‘Outbreak’ turns 25 and the timing feels weird

Get ready to possibly be even more freaked out.

With all the coverage of and conversation surrounding the coronavirus, the anniversary of the film “Outbreak” probably could have not come at a worse time.

The 1995 drama starring Dustin Hoffman, Morgan Freeman, Rene Russo and Cuba Gooding Jr. was released widely in the US on March 10, 1995.

Here’s how Netflix describes the movie: “In this doomsday thriller, an Army virologist tries to thwart a global biological meltdown in the form of a killer virus infesting a California town.”

Not really what we want to think about at the moment, right?

Directed by Wolfgang Petersen, the film is based on Richard Preston’s nonfiction book “The Hot Zone: A Terrifying True Story” and was released by Warner Bros. which shares a parent company with CNN.

It garnered some respectable reviews at the time — even if not everyone was buying its plausibility.

“From any remotely realistic p.o.v., the events depicted could never happen anywhere near as fast as they do here, and the incubation period of the virus has been compressed for dramatic reasons,” Variety’s Todd McCarthy wrote. “Viewers may intuit this while watching , but the filmmakers have paced it all so quickly that questions, holes and implausibilities are lost in the rearview mirror before one can sort them out mentally.”

“Outbreak” is currently available for streaming on Netflix, Amazon Prime, YouTube, iTunes, Google Play and Vudu.