Though reasonably efficient on its own very simpleminded and cornball terms, this action thriller about the spread of a lethal virus from a monkey in Zaire to a small town in the American northwest is downright offensive when it comes to capriciously and irresponsibly converting certain aspects of the probable origins of AIDSas well as notions about the spread of any virusinto an occasion for light entertainment, bending the facts however it pleases. According to this movie, only one individual (doofus Dustin Hoffman) is capable of saving humanity from the plague, and only one meanie in the army (hulking Donald Sutherland) is responsible for endangering our survival; thanks a lot, guys, for clarifying all the issues so precisely. With Rene Russo, Morgan Freeman, Cuba Gooding Jr., Patrick Dempsey, and Kevin Spacey; directed by Wolfgang Petersen from a script by Laurence Dworet and Robert Roy Pool. (JR)