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The Crazies (2010)

Director: Breck Eisner

Time Out rating

Average user rating

4 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

George Romero’s original ‘The Crazies’ was a prime slice of raw mid-’70s exploitation schlock: scruffy, violent and politically edgy. Breck Eisner’s remake is slicker, prettier and dumber, but not entirely without merit. The cast is very strong: Timothy Olyphant exudes old-fashioned tough-guy charm as the small town sheriff whose constituents begin falling prey to a disease which turns them into bloodthirsty zombies, while Radha Mitchell provides credible if thankless support as his wife. There’s also an impressively high-strung turn from Joe Anderson (Peter Hook in ‘Control’) as a redneck cop on the brink.

But the film feels choppy and roughly edited, as though its makers were so keen to keep it short that they hacked out any scares, atmosphere or sense of impending dread. There’s too much story and key details are absent or underexplained. Though far from unwatchable, ‘The Crazies’ feels like a missed opportunity.

Author: Tom Huddleston

Time Out London Issue 2062: Feb 25–Mar 3, 2010

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User reviews of this film

Iain said...

Posted on Aug 01 2010 04:49 Breck (son of Michael) Eisner managed to create a movie which is set entirely in Iowa farmland but without a single dog, barnyard cat, horse or cow in sight (oh, excuse me, there was a 'moo' or two on the soundtrack in the night barn scene...) I know it's getting prohibitively expensive to work with animals in films (in the US it is anyway), but surely Eisner could have persuaded his financiers to cough up for some local livestock color, so to speak? Romero's original, foregrounding a tattered Old Glory against a background of anarchic miltaristic horror, managed to make an astringent comment on Kent State-massacre-era America. Eisner, however, offers preposterously laundered and well-groomed heterosexuals running all over the place while lots of things blow up. As Tom H. points out, there's zero atmosphere, zero dread, zero anxiety and a whole shitload of wasted narrative opportunities.

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critique said...

Posted on Mar 12 2010 22:38 Opens intriguingly but soon descends into standard genre territory.

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A said...

Posted on Mar 08 2010 22:55 The film was quite good beter then alice in woderland, blood, guts and action

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Michael Hardy said...

Posted on Mar 08 2010 12:30 Cliche, cliche , cliche!! Very predictable, it never really got going and i was disapointed with the movie overall. I feel you be much better off putting your money into Alice In Wonderland or From Paris With Love.

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