Remember those 1970s blockbusters like 'The Towering Inferno' and  'The Poseidon Adventure'?  Sprawling stories filled with a cavalcade of stars doing their best to cheat death in terrifying scenarios (and usually failing)? Steven Soderbergh has updated the disaster movie for modern audiences in 'Contagion,' the story of a global viral epidemic that kills off the population in mass quantities. But unlike those classic spectacles, 'Contagion' is a paranoia-filled worst-case-scenario; in an increasingly connected world where inaccurate information spreads as fast as germs, the idea of "running away to safety" becomes more impossible. 'Contagion' will probably never be turned into an attraction at Universal Studios, but it's still an adrenaline rush. -- E.L.

Remember those 1970s blockbusters like 'The Towering Inferno' and  'The Poseidon Adventure'?  Sprawling stories filled with a cavalcade of stars doing their best to cheat death in terrifying scenarios (and usually failing)? Steven Soderbergh has updated the disaster movie for modern audiences in 'Contagion,' the story of a global viral epidemic that kills off the population in mass quantities. But unlike those classic spectacles, 'Contagion' is a paranoia-filled worst-case-scenario; in an increasingly connected world where inaccurate information spreads as fast as germs, the idea of "running away to safety" becomes more impossible. 'Contagion' will probably never be turned into an attraction at Universal Studios, but it's still an adrenaline rush. -- E.L.