The Crazies (2010)

The Crazies

With George A. Romero as an Executive Producer, The Crazies will show  you a different kind of Zombies, a smarter kind. Say goodbye to the  mindless creatures you are accustomed to and say hello to your dead  neighbor. In a small, quiet neighborhood, things begin to go bad pretty quick.  Local authorities are baffled by the events that start to take hold of  this small Iowa town. It doesn’t take long to figure out what is making  the residents crazy; and it takes even less time to wipe out pretty much  everyone.
It seems that there is a Zombie movie born every year… Some are good,  most of them bad but sometimes there is one that really gets you  attention. I wouldn’t go as far as to say that The Crazies is the  greatest zombie movie ever but it’s definitely one of the best. So we  ponder the question, is this movie really about zombies? Not by  the modern definition of “zombie” as popularized by films like Dawn of  the Dead. The Crazies is more like the film “28 Days Later” which is a  disease that makes the host act like crazy maniac.
Taking into consideration that this is a remake of Romero’s 1973 film  by the same title, the storyline seems to be accurate with current  times and events. The films starts a bit slow as you learn a little  about each character but this only last about 15-20 min. After that is a  non-stop bloody fest… Not as gory as you would expect from a zombie  movie but there is plenty of humor and suspense to suffice the average  fan.
The Crazies was Directed by Breck Eisner who has mostly directed TV  Shows as Steven Spielberg’s “Taken” (episode 1) also directed “Sahara”  starting Penelope Cruz, Steve Zahn and Matthew McConaughey.

Film Review: THE CRAZIES (2010)

RATING 6/10

BOTTOM LINE: Although commendable for its subtlety and seriousness, “The Crazies” is unfortunately a bland and lifeless take on the zombie flick that is instantly forgettable.

THE GOOD: You know the drill with zombie movies: virus infects people, people transform in to zombies who go on a killing spree. This version also has the military thrown in to good effect. Director Breck Eisner has remade the original George A. Romero film with a subtlety and seriousness that is commendable and surprising at the same time. This film attempts, and sometimes succeeds in generating suspense through performance rather than outright gore and nasty make-up. The first scene where Sherriff Dutten (Olyphant) confronts a local man with a shotgun at a baseball game is quite gripping and sets the stage for what is to follow in the use of subtlety and performance. The zombies themselves have a more realistic, virus-infected look rather than blood and guts dripping from every orifice. The killing scenes, while brutal, are more subtle than normal and highly effective. On these scenes, perhaps the ones that are the harshest to watch are not from the zombies but from the military who shoot down any one and anything in their way, even innocent people who have not been infected by the virus. Actors Timothy Olyphant and Radha Mitchell do the best they can with the material and are quite watchable. Joe Anderson has the best role in the film as the loyal deputy sheriff who slowly turns on his colleagues, but eventually commits self-sacrifice to save them when he learns he too has been infected. “The Crazies” is commendable for the approach it tries to take compared to the usual zombie flick.

THE BAD: Zombie films rarely deviate from their premise and “The Crazies” is no exception. In this respect, we have seen everything here before. However, this is no excuse not to have fun with the material, but unfortunately, just about everything with this film is lifeless, to pardon the pun. There is no spark or energy, aside from a few tense moments here and there, to really pull you in to the action. As a result, watching this film feels very mechanical and decidedly un-scary. And the ending leaves little room for improvement, doing the inevitable thing that a lot of these films do these days by opening up the possibility for a sequel. “The Crazies” is forgettable, which is unfortunate as there are moments here and there where it is possible to see a better film in what we have been given.

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Todd Murphy <br />
http://www.allaboutmovies.net

The Crazies

It's a rare remake that actually improves on the original - but occasionally the stars align, and something almost magical happens. Maybe that's why Hollywood always seems to plunder the script archives and foreign film markets for inspiration.

The Crazies is by no means a classic movie, but it tackles its grisly task with such verve and imagination that it's hard not to warm to it. The fact that it never once uses the word 'zombies' proves that it's more than just another bandwagon-jumper, and within its own genre confines it's a burly, brawling masterpiece.

Let's get the story out of the way early on, because it really doesn't amount to much. The town of Ogden Marsh, Iowa, is a calm, peaceful little place - for about a minute, that is. Things swiftly go awry as local sheriff David Dutton (Timothy Olyphant) is forced to shoot one of his neighbors during the local baseball game, when the rabid-looking neighbor starts acting strangely and waving a shotgun.

As an isolated incident it would be chilling enough, but fate has more in store for Dutton and his wife (Radha Mitchell). The cases of unprovoked violence start to spiral beyond reason, and they very quickly have an epidemic on their hands - although an epidemic of what they're not entirely sure.

Someone knows the truth behind the bizarre killings in Ogden Marsh, however, and when the military is sent in to seal off and shut down the town the Duttons end up on the run for their lives, with David's deputy Russell (British actor Joe Anderson, sporting an impressive hillbilly accent and some even more impressive sideburns) in tow. The odds aren't stacked in their favor as they try to escape Ogden Marsh alive, dodging the military on one side and the rabid townspeople on the other.

The Crazies makes a point of anchoring its story in potential fact rather than supernatural nonsense, as Dutton uncovers a political conspiracy that wouldn't have looked out of place in Edge Of Darkness - but this is always secondary to the psychotic, veiny townsfolk tearing strips off each other. The subversive streak is a nice nod to the Seventies horror classics, especially Night Of The Living Dead, but director Breck Eisner is wise enough not to bore us with sermonizing.

Instead the focus is kept firmly on the action, the heroics, and - of course - the horror. The Crazies delivers on every count, and despite its formulaic nature you'll still find yourself jumping up and perching on the edge of your seat. After all, it never claims to be intellectually stimulating - just thrilling. And it delivers at every turn.

A large part of that success also sits on the improbably square shoulders of Timothy Olyphant, who has turned into something of a modern day Clint Eastwood with his recent roles in A Perfect Getaway and sleeper TV hit Justified. Somehow he manages to combine good looks, a steely gaze, action hero muscles and a rigid (moral) backbone. It's tough to think of another contemporary actor who kicks ass quite so righteously, and with such a glint in his eye.

The Crazies doesn't rethink the horror genre so much as tweak it a little, mining the old formulae to produce one of the most surprisingly thrilling movie experiences of recent years. And those of you who recall Radha Mitchell from her Aussie soap days will remember that she's always had trouble with crazy Neighbors...

4/5

The Crazies

The Crazies - Directed by Breck Eisner, starring Timothy Olyphant, Radha Mitchell, and Joe Anderson - Rated R
This one deserves a Kurgan...I think.

 


Okay, this is going to be a tough review. Not because The Crazies is such a complex movie or anything, but because of how I had to watch it. I watched the movie at a theatre that hasn't fully converted to digital yet, so they still use reels. Now, most films are five reels long. I believe that someone, either the distributor or the projectionist, mixed up the reels. In other words, I watched a jumbled film. Instead of watching it 1,2,3,4,5, I got to see it 1,3,2,4,5. Needless to say, this led to a very frustrating viewing. (For the theatre's part, I hear that they have fixed thr problem, though the patrons that complained Friday night were told that the movie is "supposed to be like that.") So I'll do my best to review The Crazies, even though I saw it in an unintentional Pulp Fiction style.
The Crazies takes place in the small Iowa town of Ogden Marsh. It seems to be a wholesome, peaceful community. That is until an alcoholic farmer marches onto the baseball field during a high school game with a loaded shotgun. Not to worry, Sheriff David Dutton (Olyphant) is there to take him down. That's only the beginning, however. Something is causing the residents of Ogden Marsh to go crazy...and it's contagious.

So this is basically a survival movie with a nice chunk of paranoia thrown in for good measure. That's a winning combination in my book. I consider John Carpenter's The Thing to be one of the best films of all time, so I dig the paranoia. It always adds an amazing layer to a film. You start to look over each character with suspicion. And since that is what each character is doing as well, you can easily become engrossed in a film like this. My particular experience took me out of it a bit, but once I got my bearings it was easy to enjoy the paranoia.

Don't be confused by all this paranoia talk, this is still a brutal film. It doesn't revel in the gore or anything, but it certainly has its messier moments. The film mainly relies on jump scares and last second saves to evoke responses. I felt there were too many of these moments, but that doesn't mean they aren't effective. I imagine most audience members will jump at least once or twice.

The most effective aspect of the film remains with the paranoia. That means acting is required for this film, since it's not just a run away from the monsters movie. I know that acting normal then acting crazy isn't the performance that wins awards, but it is more demanding than looking scared for two hours. Olyphant does a suitable job. He's always been kind of a strange actor, but most of his performances work, and this one certainly does. Radha Mitchell also does some fine work as his wife/doctor. But it's Joe Anderson, as Deputy Russell Clank, who shines. He can give a great crazy gaze, then logically explain himself in the same scene. On top of that, he gets some of the comic relief, making him a very likable character.

The acting is fine, but what is great about this cast is that it doesn't contain many stars. Olyphant is by far the biggest name here, and Radha Mitchell has been in a few decent movies, but I didn't really recognize the other actors. This is important because we're dealing with a film in which many people die. You don't want to watch a film with an ensemble cast of A-listers which you know will survive at least until the very end while the vague B-listers die in droves. Since I didn't recognize some of these actors/actresses I wasn't sure if I was seeing a major character or a quick death. It might sound trivial, but a proper cast can really elevate a film like this.

This isn't an outstanding film or anything, though. I had some non messed-up-reels issues with it. First off, it's called The Crazies but we don't get to see much crazy behavior. I know, I know, turning into a murderer capable of killing your family and friends is certainly crazy, but I wanted some wackier glimpses of the craziness. There are a couple: the strange lady riding a bike and singing, the dudes using a dumpster as a punching bag, etc. But those moments were few and far between. The virus really just turned people into excellent, stealthy killers. It didn't ruin the movie for me; I was just hoping for a slightly campier film.

Another issue that some people might have is the treatment of the government. At its heart, the original 1973 George Romero version of The Crazies was about government conspiracies. This remake is no different and it might rub some people the wrong way when sane characters start attacking U.S. troops. I just found it compelling. The characters are not gung ho about fighting troops. They were just put in a kill or be killed situation. I'm great at suspending disbelief and my mantra regarding film is "it's just a movie." So I didn't have a problem with troops being used in slightly "bad guy" roles. Along those lines, the film features a couple of nifty elements to handle this problem. The best example is a short scene in which a soldier is captured and it turns out that he's just a guy following orders; he's not the devil in camouflage. But some people may take issue with it.

So The Crazies sticks with the original's paranoia and government issues and it turns out to be a better film in my opinion. Romero's version suffered from a shoestring budget and it hasn't aged well. I like the basic idea of Romero's film, but this new version retains the gist of the story while providing a much more effective and entertaining presentation. Some Romero purists might cry "Sacrilege!" at that but it's just how I feel. (For the record, I still think Romero is an amazing director.)

The Crazies is a completely solid film, and if I enjoyed it even though I watched it in a messed up order, then that means they did something right with this one. If you're looking for survival horror with some memorable scenes (like the scene involving the steak knife or the most suspenseful carwash ever filmed), then you should definitely check this one out. I hope you get to see it in order, I certainly wish I had.

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Eric Harris - www.canneltoncritic.com

Last updated: 2010-05-08 09:30:02 by user06

The Crazies

It took me awhile to finally make a review on the movie The Crazies, I'm not sure why it took me this long but I think it has to do with the fact of how disappointed I was with how this film turned out. It's about a town Ogden Marsh that got infected with a virus that turns everyone into crazy killing zombies, which leads a husband and wife with their two friends trying to escape the town without getting killed. I was so excited to see this movie cause it looked so good and it was about zombies but after the movie I was mad cause it wasn't even close to being as good as I thought it would be and it wasn't about zombies at all! The virus turned people into crazy savages hint the title The Crazies. I was told this movie was a zombie movie so you could imagine how pissed I was when I found out it wasn't. A lot of people have the wrong definition of what really makes a zombie.

In order for someone to become a zombie they have to die first then come back from the dead. They are not considered a zombie unless there's a form of death with the person. Just cause they look like a zombie and kill people that doesn't make them a zombie. They have to die first then come back from the dead and end up eating people in order to survive, everybody knows that well not everybody. This is the type of movie that when you see the trailer you get so excited to see it cause it looks so good but the actual movie sucked. That tends to happen a lot with movie nowadays they put all the good parts in the trailer and leave them out of the main movie so the movie ends up bombing.

The reason why the movie bombed besides the fact that they kept all the good parts in the trailer and out of the main movie is it wasn't even scary. I didn't jump or get scared at all even though nothing really scares me this movie still wasn't scary it was just plain boring. It was so boring I couldn't help but drift off into my own little dream world cause it wasn't grabbing my attention and it wasn't entertaining or even funny. It was blah just blah and I will not see it again or buy it.

I give this movie 1 1/2 out of 5 Skulls

Recommendations: The Amityville Horror, Children of the Corn , My Bloody Valentine

JennyB<br />
http://memoirsofascreamqueen.blogspot.com/

The Crazies

Zombies just can’t catch a break can they?  Everyone is always trying to kill them and all they want is a snack to feed their large appetites.  Director Breck Eisner doesn’t give them any sympathy in his latest film, The Crazies.
   Timothy Olyphant plays Sheriff David Dutton.  While he and his deputy sidekick Russell Clank (Joe Anderson) are watching the good ol’ boys of summer play a game in small town U.S.A. an unwelcomed guest arrives.  The local town drunk shows up in right field and god bless the fells because he brought his shotgun instead of his Mizuno.  The drunk seems unable to listen to reason and when he raises the cannon is shot dead by Dutton.   After toxicology comes back surprise surprise he was sober as the Pope.  
Dutton’s wife, Judy Dutton (Radha Mitchell), is a local nurse who’s starting to see patients that are exhibiting some unusual symptoms.  After the bodies start to pile up Dutton and Clank come up with a theory.  It’s got to be something in the water.  It turns out that their crazy theory might not be as crazy as the townspeople are becoming.
   Of course the government gets involved and I’m not going to give anything away, not that it really matters, which turns the movie into a survive and escape movie.  We get cliché zombie movie conventions such as trying to figure out who’s infected while the surviving group is on the lamb.
The Crazies is really intriguing in the first act.  Witnessing a small town slowly slip into insanity captures your interest immediately.  The small town feels intimate and inescapable.  Then the government gets thrown in the mix and everything gets thrown out the door.  I did like that the cause of the Crazies wasn’t dragged out through the whole movie, but part of me wanted some more mystery instead of one thirds intrigue and two thirds run-and-gun. 
   As a child of the video game generation The Crazies is very reminiscent of Resident Evil 2.  In fact it’s reminiscent of a lot of other zombie movies.  (Mini spoiler alert: they aren’t technically zombies, but for all intents and purposes they are).  Don’t expect this movie to take the genre anywhere fresh, especially considering it was based off of a George Romero movie of the same name.
The Crazies is well done despite the tired form.  The acting is surprisingly good.  You don’t find any unknown twenty somethings just trying to show off their racks in this one.  You’ll get solid performances from a mostly veteran cast.  And even though I got tired of the survivor group constantly running into random patches of crazies the suspense level was kept up.
  The problem is I’ve simply seen this movie far too many times to interest me.  Zombie movies are some of the easiest to write and it’s for a reason.  There’s a convention that is very hard to deviate from even when they’re well done like The Crazies.  If you’re an aficionado of the genre you’ll find this one lacking.

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Recommendations: Shutter Island, District 9 (Neill Blomkamp, 2009), Morning Glory

The Crazies (2010)

The Crazies is a remake of a 1973 film. Set  in Iowa, it follows the local Sheriff and his pregnant wife whose the  local Dr. The opening scene shows a local baseball game and the town  drunk walks on the field with a shotgun. The sheriff talks to him trying  to defuse the situation, but ends up shooting him in self defense.  Later the family confronts him, saying the man had been sober for two  years. Later blood tests confirm he hadn’t been drinking. The Dr. later  sees a patient who is acting very withdrawn and strange, and later that  night kills his family.

Something seems amiss in the town and soon we learn that a government  plane carrying a bio-weapon crashed near the town some nights ago. The  government was going to dispose of the weapon but instead it crashed and  contaminated the water supply. Soon the town is going crazy and the  military closes in to quarantine the town. The two lead characters and  other townspeople spend the rest of the movie trying to escape.  Meanwhile they worry if anyone among them could be sick.

The Crazies is mildly scary, the premise and characters are good. The  people become sort of zombies, but not mindless zombies. They can still  do the things they did as humans, they can talk and still have their  memories, but have an urgent need to kill. We didn’t see enough of the  transformation, what the initial symptoms are, how it progresses, etc.  Also there’s not really a clear government antagonist character. The  military plans to wipe out the town, but it’s clear the whole incident  was an accident instead of a more sinister government experiment. Later  the Dr. sees a pile of bodies and says the government is killing  everyone, sick or not. I’m not sure how she knew that. It’s almost like  the screenwriters hadn’t totally decided if they wanted the military to  be the bad guys or not.

There’s lots of little things just thrown out there. The sheriff  shuts off the water supply himself after the mayor refuses to, but that  has no effect on the plot. A soldier mentions the virus has become  airborne, but there’s no real indication that’s the case.
Also the time frame is too long. It all takes place over 3-4 days I  think. It shouldn’t have been more than two. The characters move through  the town a lot without enough Crazy encounters. They try to play up on  paranoia of whose infected, but it wasn’t strong enough.

Still the premise was interesting and was at least a little bit  scary. 8.25/10

http://jemurr.wordpress.com/<br />
<br />
http://www.youtube.com/user/murmanpoet

Last updated: 2010-04-11 06:50:47 by jemurr

THE CRAZIES

Since The Crazies was released one month ago, I had been reading reviews that said it's better and smarter than the average horror flick.  I finally got around to seeing it but I can't agree with those early reviews.  Not to say that it's a bad film, but it's nothing you'll remember for too long after viewing it.  As the title suggests, people in a small town slowly begin to go crazy.  We're not told right away what is causing this.  We just see random acts of violence committed by people who were thought to be good citizens - in small towns, everybody knows each other.  Small towns always seem to have a sheriff and a deputy too.  Naturally, it is the sheriff and deputy who manage to escape when the town is quarantined by the military.
The movie probably would have fared worse if someone else was playing the sheriff.  But Timothy Olyphant is one of the most watchable actors in Hollywood today.  He has a look and a presence that makes you want to follow him throughout the film.  Even when playing the bad guy in the most recent Die Hard or a sleazy porn producer in The Girl Next Door, he's often the most intriguing person in the film.  The Crazies plays like a zombie movie since the characters who become crazy basically begin to look and act like zombies.  Thankfully, there's enough happening here to keep the viewer's interest.  But there's nothing really all that unique about this film. 
If you want to see a horror flick that rises above the rest, check out Stephen King's The Mist from a couple of years ago.  Now there's a movie with possibly the most f***ed up ending I've ever seen... even more unsettling than the head in the box at the end of Se7en.  Most people either loved the ending or hated it.  I loved it.

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Recommendations: The Shawshank Redemption (1994), Se7en , 25th Hour

http://www.examiner.com/movie-in-philadelphia/danny-porcaro

Review: The Crazies

* * *1/2 out of four stars

The best part about “The Crazies” is that it feels like a modern George A. Romero film. This is good, because it is based on an older George A. Romero film of the same name. Long-time readers of HB have probably noticed the fact that I’m not usually the one who reviews horror films. This is not because I don’t like them, it’s because I feel fellow founder Shaun O’Donnell is more qualified to rate the genre, seeing as how he owns and has seen more horror films than I have. But with this film, I took interest. It completely satisfied.
The trailers make it appear to be just another zombie movie, like Romero’s “Dawn of the Dead” only with more action and less intelligence. But the use of Gary Jules’ cover of “Mad World” in a montage of death and destruction made me curious. That song is one of my favorites, and any movie that uses it in the trailer must be worth a look.
It’s about a small Idaho town’s quick descent into a living hell, full of diseased residents who have lost all sense of reality and are now aggressive. In fact, the first to be infected, a local farmer, is so far gone that he walks onto a high school baseball diamond carrying a shotgun and threatens the town sheriff, who shoots him in the head. Sheriff David Dutton (Timothy Olyphant, “Hitman”) is traumatized by the experience, but finds himself tending to a whole town of innocent folk, who seem to gradually become hostile.
David and his deputy, Russell (Joe Anderson, “Across the Universe”), inspect further and find a crashed plane in the local swamp, along with a dead pilot not far away. The town is quickly falling into madness, and the only conceivable conclusion is that the plane was carrying a contaminant and is infecting the city’s drinking water. Soon, David and Russell are hopping around town trying to find a solution… when the government gets involved and quarantines the whole city. That’s when David, Russell and David’s wife (Radha Mitchell, “Pitch Black”) escape from the government facility and begin running through a plagued city trying to escape with their lives.
Romero takes the executive producer credit and at the helm is Breck Eisner (“Sahara,” the upcoming “Flash Gordon” remake). Eisner proves himself as a filmmaker with this one. The film is not stylish to the point of nauseating, it’s graphic without showing too much and it moves at the perfect pace, never too slow and not incredibly fast.
Performances from all three leads are top-notch. Timothy Olyphant is always good in an action film as is Radha Mitchell. Joe Anderson almost steals the show as Russell, though I won’t reveal why. His performance is believable and memorable.
“The Crazies” is not raking in the cash, and won’t be in theaters much longer. I highly recommend you hurry to see it. It makes for one of the best horror films in a long, long time.

The Crazies (2010)

nullspan style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 3px;"nullI’m still floored.  Is this the same Breck Eisner who directed Matthew McConaughey in 2005’s Sahara?  The same Breck Eisner who directed the uneven 2008 episode “The Sacrifice” for the TV series Fear Itself?  Well yes it is, and I must say that Eisner has found his voice.  The Crazies, a remake of the George Romero flick from 1973 of the same name, is a suspenseful, fun, violent, and very well-shot film.   

The Crazies stars Timothy Olyphant as David Dutton, the sheriff of the small town of Ogden Marsh, Iowa; population 1,260.  He is married to the town’s only physician, Judy, played by the always sexy Radha Mitchell.  It’s the kind of town where everyone knows everyone and secrets are hard to keep.  We join the town on the opening day of the local high school’s baseball season.  Right in the middle of the game a local farmer walks onto the baseball field carrying a loaded shotgun.  Olyphant confronts him and assumes he’s drunk, but the man takes aim and Olyphant has no choice but to gun him down in front of the entire town.  He passes this off as an isolated incident until other people in town start acting odd and ultimately end up lashing out in some kind of violent behavior.  One man, for example, locks his wife and young son in the closet, douses the entire house with gasoline, and lights the old wooden house on fire.  When the fire department and police show up the man is calmly mowing his front lawn.  Olyphant and his deputy Russell Clank (played by Joe Anderson) are left to figure out what the hell is going on.

Eisner doesn’t wait at all to start with the action (the baseball scene happens in the first seven minutes of the movie) and when it starts it doesn’t let up until the end credits.  Eisner has a great eye for creating a heavy atmosphere and building suspenseful scenes.  Each scene here is pregnant with tension.  I’m really impressed with this remake.  I must admit that it’s been a long time since I’ve seen the original Crazies so I can’t really comment on how true it is to the original in a scene-by-scene comparison.  But I can tell you the remake captures the spirit of the original.  Friends and family members become violent towards each other creating a high level of paranoia that is only exacerbated (yeah, I know some big words) once the military gets there.

Aahhh yes; the military.  The government rolls in to “initiate containment protocols”.  In other words they are there to clean up their mess.  A plane carrying a very experimental biological weapon engineered to “unstablize a population” crashed near Ogden Marsh and contaminated the drinking water supply.  And these are some no-nonsense, badass military officials with very specific orders to contain the virus at any cost.  The military becomes as big a threat as the virus as they rarely talk other than barking out orders.  We don’t get to “know” any of the soldiers.  They remain nameless, faceless characters who are just as dangerous as the infected town’s people.  Eisner does a great job at equating the military with the virus:  Both are mysterious entities that can and will strike down anyone.  In a sense the military is more of a threat because they have a plan and orders to carry out.  They are both very menacing villains here.

Soldiers coldly and emotionlessly separate the healthy from the infected in a really chilling scene.  They take a quick temperature of everyone and if you have even an slightly elevated temp they pull you out of line no matter who you are.  It was here that Olyphant and Mitchell were separated (Mitchell has an increased fever due to being pregnant) which leads to a really great scene involving a pitchfork.  But really hard to watch was seeing a faceless military drone (wearing a huge gas mask and hazmat suit) ripping a crying 3 year old boy outta the arms of his mother.  The infected were then strapped down to hospital gurneys where it appears the military was just gonna let the infection run its course.  Like I said, pretty chilling scenes. 

Eisner does a great job keeping everything moving along at a fast-pace while not forgetting that this is indeed a horror movie.  He gives us plenty of scary moments where the survivors have various run-ins with the infected.  Two scenes in particular stand out:  The first is the scene in the funeral home where Olyphant is fighting off the funeral director.  You’ll never look at an electrical skull saw the same way again!!  It was a great scene that was scary, tense, and had a slight streak of dark humor running through it that reminded me of something from an Evil Dead flick.  The other scene is inside a carwash where our group is being attacked while the carwash is running.  It’s really well shot and capitalizes on the fear and mystery of being in a confined space (the inside of a car) while an unknown number of “crazies” are out there attacking.  A very claustrophobic and well shot scene.

Everyone involved puts in great performances.  Olyphant has quickly become one of my favorite actors.  I first noticed him in 2007’s Live Free or Die Hard as the bad guy Thomas Gabriel.  But it wasn’t until 2009’s A Perfect Getaway that I realized what a talent he is.  And he proves it again here in The Crazies.  Olyphant plays a great “regular guy” who is able to step up when the shit hits the fan.  There is some humor in this movie but it is used well and it never diffuses the horror or tension.

Another standout performance is Joe Anderson, who plays deputy Clank.  He’s an honest, hardworking guy who is loyal to Olyphant and tries to stay that way even after “trixie” gets to him (see the movie; you’ll know what I’m talking about).  Anderson was also in the fantastic flick The Ruins (2008), and is another name I’m keeping my eye on for future projects.  Great actor.

The Crazies is what a remake is all about people!!  The spirit of the original is intact and the story is given a facelift to make it more contemporary and relevant in today’s world.  I really enjoyed this film a lot and highly recommend it!! 

On a side note, as of this writing Breck Eisner is working on a remake of Flash Gordon, due out in 2012, and is in development to remake Cronenberg’s film The Brood.  It’s this second movie I’m a little concerned about.  The Brood isn’t an action-horror flick and really won’t translate well if Eisner wants to take it in that direction.  But I also saw Eisner’s dark side in The Crazies and if he can harness more of that then I think he could make The Brood work.  We’ll see. 

My Summary: 
Director:  Breck Eisner 
Plot:  4 out of 5 stars 
Gore:  5.5 out of 10 skulls 
Zombie Mayhem:  0 out of 5 brains (the infected never died and reanimated so they technically aren’t zombies) 
Reviewed by Scott Shoyer

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Recommendations: From Beyond (1986), Class of Nuke 'Em High, Basket Case

I can't help it; I just hate movies that suck.

Last updated: 2010-03-13 18:52:45 by AnythingHorror

The Crazies. Not perfect, but not bad either

nullp style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px; line-height: 18.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; color: #2a303a;"null<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">To expect every movie to redefine its respected genre every time would be pretty foolish. Sometimes you go to a movie expecting really nothing else but maybe a good time. “The Crazies” is not the next “Dawn of the Dead” (1978). It will not define the very idea of a zombie film from this day on. It’s just a good little popcorn flick; no harm or foul from it being out there.</span>

<p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px; line-height: 18.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; color: #2a303a;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Expecting something completely original out of a remake is another step toward foolishness. The film is a remake of the George Romero (who practically made the zombie genre) film from the early 70’s. The story is pretty straight forward. Military makes weapon, weapon gets out, people become zombies, small group of survivors try to get away from zombies and military. The only real difference between “The Crazies” and every other zombie film out there is we aren’t faced with the traditional zombies. Technically I wouldn’t even call them zombies, but since there isn’t a better word, we’ll go with that. They run, talk, and can plan. It’s more like they are well…crazy.</span>

<p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px; line-height: 18.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; color: #2a303a;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I really think Timothy Olyphant is a highly underrated actor. I haven’t seen a great deal of his work, but I enjoyed him way back in 2007 with “Live Free or Die Hard”, 2004 in “The Girl Next Door”, and his small but necessary role in “Scream 2”. There isn’t a lot here for a character to develop, but I think Olyphant can play the lead well. Radha Mitchell is the other lead, but for the most part she is the damsel in distress.</span>

<p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px; line-height: 18.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; color: #2a303a;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Where “The Crazies” fails is in creating a compelling villain. In any great zombie movie, the true villain is never the zombies. George Romero’s zombie films almost always point blame at humanity itself. In a great chaos, the human race will probably destroy itself much quicker than the actual threat can. “28 Days Later” turned a group of soldiers as the villain, “The Crazies” doesn’t resonate any of these things. The obvious choice would be the military, but since they are for the most part covered in masks and have no dialogue, there isn’t a conflict there. The only time a soldier is shown, we sympathize with him. He’s just doing his job and he actually helps our small group of survivors. Humanity can’t really be blamed either because the people aren’t causing the chaos. If a zombie can start a fire and use a gun, they will create enough chaos.</span>

<p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px; line-height: 18.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; color: #2a303a;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">There will never be another perfect zombie film. George Romero cornered that market with, “Night of the Living Dead”, and “Dawn of the Dead”. What we get so-so films in a tiring genre, but “The Crazies” is better then the average zombie film. If you enjoy jumping here and there and can stand a little gore, “The Crazies” won’t disappoint.</span>
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Last updated: 2010-03-31 12:55:47 by parenthesizeme

The Crazies: Infectious Scares Cured with a Dose of Predictability

A remake of the 1973 George A. Romero cult classic, The Crazies is yet another attempt to mix a horrible infection with a gory horror plot-line. Here’s the breakdown:
After the citizens of Ogden Marsh, Iowa start acting strange, Sheriff David Dutton (Timothy Olyphant) must find out what is going on – and find a way to escape it.
The Monkey: While toeing the line of “zombie movie” closely, The Crazies manages an original feel. The infectious outbreak and subsequent military actions all feel relatively realistic, making the scare factor that much more visceral. Timothy Olyphant plays the determined sheriff well, managing to stay sufficiently scared and brave at the same time.
There are plenty of scary moments; however, they mostly consist of “jump-out” scares.
The best parts of the movie were when uninfected people were forced to violence and the line between “The Crazies” and the survivors became blurred – this felt like a much bigger plot device that was begging to be explored, but…
The Weasel: …it wasn’t. Just when it felt like the movie would actually try and say something about society, violence, survival…it reverted to a predictable horror film.
The viewer is never really convinced the main characters are in any danger. The rag-tag band of survivors is, as expected, killed off one-by-one as the movie progresses, but everyone knows the hero will make it (even after an Indiana Jones-style “Nuke the Fridge” escape at the movie’s climax).
Surprisingly, the movie wasn’t as gory as anticipated. Some viewers will like this and others will see it as a disappointment. As the movie starts to unravel towards cliche, a little bit of creative gore could have done this movie some good.
The movie is set up for a sequel; however, I’m not sure viewers will want to return to cover familiar territory.
A movie that truly delivers? No. A fun night out at the movies? Absolutely.
3 Death Stars out of 5
http://hearculturepop.wordpress.com/2010/03/01/the-crazies-infectious-scares-cured-with-a-dose-of-predictability/ 

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