Consensus on The Crazies: Gub'ment gonna git ya

[Great Rumbler]

Built for one purpose only: to scare the crap out of you. Which it does, regularly and effectively. Don't go expecting anything deeper -- or anything less.

Impatient as they may be, the filmmakers never lose sight of what's important, namely keeping Dutton's rag-tag group of survivors sympathetic and perpetually in peril.

Olyphant, an actor capable of playing stoic heroes as well as sneering villains, anchors the movie with a believable sense of desperation, and the brief film doesn't waste a second on anything that doesn't bear directly on the crisis at hand.

A beautifully shot film that contains equal measures of style and gore.

This remake of a 1973 chiller is unlike almost every horror remake on the planet in one key way -- it's really good.

This is complete and utter anarchy with every person out for himself, as the idealistic American dream gives way in real-time to the darker impulse of self-preservation.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1205380-crazies/

Oh yeah, definitely going to see this on Saturday.

[Eric P]

Hmmm.

I need to see Shutter Island too.

[Mupepe]

want a date?

[Green Shinobi]

This is basically a zombie film, right?

[Tauntaun]

This movie looks goooooooood. 

[Positive Touch]

huh, this movie looked like complete shit to me. will wait for thread impressions

[Great Rumbler]

This is basically a zombie film, right?

More or less, yeah. In the movie, a biological weapon accidentally infects a small town. People that get infected go crazy and become extremely violent. There's a group of people trying to survive everyone going crazy and then there's the military coming in to try to contain the outbreak.

[Eric P]

so it's a rip off of 28 days later?

pass

[Great Rumbler]

so it's a rip off of 28 days later?

pass

No, it's a remake of the movie that 28 Days Later ripped off.

[Robo]

eric p annihilated.

will see.

[Eric P]

so it's a rip off of 28 days later?

pass

No, it's a remake of the movie that 28 Days Later ripped off.

Return of the living dead?

pass

[Great Rumbler]

so it's a rip off of 28 days later?

pass

No, it's a remake of the movie that 28 Days Later ripped off.

Return of the living dead?

pass

No, it's a remake of The Crazies, a lesser-known Romero zombie movie from the early 70's.

[Mupepe]

so it's a rip off of 28 days later?

pass

No, it's a remake of the movie that 28 Days Later ripped off.

Return of the living dead?

pass

You should pass.

Just see the original instead.  It's tons better than this looks to be.  This looks to be typical horror shit.  The original was creepy and awesome.

[Great Rumbler]

[youtube=560,345]lEMZwQulT1Q[/youtube]

[Diunx]

I'm the only one that prefers the effects of 70s, 80s horror movies over the ones today? the gore of the modern horror films is miles better than the oldies but for some reason I find the old effects a lot more creepy.

[Great Rumbler]

No, The Thing has some of the most awesome gore ever.

[Eel O'Brian]

i can't remember - in the original weren't they just crazy, without a bunch of shit all over their faces?  to me that's way scarier, can't spot the infected as easily.

[Eric P]

so it's a rip off of 28 days later?

pass

No, it's a remake of the movie that 28 Days Later ripped off.

Return of the living dead?

pass

No, it's a remake of The Crazies, a lesser-known Romero zombie movie from the early 70's.

I've never heard of it and I've seen every Romero film.  Dawn, Night, Land and Diary.

Dawn was the best because of Ving Rhames.  I felt like I could really empathize with his character.

[Great Rumbler]

so it's a rip off of 28 days later?

pass

No, it's a remake of the movie that 28 Days Later ripped off.

Return of the living dead?

pass

No, it's a remake of The Crazies, a lesser-known Romero zombie movie from the early 70's.

I've never heard of it and I've seen every Romero film.  Dawn, Night, Land and Diary.

Dawn was the best because of Ving Rhames.  I felt like I could really empathize with his character.

[youtube=560,345]knTCcLPaqVw[/youtube]

[Mupepe]

i can't remember - in the original weren't they just crazy, without a bunch of shit all over their faces?  to me that's way scarier, can't spot the infected as easily.

Yes.  Most acted completely normal while pulling off the crazy thing by being completely calm.

[Eel O'Brian]

so it's a rip off of 28 days later?

pass

No, it's a remake of the movie that 28 Days Later ripped off.

Return of the living dead?

pass

No, it's a remake of The Crazies, a lesser-known Romero zombie movie from the early 70's.

I've never heard of it and I've seen every Romero film.  Dawn, Night, Land and Diary.

Dawn was the best because of Ving Rhames.  I felt like I could really empathize with his character.

[Diunx]

so it's a rip off of 28 days later?

pass

No, it's a remake of the movie that 28 Days Later ripped off.

Return of the living dead?

pass

No, it's a remake of The Crazies, a lesser-known Romero zombie movie from the early 70's.

I've never heard of it and I've seen every Romero film.  Dawn, Night, Land and Diary.

Dawn was the best because of Ving Rhames.  I felt like I could really empathize with his character.

You didn't see Day? Nick Cannon performance would have changed my life if I were black.

[Eric P]

so it's a rip off of 28 days later?

pass

No, it's a remake of the movie that 28 Days Later ripped off.

Return of the living dead?

pass

No, it's a remake of The Crazies, a lesser-known Romero zombie movie from the early 70's.

I've never heard of it and I've seen every Romero film.  Dawn, Night, Land and Diary.

Dawn was the best because of Ving Rhames.  I felt like I could really empathize with his character.

[youtube=560,345]knTCcLPaqVw[/youtube]

 

[Great Rumbler]

What's not to understand? That's the trailer for the original The Crazies, directed by George Romero. I posted it because you said you'd never heard of the movie before.

[Bloodwake]

I think this looks like horseshit. And it's a remake. I'm not seeing too much to be excited about here.

[Great Rumbler]

I think this looks like horseshit. And it's a remake. I'm not seeing too much to be excited about here.

That's kind of what I thought too, but I'm surprised by how positive the early reviews have been so far. Kind of unusual for a small-time genre film.

Unless it dips a whole lot when more reviews come in, I'll give it a shot.

[Great Rumbler]

Some more reviews from RT's top critics:

This spirited yet faithful George Romero remake has the makings of a certified hit.

Eisner and his scenarists (Scott Kosar, Ray Wright) make changes mostly for the better, ramping up the horror factor via tighter focus on the imperiled locals and the requisite hike in gory violence.

It should not be judged for what it is not. But nearly everything about it works.

[The Fake Shemp]

I refuse to believe Eric P has never heard of The Crazies, because I'm pretty sure he's seen Martin - and Martin is the lesser known of the two.

[Great Rumbler]

I refuse to believe Eric P has never heard of The Crazies, because I'm pretty sure he's seen Martin - and Martin is the lesser known of the two.

Eric P has seemed to be very confused in this thread. Or drunk.

Anyway, The Crazies has 29 reviews so far [24 fresh and 5 rotten] with an average rating of 7.2.

RT's official consensus:

Tense, nicely shot, and uncommonly intelligent, The Crazies is the rare horror remake that works.

[Eric P]

Eric P is probably just fucking with you

[The Fake Shemp]

That seemed pretty obvious to me, but to the average consumer, sir?

I could care less what Rotten Tomatoes says, it looks pretty dumb. I'll give it a fair shot, but I wouldn't go or not go based on what critics say. According to the aggregator, it's rated higher than Shutter Island?

Perfect example why nobody should care about this shit.

[Great Rumbler]

People tend to overreact a bit when a good genre film comes out. But the fact that people ARE overreacting and giving a genre film such a high rating, is itself an indication that the movie has something going for it.

Does that make any sense?

[The Fake Shemp]

The fact that the expectations were so low that the remake managed to exceed them does not seem like much of a glowing endorsement to me. I can confidently say that nobody other than Eric P has clocked in more hours watching horror films - on this forum - than myself, and I'm not exactly doing jumping jacks in anticipation.

That said, I won't lie and say I won't be seeing it, because I pretty much watch any horror film that is released. And I mean any.

[Eel O'Brian]

have you seen dead snow?

[Great Rumbler]

Well, we'll see on Saturday whether it's worth watching or not, I suppose.

[The Fake Shemp]

have you seen dead snow?

It's next on my queue after I finish working through all my Hammer films.

[Ichirou]

I caught on to the fact that Eric P was fucking with people when he mentioned Ving Rhames.

[Eel O'Brian]

i'm about all zombied out as far as horror movies and anything else goes, but i thought the dead snow trailer looked pretty cool and the nazi zombie microgenre of horror always piques my interest

[Great Rumbler]

I caught on to the fact that Eric P was fucking with people when he mentioned Ving Rhames.

Yeah, that was a pretty clear giveaway. Eric P is clearly slipping.

[The Fake Shemp]

Eel, I just doubled-checked my queue and it's an instant streaming title now. I'll probably check it out this weekend and let you know. Since my brother is gone, and Disposable White Guy is busy, I'll wait to go see The Crazies.*

* I don't like to go to the movies alone, not because I'm scared - just because I find the experience kind of weird.

[Eel O'Brian]

whoa shit, didn't know it was instant streaming, watching tonight

[Eric P]

I caught on to the fact that Eric P was fucking with people when he mentioned Ving Rhames.

Yeah, that was a pretty clear giveaway. Eric P is clearly slipping.

well the 28 days later tip didn't do it

[Eel O'Brian]

whoa shit, didn't know it was instant streaming, watching tonight

MEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh

[Ichirou]

I caught on to the fact that Eric P was fucking with people when he mentioned Ving Rhames.

Yeah, that was a pretty clear giveaway. Eric P is clearly slipping.

well the 28 days later tip didn't do it

I didn't know you were a horror maven until Willco mentioned it later on.  If you hadn't heard of the movie and someone described it to you, it would be fair to assume it was a 28DL rip-off.

[Ecrofirt]

I'm stoked to see this, and as such have not read anything in this thread. I plan to go see it with my buddy this weekend. Woowoo!

[Green Shinobi]

I've seen all the mainline Romero "Dead" films except Diary. Haven't seen the original version of this though. Gotta check it out and then see how the remake compares.

[The Fake Shemp]

It's not that great. Like all early Romero work, its budget betrays the concept and if there was one Romero property that's not a sacred cow - it's The Crazies. I would have like to seen a more grounded remake, than what looks like 28 Days Later: United States Championship Edition.

Go watch Martin. It's the better Romero film.

[Green Shinobi]

I hadn't even heard of Martin before today. I'll check it out.

[The Fake Shemp]

Yeah, Diary was pretty bad.

[Green Shinobi]

Completely unrelated, but how is Craven's original version of The Hills Have Eyes? For whatever reason, I've found myself really coming to like the remake over the past few years (didn't like it at first), and I've been thinking of checking out the original.

[The Fake Shemp]

Like all of Craven's earlier stuff, it's raw and brutal. I really like it.

The remake is slick and mean, but I also dig it.

[Green Shinobi]

I went to go see the remake opening night with my old roommate, his girlfriend and two other buddies. All of us guys got really baked for it (remember that this film had a pretty awesome ad campaign).

We didn't know what we were getting into. At the time that was the first "hardcore" horror film I'd ever seen, and the others had even less horror experience than me. My buddy's girlfriend ran crying out of the theater during the trailer attack/rape scene.

[The Fake Shemp]

High Tension was also good

[Green Shinobi]

I really liked High Tension up until the twist.

That might be the only twist in the history of cinema that has entirely ruined a movie for me.

[Green Shinobi]

High Tension is like the horror movie version of the film that Charlie Kaufman's brother wrote in Adaptation.

[Great Rumbler]

Just got back from seeing The Crazies, here's some quick impressions:

The Pros:
-Blank stares of townspeople as they carry out brutal murders is pretty creepy
-Swift, brutal efficiency of the government/military adds another layer of tension
-Movie starts fast and generally doesn't let up all the way through until the end
-The ending was pretty good

The Cons:
-A few twists can't disguise a cliched plot
-A bit too many jump scares and last-second saves courtesy of off-camera characters

It was entertaining and it does try to be a bit deeper than the average zombie flick. I'd probably take 28 Weeks Later over it though.

[The Fake Shemp]

28 Weeks Later was stupid. That comparison almost makes me want to wait until Netflix.

[Mupepe]

If 28 weeks later is better than this then bomb this shit from space.  I'll most likely wait or sneak into it.  I'll probably just be comparing it to the original and bitching anyways.  I'd rather give my money to shutter island and sneak into this.

[Great Rumbler]

28 Weeks Later had chopping up zombies with a helicopter blade, which instantly puts it above 99% of the movies out there. I mean, come on.

[The Fake Shemp]

Well, you did like Avatar, so I can see you're easily entertained.