Film Reviews 
 
 The Crazies -- Film Review 
 
 "The Crazies" 
 
 Bottom Line: This spirited yet faithful George Romero remake has the makings of a certified hit. 
 
 A lesser-known entry in the George A. Romero living dead oeuvre, 1973's "The Crazies" has been given the remake treatment to surprisingly satisfying effect.Part zombie movie, part apocalyptic bioterror, part military conspiracy thriller, the refit hybrid doesn't stint on the visceral kicks demanded by contemporary audiences while remaining reasonably true to those Romero roots.Given its menacing print marketing campaign (that floor-scraping pitchfork) and well-timed drop into an unsaturated marketplace, genre fans could really go nuts for this Overture Films release.Although the new version is more visually expansive than Romero's ultralow-budget original, director Breck Eisner retains its minimalist spirit in the depiction a rural Midwestern town thrown into chaos after a deadly toxin leaches into its water supply.With the inhabitants of sleepy Ogden Marsh systematically turning into grisly, brain-damaged killers, Sheriff David Dutton (a convincing Timothy Olyphant) and his physician-wife, Judy (Radha Mitchell), manage to remain among the dwindling ranks of the unaffected.But just as they discover the top-secret source of the contaminant, the military, in a bid to clean up its mess, quarantines the town and herds its denizens into a high-security holding camp.Although the original, which also was released as "Code Name: Trixie," was very much a product of the Vietnam era, the plot (which also was deviously co-opted by "The Simpsons Movie") holds up sufficiently in the update by Scott Kosar ("The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" redo) and Ray Wright.For Eisner, it's a far more focused effort than his first feature, 2005's scattered "Sahara."He exhibits a real atmospheric feel for the genre, and those carefully composed set pieces -- especially one set in a seemingly abandoned automated car wash -- have been calibrated for maximum intensity.His everyman protagonists, also including Joe Anderson ("Across the Universe") as Olyphant's no-nonsense deputy and Danielle Panabaker as Mitchell's office assistant, keep it real, and cinematographer Maxime Alexandre ("High Tension") and production designer Andrew Menzies ("Avatar") keep it evocative. ||||| One of the year's nicest bloody surprises, the remake of the 1973 George A. Romero virus thriller "The Crazies" must be approached with the proper expectations. It should not be judged for what it is not. But nearly everything about it works.The low-budget spirit (and fact) of the Romero original, which wasn't very original to begin with, keeps this barreling B movie on track. Among other felicities, director Breck Eisner's virus-is-loose picture features an extremely tense scene set in a car wash. So you can check that off your list of things you never thought you'd see in a horror movie.The location has moved from Romero's beloved, besieged Pennsylvania to a farming community in Iowa. (The film was shot in both Iowa and Georgia.) First sign of trouble: During the high school baseball opener, a troubled townie in overalls, carrying a shotgun, walks onto the field looking as if he's about to kill someone. After a standoff with the sheriff (Timothy Olyphant), the man is shot dead. One by one, in the next couple of days, the good people of Ogden Marsh become murderous lunatics, owing to a nearby downed plane carrying germ-warfare viral nastiness leaking straight into the town's water supply.As in Romero's Vietnam-era original, the adversary is the U.S. government, which, after the craziness starts, launches "containment protocol," leading to many, many dead residents of the once-peaceable town. A trio of duck hunters turns into a ravaging pack of human slayers; in an excellent, chaotic scene, the local mortician goes nuts on the sheriff with some awful-looking cutting equipment.Romero's original version is a minor work in his major canon. I greatly prefer this cleverly sustained and efficiently relentless remake to the '73 edition. It is lean and simple, and eventually becomes a tale of a quartet of survivalists against The Man and the zombie -like Crazies. The sheriff, his pregnant doctor wife (), the increasingly frazzled deputy (Joe Anderson) and the doctor's teenage assistant (Danielle Panabaker) grind through one attack and counterattack after another, yet the movie itself never becomes a grind. Eisner ("Sahara" ) knows how to film a sport utility vehicle pulling into a gravel parking lot in a hurry without it looking like every other shot in existence. Cinematographer Maxime Alexandre keeps the palette ominously brackish, and while editor Billy Fox has one too many whoops-I-scared-you! moments to deal with, even these come off with more wit and variety than usual.MPAA rating:R (for bloody violence and language)Cast:Timothy Olyphant (Sheriff Dutton); Radha Mitchell (Dr. Judy Dutton); Joe Anderson (Russell); Danielle Panabaker (Becca)Credits:Directed by Breck Eisner; written by Scott Kosar and Ray Wright , based on the 1973 film; produced by Michael Aguilar , Dean Georgaris and Rob Cowan . An Overture Films release. Running time: 1:41.This homage to the vision of George A. Romero is just the latest in a long line of films featuring a serum-weapon-cure gone wrong, warping average humans into mindless murderers. Here are a few other favorites:‘Night of the Living Dead" (1968):Romero's zombiecareer began with a burst of space-related radiation that inspires some Pennsylvania residents to dine on their neighbors. "28 Days Later" (2002):Animal rights activists free a critter infected with a mysterious rage virus, which doesn't act any better than it sounds when it skips to humans. With Cillian Murphy and Brendan Gleeson starring, this plague starts in England."I Am Legend" (2007):Lots of humans die, but it's a German shepherd that jerks the tears as Will Smith attempts to find a cure for the night creatures impacted by an errant cancer cure.
– Mike Hale of the New York Times dismisses The Crazies—Breck Eisner's remake of the 1973 George Romero flick—as "not crazy enough." But just about everybody else seems sufficiently freaked by this B-movie tale of bio-weapons gone wrong in small-town America: Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune says it beats the original and hails it as "one of the year's nicest bloody surprises." "Fans could really go nuts for this," writes Michael Rechtshaffen for the Hollywood Reporter. The Crazies "has the makings of a certified hit." Dennis Harvey of Variety calls it "an above-average genre piece." It's "equal parts horror-meller and doomsday action thriller."