A competently helmed piece of genre derivation that substitutes a zombie plague for an airborne-viral-pandemic plague, Carriers brings absolutely nothing new to the table. In an undefined future America, once-Yale-bound Danny (Lou Taylor Pucci) and his macho brother Brian (Chris Pine) traverse the Western highways – with Brian’s girlfriend Bobby (Piper Perabo) and young Kate (Emily VanCamp) in tow – in search of gasoline and shelter. Though attempting to avoid anyone who might be ill by following strict rules (which boil down to: don’t get near people with bleeding mouths), they inevitably wind up crossing paths with a stock bunch of survivors, including Frank (Christopher Meloni) and his infected daughter, and a group of soldiers with rape on their mind. Writers/directors David and Alex Pastor shoot their material efficiently but their scripting has a been-here-done-that quality that’s debilitating, indulging in faux-moral quandaries about whether the healthy should risk their lives aiding the doomed sick, all of which are laced with an undercurrent of brotherly tensions wrought from Danny’s Ivy League compassion and Brian’s working-class pragmatism. The four protagonists’ stable dynamics soon break down, tragedy strikes, and sacrifices must be made, but though well-acted, it’s a work so familiar as to be unnecessary, and simply makes one long for season two of the similar, far superior post-apocalyptic saga The Walking Dead.
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