Runtime: 101 minutes
Directed by: Breck Eisner
Starring: Timothy
Olyphant, Radha Mitchell, Joe Anderson, Danielle Panabaker, Christie
Lynn Smith
From: Overture/Participant
Probably the only movie where characters WANT to reach Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
August, I watched then reviewed the original The Crazies, the 1973 low-budget outing from George A. Romero. While obviously made on a budget and having local actors which were not always up to snuff, it was still good overall as it was quite bleak and showed what happened to the residents of a bucolic little town in Pennsylvania after a horrible government-made biological weapon is accidentally unleashed... along with the incompetent, bureaucratic federal government attempting to contain and create a cure, which was nigh impossible due to the quagmire of controls and protocol that were needlessly set up.
As the original movie isn't seen by most people to be a classic but rather an enjoyable lark, I was not offended that this was remade as something different could be done with the idea and/or there would be benefits to having more experienced actors and a higher budget. Well, this motion picture did just that and I do rate it the same as the original-it was not something I regretted viewing, in other words. This time, the focus is only on a few people trying to survive (chiefly, the sheriff of a rural town in Iowa and his wife) and the point of view of the government is never shown. The action is ramped up, along with the horror elements.
While there was a “wait a minute now” moment or two, otherwise this is a worthwhile remake which isn't an insult to the original and while much of the social commentary is gone, one aspect that this has over the original is the ability to connect more to the leads due to all the time spent with them, and that quartet ( Timothy Olyphant, Radha Mitchell, Joe Anderson, Danielle Panabaker) all do a nice job; as others have noted, Olyphant just looks and comes across as a B movie hero. There are fine horror/thriller setpieces throughout and I was glad that this was an R-rated film which was not only bloody and had some nasty deaths, but that the tone was not drastically different from what Romero did in the early 70's. Thus, a genre remake that isn't a waste of time... which too many do fit in that category, regrettably.
August, I watched then reviewed the original The Crazies, the 1973 low-budget outing from George A. Romero. While obviously made on a budget and having local actors which were not always up to snuff, it was still good overall as it was quite bleak and showed what happened to the residents of a bucolic little town in Pennsylvania after a horrible government-made biological weapon is accidentally unleashed... along with the incompetent, bureaucratic federal government attempting to contain and create a cure, which was nigh impossible due to the quagmire of controls and protocol that were needlessly set up.
As the original movie isn't seen by most people to be a classic but rather an enjoyable lark, I was not offended that this was remade as something different could be done with the idea and/or there would be benefits to having more experienced actors and a higher budget. Well, this motion picture did just that and I do rate it the same as the original-it was not something I regretted viewing, in other words. This time, the focus is only on a few people trying to survive (chiefly, the sheriff of a rural town in Iowa and his wife) and the point of view of the government is never shown. The action is ramped up, along with the horror elements.
While there was a “wait a minute now” moment or two, otherwise this is a worthwhile remake which isn't an insult to the original and while much of the social commentary is gone, one aspect that this has over the original is the ability to connect more to the leads due to all the time spent with them, and that quartet ( Timothy Olyphant, Radha Mitchell, Joe Anderson, Danielle Panabaker) all do a nice job; as others have noted, Olyphant just looks and comes across as a B movie hero. There are fine horror/thriller setpieces throughout and I was glad that this was an R-rated film which was not only bloody and had some nasty deaths, but that the tone was not drastically different from what Romero did in the early 70's. Thus, a genre remake that isn't a waste of time... which too many do fit in that category, regrettably.
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