The Crazies - Review

Timothy Olyphant goes into another middle American character role in the remake of George Romero's still underrated gem THE CRAZIES. Unlike the recent horrible horror wave of remakes, director Breck Eisner and the screenwriters create a more bleak and despairing touch to the source material with some nice new ideas. However, unlike the original which switched constantly between a small pack of citizens and the heads of military and science operations, this film stays only on the true Americans, painting the military as unknown creatures that hide behind black SUV's, global satellites, and gas masks. The political criticism is annexed off to simply make a menacing world of confusion and despair.



Olyphant plays the sheriff of a small town in Iowa, who is forced to kill one of the residents before a possible massacre can happen during a baseball game. The bizarre mentality and health of the resident is seemingly spreading and seen on others who enact horrible violence or display lack of thought and emotion. After discovering several hidden clues and a giant one in the local water supply, the sheriff is swept off along with everyone else by the military for deportation or containment from a deadly virus. Fearing for the lives of his friends and his wife, who was mistakenly taken away to be contained, Olyphant breaks them out and tries to escape with them out of the reach of the weapons-free army and the infected townspeople.



The cast is generally well done, with everyone hitting the marks necessary. Olyphant is fitting again in his usual human hero archetype but the film is often stolen by Joe Anderson, who plays the deputy. The constant ambiguity of his character is the best tension the film has and Anderson showcases it to perfection. Cinematography and sound design also get a special mention, which both bring striking emotional moments to some scenes, such as the car wash scene.



There are only a few errors in judgment to the picture; the sheriff's wife, played by Radha Mitchell, is characterized as a strong woman willing to sacrifice herself for a friend at first but by the end, she is given several scenes of being simply another woman in peril. The CG-ed global satellite imagery also ruins the mystery by giving dumbfounded viewers an easy explanation to the events. A las, these don't take away too much from this great re-imaging of Romero's original. In fact, it can be argued that this film is actually better and more engrossing to watch.





FINAL REVIEW: 4 / 5