The Crazies (2010)
The Crazies Directed by Breck Eisner and written by Scott Kosnar and Ray Wright is a remake of the 1973 classic by the King of the Undead - George A. Romero. While The Crazies may start to look like the undead as time progresses they are not actually of the zombie variety. The Crazies IS an outbreak movie, however there is no plague destroying the country it is just a disease that is causing people to act 'crazy' though there is no rhyme or reason to how it plays out at parts.
It's set in a small town that has a picture perfect setting until a baseball game is interrupted by a man walking onto the field with a shotgun in hand and Sheriff Dutton (Timothy Olyphant) has to shoot him in self defense. Soon after more of the town's populace starts to act 'strangely' and while the sheriff has a hunch that the drinking water may be to blame he is unable to offer up enough proof to have it turned off so turns it off manually. Interestingly enough this is the last time we hear anything about the water. The town quickly starts to become infected and out of nowhere the United States military puts the entire county on lock down.
I'm going to stop right here and interject with my main problem with the movie. In any 'outbreak' movie you pretty much have those are become infected, those who are immune, and those who are able to avoid the infection. Now what I ENJOY seeing outbreak films, they are my favorite kind of movie, I enjoy when the outbreak follows this quite easy standard. The "crazies" that are infected though do not follow this formula that well. They have some crazies that don't talk with some that do. Some that work in groups while the majority appear to be loners. I know the very idea that people going crazy shouldn't follow a set pattern however if the government quickly locks down the area you know they are involved. If the government is going to create a disease I see them having first off something easier to control, second off not having it accidentally be let on the loose how it is, and thirdly just no.
Now I'm not saying this is a movie you will never want to watch, but what I am saying is that you can either wait for it to come out on rental or if you haven't seen it yet do yourself a favor and watch the original. Romero's classic, while updated, really just wasn't done justice with the remake. I am an adamant Romero fanboy though this doesn't skew my opinions on his re-makes. Dawn of the Dead remake? I loved it. Day of the Dead "remake?" (if you can call it that) Hated it. The Crazies re-make? Meh. It felt as if they wanted to build up the military as well as one group of the crazies up (which I won't give a spoiler on though it is quickly obvious as to who I'm talking about) as the antagonists and failed to have either truly deliver. The military ended up just being speed bumps and the final fight between Sheriff Dutton and said crazies went by far too quickly and easily.
