The Crazies- movie review

Now I know there will be the die hard purists that will throw their hands up in the air when they realise I'm reviewing the re-imagining version of the Crazies instead of the Romero original. As much as I liked the Romero version I have to say this is the 2nd time a re-imagining of Romero's movies have happened and this is the 2nd time I've been pleasantly surprised by what was done. So, let's just jump right on into the review.







The Crazies movie review



By Richard Serrao




Directed by Breck Eisner

Starring: Tomothy Olyphant, Radha Mitchell, Judy Dutton, Joe Anderson, Russell Clank, and Danielle Panabaker.

Run time: 101 minutes

Genre: Mystery, thriller, horror.

Rating: R for Bloody violence and scenes of a disturbing nature.

There are just so many movies that come out every year and let's be honest, the majority of them are a complete disappointment. Then once in a while a movie comes out of left field and just surprises me in a good way. Well I'm happy to say this version of The Crazies was one of the good surprises.

Imagine how surprised I was when I saw that once again Hollywood was remaking another movie that I loved. The Crazies by George Romero. Good God Almighty. I groaned. Why do they do this to all of the movies that I love. To hope that they would follow in Zack Snyder's footsteps and create something new from a Romero movie like he did was a LOT to ask for.

Then I saw the first trailer for the movie and was very intrigued. I didn't want to get my hopes up too much but despite myself I did begin to hope.

This version of The Crazies has more polish to the look of the Original film. Romero's film had more of the Grindhouse look to it with it's utter rawness. This version looked way too nice and beautiful at first, setting the stage for all of the insanity to come.

The story starts up by establishing the type of quiet town the story takes place in. We've all seen that type before in real life and on film. The kind of town where the first day of Baseball season is a big deal and everyone turns out to watch the town's team play. It's just how it is. This is the kind of place where people don't lock their doors at night and crime is far and few between. Idyllic and peaceful. So when the town drunk shows up at the baseball game carrying a Shotgun and looking quite messed up, you see the tone of the movie begin to change. He gets killed by the local Sheriff for pointing the Shotgun at him and it sends shock waves through the community. The peaceful veneer of tranquility begins to crack. The mood of the town and it's people have become somber. Everyone is in shock.

The Sheriff is haunted by having to kill the poor man and the stress begins to show on his face and in his actions. The tension level begins to rise as more and more inhabitants of this normally quiet town have begun exhibiting strange and violent behavior. More and more strange events have begun to permeate their everyday lives. The question is, why is all of this happening? This is answered quite succinctly when some hunters find a corpse while hunting with a parachute attached to him. From the look of him he's definitely Military but if his parachute has been deployed then that means that his plane can't be far. But where? How about the one place you wouldn't want a plane carrying an unknown payload: The Town's water supply.

From here on in the movie kicks into high gear and never lets you catch your breath. No Internet, no cellular service and no phone service. The Town has been cut off from the rest of the world with no way to call for help. It literally feels like no one is safe during this point of the film. Every single aspect of the film is delivered to us the viewer with a solid expertise. The Director, the Actors, the Score or lack thereof and lastly the awesome Special Effects that were used.

If you didn't see this movie yet because you're a big fan of the Original by Romero, then please take the time to check this version out. It's not a remake. This version adds so much more to the story than a typical remake would and this is one of the rare cases when a re-imagining of a classic movie has actually in my humble opinion been a better movie than the Original.

Check it out for yourself and let me know what you think.

Rich.

Desperado movie review

This review was originally slated to run on http://www.bluntforcebeating.com/ but unfortunately the site folded due to various reasons I can't get into. I was of course one of the contributors to the site and worked my butt off, so I was very sorry to see it go under.




Desperado is one of the first movies I saw from Director Robert Rodriguez and of course afterwards i went and found El Mariachi and so began my love affair with Rodriguez's many films he would come to direct. I figure why not start with the movie that first captured my attention.

Call this a classic movie review.

Desperado

Directed by Robert Rodriguez

Starring Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Cheech Marin, Joachim De Almeida, Quentin Tarantino, Steve Buscemi and Danny Trejo.

Runtime 104 minutes

MPA Rating: R

Genre: Action,Thriller, Crime and Drama.

Robert Rodriguez has proven himself as a Director time and time again with the multitude of movies that he directed. He continues to be the most visually creative and fun to watch Director from his generation. To me it seems like he does his best work when he has little to no interference from the big Hollywood Machine.

There is a big aspect of Rodriguez;s work that has impressed me time and time again. Of course we could list his work ethic, his visually ability to tell a story concise and clearly and while those are all big aspects of what I love about this Director. The biggest thing that continues to impress me is his ability to take whatever his budget is and make it look 10 times bigger than what it actually is. In this day and age I think this is very admirable. Some people never consider somethig like this when they watch a movie but this is one of the first things I look at. I love to see and feel like the Director not only used his budget to make the story more impressive but actually took things a step further. Just consider what Desperado cost to make back in the day: 6 Million dollars. Now I know this might seem like a lot to the average person but when it comes to a movie's budget this is chicken feed. At the time an average action movie would cost upwars of 30-100 million dollars. Now that figure has jumped to an insane dollar value, just go back and rewatch the movie and you'll see what I mean.
He truly does blow my mind with how he takes the cooler elements of the Grindhouse era( like Tarantino) and bring it seemlessly into our era.

Spoilers-------------------Spoilers-----------------Spoilers------------Spoilers---------------

Desperado is the sequel to Rodriguez's first film El Mariachi ( which if you haven't seen it and you love action movies, do yourself a favor and go and watch it), even though he changed the actor playing his main character, who is now played with an intense demeanor by Antonio Banderas, this doesn't diminsh anything with this sequel. In fact this is one of the few instances where a sequel actually eclipsed the original film that started a franchise. Banderas is beyond flawless. Very similar in style and character develpment as a John Woo movie ( see- Bullet In The Head,Hardbolied, The Killer and a Better Tommorrow), which is saying a lot right there.

Salma Hayek. Wow. This was the first movie I saw with her and man o man did she set the screen on fire. You could literally see every male in the movie theater follow every move she made when she was on screen. Aye Caramba indeed. Her incredible sex appeal and innocence broke more hearts and jump started crushes than any female star of her generation.

Cheech Marin as a sleazy bartender, talk about perfect casting. Personally I kept wanting to yell out where is Chong during the movie but I didn't want to get lynched or thrown out of the movie for that matter.

Desperado begins right after El Mariachi ends with Banderas looking for a man called Bucho, who is one of the biggest drug dealers in all of Mexico. Even if you've never seen El Mariachi, Banderas' reasons for hunting Bucho become very apparent in a flashback scene that sets the story and action in motion.

If you want your action sequences bloody,violent and extreme, then you've come to the right place because that's what you'll get from this movie. In spades. The acting is dead on without ever becoming a parody of itself or talking down to the viewer. The overacting and mugging for the camera is kept to a minimum. Even when Tarantino does his thing, while being very self indulgent and obvious it still works within the confines of the story that Rodriguez has established.

Well worth dusting this baby off, popping her into your dvd player and giving her a spin.

Now this is an action movie.

Rich.