The Crazies (2010)

Firstly, I have to say this would make a great Double Feature with Nathan Fillian's Slither. I think they would make a rockin' pair - that or possibly Stephen King's The Mist.

At any rate, this is a fun film that offers all the action/suspense/horror that movies like this are supposed to do. And it does that pretty darn well. One of the strongest points are the filming itself. This film moved nicely between heavy and lighter scenes. Some of the shots are both memorable and downright amazing. The people behind the cameras knew what they were doing. The characters were a little light, but likable and played well by their actors. I felt suspense, which is rare for me these days.

Downsides:

A. The plot jumps a little too quickly

B. Would have liked to see more "crazy"

C. A couple scenes were a little cliché

D. Oh darn! It's a re-make.

Fmovies: Although recently I have seen quite a few horror films, I am not very familiar with the original horror classics made by George Romero. Most of them are supposed to be thrilling and much better than the modern day remakes, yet I did enjoy Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead (2004). Originality is hard to develop in horror films because most audiences have seen everything before in previous motion pictures. You can make a blood-splattering zombie, vampire, or serial killer movie but chances are another filmmaker has already created a film with a similar story, bigger stars, and more gore. Yet every once in a while a director will come up with a clever story in order to make up for the lack of innovation in modern horror films. Last year's Paranormal Activity (2009) is one of those exceptions and so is Breck Eisner's The Crazies (2010).

If our own government accidentally dropped a biological weapon on a small country town, would it take precautions to cover it up or would it admit the mistake and take necessary measures to help those infected? This is the situation in The Crazies, in which each family of a small town in Iowa begin developing violent symptoms and start losing their minds. One day at a high school baseball game a local farmer comes onto a baseball field with a double barrel shotgun. After failing to talk the crazed man out of dropping the gun, the local sheriff named David Dutton (Timothy Olyphant) is forced to shoot him. At first it is believed that the incident was a consequence of the farmer drinking too much but soon other citizens of the town begins acting in a familiar way. One man burns his house down while his wife and child are locked within. Another man appears to have lost the ability to speak. Confused about what is happening, David and his deputy go searching for possible leads to what could be causing the disturbing behavior of the locals. In their search they discover a crashed plane underneath the town's river and they soon see that it is no coincidence that those who live closest to the water supply are slowly developing symptoms of the strange disease. A few days after the first signs of the virus, military personnel suddenly appear and take everyone in town into custody. At the military base, David and his wife are separated because it is believed that she has been infected. The rest of the film follows David's journey to try and save his wife. Can he trust the government to do the right thing and take care of his wife or is he the only one who can save her? Although the Crazies themselves are entertaining, it is nothing viewers probably haven't seen before. They basically act exactly like zombies minus the biting. What separates this film from other horror films are the emotions shared by the main characters and the political questions brought up about how our government might handle the accidental insurgence of biological weapons on U.S. soil. Naturally every character begins to become paranoid over the fact that his or her friends and family may have become infected, yet how to you deal with knowing that your loved ones will soon become uncontrollably disturbed and may try to kill you. It is amazing, yet understandable how people's personalities can suddenly change at the first sign of any danger.

Overall, The Crazies has enough action and gore to satisfy horror movie fans, but is also clever enough to separate it from most other modern horror remakes. So far this has been the biggest surprise for me in 2010.

Even outside the fact that The Crazies is actually a remake of a 1973 George A. Romero film, I have a feeling most audiences still have the "infection" flicks of the past decade still fresh on their minds. Over the past ten years, we've endured quite a few and several have even packed quite a bit of wallop (28 Days Later, Planet Terror, etc.). While I feel Breck Eisner's 2010 redux of The Crazies isn't anything new in this regard, I still found myself entertained over the course of the 100 minute runtime.

This may have something to do with the fact that I grew up in a small town in southern America not too unlike the isolated Iowa setting of the film and I can recognize the small town obsession and paranoia of larger political/governmental interests heaving themselves on the livelihood of small town folk and invading their way of living. That idea has been exaggerated in a worst-possible-scenario with The Crazies. The remoteness of the society works to the advantage of the film quite well. Perhaps even too well as some audience members may wonder where the rest of the world is when all of this is happening. The American media of all shapes and forms would have had a field day reporting over anything vaguely resembling this mess.

The direction is impressive with much attention to detail taken from behind the camera. It's especially comforting that the director didn't depend solely on violence. Eisner even cuts away from some of the more graphic "impact" moments, coincidentally making more of a psychological impact on the audience.

The film moves with brisk pace as our heroes struggle to survive the unthinkable. Eisner, like Romero, is astute at making Hazmat suits and the traditional gas mask into terrifying images. The very presence of such an image confronting you effectively sends a feeling of utter helplessness into the audience—as if you are caught in the middle of something far beyond your control. Our central characters seem vulnerable and "exposed" at every turn as a result while scary military men in full bio-garb follow close at their heels.

There are some issues that prevented me from loving the film, though. The script could have used a little work as plot holes were easily noticeable and characters were either very thinly developed or, at times, made ridiculous decisions. Like another recent "zombie" film, Zombieland, occasional over-the-top actions of some of the characters seemed out of place. There is very little, to no, character development in the film and most of the roles are simply caricatures we've seen in countless other movies. Thankfully Timothy Olyphant (whom has been on my radar since Deadwood), Radha Mitchell (who's becoming somewhat of a scream queen, isn't she?), and a surprising performance from Joe Anderson add credibility to such events.

Many twists and turns the film takes aren't very surprising, but The Crazies manages to keeps atmosphere flowing throughout most of the films scenes. While protagonists investigating barns and being captured by increasingly menacing foes becomes rather monotonous towards the films conclusion, the film just manages to get away while not overstaying it's welcome.

Eisner is apparently in the mood for more of this horror remake mayhem since he's already in discussions to potentially direct remakes of The Brood and Creature from the Black Lagoon. As for The Crazies, this venture does its original quite a bit more justice than many of the

The Crazies fmovies. Having a horror film succeed on nearly every level is a rare manifestation these days; The Crazies is beyond slick, excellently acted, tense, is a remake that doesn't suck for once, and the to top it all? This re-imagining joins the exclusive club of a remake that trumps the original. (And thoroughly at that) No offence to the great George A. Romero who created the minor 'classic' back in 1973, but that movie was a poor effort in almost every capacity.

Director Breck Eisner's Crazies is moody and smart with a great sense of humour about it. It never delves into self-seriousness, not tries to be overtly political. It evokes a sort of mash-up of Dawn of the Dead and Outbreak. There are some unapologetically relentless sequences propped by unbearable tension and horror and others of pure adrenaline fuelled mayhem and action. The marriage of horror and action that worked so well in films like 28 Days/Weeks Later succeeds here as well and has enough of a personal moral stance to not seem like a cookie-cutter studio product.

In the quintessential hick town of Ogden Marsh, the small populous go about their normal hick activities; prepare for the spring plant, attend the popular town baseball games and for one young couple, prepare for the birth of their first child. David and Judy Dutton (played superbly by Timothy Olyphant and Radha Mitchell) are the town sheriff and doctor respectively both of whom are well liked in the close-knit township. Suddenly, strange things begin to happen. Townsfolk begin acting odd, prone to violence and murder and bodies begin to pile up. Soon, the town is in disarray and thing go from bad to worse fast with the arrival of government forces who quickly cordon off the town and become more terrifying then the crazies themselves. With his deputy, the sheriff does everything in his power to get his budding family out of hell in time.

One of many things I admire about The Crazies is it doesn't pussyfoot around. There is no dull build-up in which all key characters are given an introduction. We are thrust into the action right off the start and get to know the characters as the panic ensues. Joe Anderson as the deputy gets the most interesting character arc; again I will make a comparison to 2004's Dawn of the Dead this time regarding the character of CJ which one could attribute a number of similarities, including a killer moustache. Radha Mitchell who is no stranger to horror films having starred in flicks such as Rogue, Silent Hill and Pitch Black among others is perfectly suited for the role of strong female protagonist. Olyphant who has ample charisma is also pitch perfect as the compassionate but driven Sheriff and I hope roles like this will get him the leading jobs he deserves.

The Crazies also benefits from having to real villain; it is more a movie of circumstances than black and white, good vs. evil. The shortcomings of this film are those found in many horror movies. We get jolts of sound that accompany boo! moments, but thankfully this is secondary to the impending sense of dread that makes up the movies core. The very final scene is one we have witnessed so many times before and the only thing that's comes to mind as I continue to see it is that the director does not have enough confidence in the films effectiveness. Small quibbles aside this is one of the best horror films of the last ten years and stands as proof that if care is taken all horror remakes don't have to make us crazy.

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A remake of the original movie made by George Romero in the 1970s, The Crazies tells the story of what happens after a highly infectious contagion finds its way into a rural water supply after a classified plane crashes and turns the previously down to earth townsfolk into violent rampaging killers – the 'Crazies' of the title. First off it's fair to say that the new version of The Crazies is a vastly superior film to the original. The story is very well set up and generally builds momentum at a nice pace. You don't feel like you're being plunged blindly into the action.

Of course the story isn't exactly new. While it still remains a brilliant premise and was no doubt unique in the 70s when the original was made, nowadays we've seen this type of thing many times before. Movies such as Rec, its remake Quarantine, 28 Days Later, its sequel 28 Weeks Later and the Dawn of the Dead remake have saturated an already overcrowded market - with probably yet more to come. But while it's easy to say that the remake is just another in the aforementioned cycle of movies, it must also be pointed that when Romero did the original, he arguably invented a new genre just like he did when he made Night of the Living Dead: as well as 'the dead coming back to life' genre, Romero gave us 'the killer virus that turns normal people into insane killers' genre. The reality of the matter is by making those movies all those years ago, he was virtually inventing two types of story that would be mined again and again in later decades in everything from films and books to video games. If the aforementioned 28 Days Later is credited with the resurgence of the zombie flick, then it must also be acknowledged the debit it too owes Romero's original 'Crazies' film: this is no zombie flick. In both movies the victims are not the walking dead, but alive and kicking, albeit completely insane.

While the production value is much bigger than the 70s release, the acting in the remake beats the original hands down. This is a movie with something for everyone: for the gals, there's Timothy Olyphant while Radha Mitchell supplies the goods for the guys. Playing the town Sheriff, Olyphant makes for a solid, likable and charismatic lead. Based on what he does here, surely A-list status and multi million dollar action roles are within his grasp. Similarly, playing his wife, Radha Mitchell brings a lot of gravitas and humility to her role and creates a very likable character. It's one of those rare moments of credibility – and good casting - where the chemistry between two principals is so strong, you actually believe they could be married in real life and because of this, you're rooting for them every step of the way while everything around them is going to hell.

There are two definite stand-out scenes in the movie: one set in a quarantine area with a group of people strapped to gurneys while a previously carefree towns person lumbers around wielding a pitch fork is chilling, while another, set in a car wash where every slap on the windscreen is to be feared, is relentlessly claustrophobic. These aren't just great scenes, its great film-making. The Crazies is a very well made film. Even the age-old and rather hackneyed 'no signal for the cell phone' problem, typical in movies such as this, is solved very neatly here. Rather than having it as a throwaway line of dialog, it's worked effectively into the plot. Plus in another key moment that can only be described as jaw

George Romero's 1973 cult classic was a fun film. It focused a lot on the government and the scientists trying to figure out the cure. It also had some solid chaos in it. It was a very memorable low-budget film and when a remake was announced, I was not pleased.

Boy do I love it when I am wrong sometimes! The Crazies remake was a fun film. It had the tension, the violence, subtle social commentary regarding how the politics in America work, and it was a fun thrill ride. What I loved most was the violence. The story was pretty faithful to the original and all it needed to do was up the violence. Great fun and it kept you guessing when things were going to turn bad. The tension was perfect. Easily one of the better horror remakes I have seen in the last few years. My only minor gripe with this film was the ending. I won't spoil it, but it felt a little lame to me. However, I liked the movie so much, I want a sequel! How crazy is that?!