At Least Not Now

By Reggie's Take on March 25, 2020

With everyone having to spend more time at home to help fight the spread of Coronavirus, I’ve put together a list of movies that may not be binge worthy, at least for now.

You can’t turn on your television, open Twitter or even Facebook without being reminded of the pandemic (coronavirus) currently inhabiting Earth and it’s great nations. In order to help prevent the spread many countries are asking everyone to stay home, but you can only do so many chores around the house before you decide to take some time for yourself and watch some movies.

Let’s face it, who hasn’t wished they could stay home for a couple of weeks and just watch movies. After all, we get busy with our normal day-to-day lives so who doesn’t like the idea of sitting down on the couch with a big bowl of popcorn and binging all those movies we haven’t yet seen or watched in so long we’ve forgotten what happened.

For those who may not know my real life job is in broadcasting and when I’m at work all I see and hear about is the coronavirus. The last thing I want to do when I get home or on the weekends is watch anything that might remind me of what’s going on out in the real world.

One thing Hollywood has always been good at is putting the world in peril if for no other reason then to rack up the body count. With that in mind I put together a list of movies that I know I wouldn’t want to watch or even binge, but just because I wouldn’t watch these movies doesn’t mean there might be some of you out there who wouldn’t do just that.

Even though the movies listed below are ones I wouldn’t want to watch, at this particular time, what about you? Would these movies bother you or would you just be like a movie is a movie? Would love to hear what some of you think.

The list of movies below are in no particular order. so lets start with 1994 miniseries The Stand based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King.

The Stand (1994 Miniseries)

In A four-part miniseries tells the horror story of King’s “The Stand.” A supervirus that leaked from a lab kills most of the population in what appears to be The Plague (Part 1). The survivors share The Dreams (Part 2). Then they fight to stay alive as they break into groups of good and evil in The Betrayal (Part 3). The Stand (Part 4) between good and evil is the final episode.

Outbreak – Released March 10, 1995

A handful of scientists struggle to prevent the destruction of a small town and possibly the entire country in this suspense drama. In the mid-1960s, a deadly virus is discovered in Zaire that wipes out an entire village in 24 hours. Government researchers are brought in to investigate, but the military opts to destroy the village rather than risk further infection. Thirty years later, Sam Daniels (Dustin Hoffman), an expert on contagious diseases, is called in when the virus re-emerges in Africa. A monkey carrying the bug is smuggled into the U.S., and a suburban California town soon begins to succumb to the illness. Sam scrambles to find an antidote with the help of his ex-wife Robby (Rene Russo), a Center for Disease Control researcher, and their colleague Casey (Kevin Spacey), while Gen. McClintock (Donald Sutherland) has his own reasons for wanting to use bombs to contain the epidemic, and Army surgeon Gen. Ford (Morgan Freeman) is caught in the middle.

12 Monkeys – Released December 27, 1995

Staring Bruce Willis as James Cole, a prisoner of the state in the year 2035 who can earn parole if he agrees to travel back in time and thwart a devastating plague. The virus has wiped out most of the Earth’s population and the remainder live underground because the air is poisonous. Returning to the year 1990, six years before the start of the plague, Cole is soon imprisoned in a psychiatric facility because his warnings sound like mad ravings. There he meets a scientist named Dr. Kathryn Railly (Madeleine Stowe) and Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt), the mad son of an eminent virologist (Christopher Plummer). Cole is returned by the authorities to the year 2035, and finally ends up at his intended destination in 1996. He kidnaps Dr. Railly in order to enlist her help in his quest. Cole discovers graffiti by an apparent animal rights group called the Army of the Twelve Monkeys, but as he delves into the mystery, he hears voices, loses his bearings, and doubts his own sanity. He must figure out if Goines, who seems to be a raving lunatic, holds the key to the puzzle.

Resident Evil – Released March 15, 2002

Milla Jovovich and Michelle Rodriguez star as Alice and Rain, two members of a commando team assigned to infiltrate the Hive, an underground research laboratory known as the Umbrella Corporation. A bio-engineered virus has been released into the maze-like Hive, turning the facility’s employees into mindless, flesh-eating zombies. A single scratch or bite from one of these rampaging ghouls dooms its victim, so the commandos have their work cut out for them as they attempt to reach the Red Queen, the lab’s supercomputer and their sole hope of halting the spread of the contagion. Before they can complete their mission, however, the soldiers must overcome a variety of deadly obstacles. Alice and Rain also discover that the release of the virus may not have been an accident, and that a cure may exist somewhere in the deadly Hive.

28 Days Later – Released Jun 27, 2003

After breaking into a primate research facility, a group of animal rights activists discover caged chimps chained up before banks of screens displaying horrifying, violent images. Ignoring the warnings of the terrified researcher who maintains that the chimps are infected, begin to free the animals and are immediately subjected to a bloody attack from the enraged creatures. Twenty-eight days later, Cycle courier Jim awakes from a coma in the deserted intensive care unit of a London hospital. He wanders out into a church where he finds dead bodies piled in heaps on the chapel floor. A sudden explosion from a makeshift bomb heralds the arrival of fellow “survivors” Selina and Mark. They take Jim to safety and explain to him that this infection is transmitted by blood and overwhelms the infected victim with a murderous rage within seconds. Britain has been overrun, and they have no way of knowing if it has spread worldwide. Their only hope of survival may lie in the hands of a Manchester group of soldiers. Faced with no practical alternative, the group sets out northwards, unaware that the worst is yet to come.

Cabin Fever – Released September 12, 2003

As a last hurrah after college, friends Jeff, Karen, Paul, Marcy and Bert embark on a vacation deep into the mountains. They drive to a remote cabin to enjoy their last days of decadence before entering the working world. Karen’s skin starts to bubble and burn as something grows inside her, tunneling beneath her flesh. The group is so shocked and sickened watching their friend deteriorate they lock her in a shed to avoid infection. What soon began as a struggle against the disease turns into a battle against friends, as the fear of contagion drives them to turn on each other. The kids confront the terror of having to kill anyone who comes near them, even if it’s their closest friend. The survivors have to find help before they’re all killed by the virus, or by the local lynch mob out to destroy anyone who may have come in contact with it.

I Am Legend – Released December 14, 2007

I Am Legend follows the last man on Earth as he struggles to survive a man-made plague that transforms humans into bloodthirsty mutants. Robert Neville (Will Smith) was inexplicably immune to the highly contagious superbug. Now the entire population of New York City and perhaps the world has been transformed into carnivorous bloodsuckers that fear the light and live solely to spread their contagion. It’s been three years since civilization came to an end, and the loneliness has taken a devastating toll on Neville. By day he scours the city for food and supplies while sending out desperate radio messages in hopes that someone might respond, and by night he attempts to find a way to reverse the effects of the virus by experimenting with his own blood. But time is running out for Neville as the legions of infected watch his every move from the safety of the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

Carriers – Released September 4, 2009

Four kids are driving through the desert on the way to the beach, their faces anything but cheery: trying to outrun the end of the world and each other. No one is safe from the viral pandemic threatening to wipe out the human race. Determined to elude the deadly virus, Danny, his brother Brian, his girlfriend Bobby and Danny’s school friend Kate speed across the Southwestern U.S. to reach a place of possible safety. Over the course of four days, the group is faced with moral decisions that no human should ever be forced to face. They discover that their greatest enemy is not the microbe attacking humanity, but the darkness within themselves.

The Crazies – Released February 26, 2010

David Dutten is sheriff of Ogden Marsh, a picture-perfect American. But one night, one of them comes to a school baseball game with a loaded shotgun, ready to kill. Another man burns down his own house, after locking his wife and young son in a closet inside. Something is infecting the citizens of Ogden Marsh with insanity. In an effort to keep the madness contained, the government uses deadly force to close off all access and won’t let anyone in or out even those uninfected. The few still sane find themselves trapped: Forced to band together, an ordinary night becomes a horrifying struggle for survival as they do their best to get out of town alive.

The Crazies – Released January 1, 1973

George A. Romero returns in this quirky end-of-civilization thriller. A government-engineered killer virus is accidentally released into the water supply of Evans, Pennsylvania, driving most of the inhabitants stark-raving mad and forcing the declaration of martial law as the entire town is placed under quarantine. This does not sit well with the locals even those who have not yet been contaminated who consider the military mobilization tantamount to war.

Contagion – Released September 9, 2011

Contagion follows the rapid progress of a lethal airborne virus that kills within days. As the fast-moving epidemic grows, the worldwide medical community races to find a cure and control the panic that spreads faster than the virus itself. At the same time, ordinary people struggle to survive in a society coming apart.

World War Z – Released June 21, 2013

When former U.N. investigator Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt) and his family get stuck in urban gridlock, he senses that it’s no ordinary traffic jam. His suspicions are confirmed when, suddenly, the city erupts into chaos. A lethal virus, spread through a single bite, is turning healthy people into something vicious, unthinking and feral. As the pandemic threatens to consume humanity, Gerry leads a worldwide search to find the source of the infection and, with luck, a way to halt its spread.