'The Crazies'

'The Crazies' (R) ***1/2

Writers: Scott Kosar and and Ray Wright based on 1973 film by George Romero
Director: Breck Eisner
Starring: Timothy Olyphant, Radha Mitchell, Joe Anderson, Danielle Panabaker

I really hate it when Hollywood remakes classics and great movies! I never can figure out why you would want to remake "The Longest Yard", "The Bad News Bears", "Psycho". I think it would be better to remake either a very bad movie or a weak one that needed polishing. In 1973 horror master George Romero made a little low budget Zombie horror movie called "The Crazies". I recently saw it for the first time this past Halloween and I must say it didn't scare me and it was very goofy and boring. Finally someone picked a horror movie that needed a little upgrade and made it in to one of the best Zombie and horror movies in ages. I could kiss writers Scott Kosar and Ray Wright for writing one of the best remakes I have ever seen. The new Crazies movie is extremely fun, scary, tastefully gory and a very well directed shocker. This is one of the most glorious surprises I have encountered at the movies in a long time. I am frustrated lately by such inferior and lazy horror movie remakes like "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "The Hills Have Eyes". These remakes are ugly, dull carbon copies of the originals. "The Crazies" is fast paced, well written, acted and so much fun to experience for a horror movie. This remake has the same plot as the original but is much better.

The movie takes place in Iowa as a very small town starts to experience that spaced out look in some of the townsfolk who start to act strange. Well they actually start turning into stone faced killers or you might say Zombies. The town sheriff, his pregnant wife, his deputy and a high school girl start fighting off the Zombies and have to deal with government soldiers and they have no ideal why the soldiers are here. First of all the suspense in this film is masterful and well handled by director Breck Eisner who has quite a future ahead of him. The kill scenes are gory but not too bad that you have to run screaming from the aisles. The action scenes are fast paced and very exciting and the acting is solid. I like Timothy Olyphant is the sheriff and I have liked him in everything he has been in, he's a very good actor. Radha Mitchell as the wife is a beautiful, smart actress and when I see that she is in a movie like this I now expect it to be good. The deputy is played by Joe Anderson and I might see a new breakout star in the making here. They are all good and believable and the writers and director have made a smart, fun and brilliant horror movie that out does the master George Romero. There are three brilliant set pieces and they are masterfully directed. One is in a morgue and deals with that saw that doctors use to cut through ribs ( I am not a doctor so the heck if I know what it is called). That scene is a classic and is followed up by a shootout with zombies in a house that is so well edited and played out. The most classic scene deals with a car wash and it is one of the best scenes I have ever seen in a horror movie. On the heels of last year's brilliant spoof "Zombieland", the Zombie movie is back in a big way and I usually hate Zombie movies. I can't wait to see these two movies at the Brew n' View really soon I hope. "The Crazies" is the first great movie of 2010 and yes it is better than "Shutter Island".