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.