Thursday, March 24, 2011

The Crazies

Netflix sez...
2009 R 101 minutes
When a plane crashes in a small town, a secret biological weapon is released. As the toxic substance infiltrates the local water system, some residents become gravely ill, while others descend into homicidal madness. Sheriff David Dutton (Timothy Olyphant) attempts to set things straight, but soon the military becomes involved in containing the killer virus. Breck Eisner directs this chilling remake of George A. Romero's 1973 horror classic.


The 73rd Virgin sez...
Nothing original here but still a nicely made zombie/slasher chimera. The first half suffers from very few of the idiot plot devices so familiar to the horror fan. Very good acting with an energetic script and several carefully lit dawn and dusk outdoor scenes all contribute to a good experience. A corn field at dawn can be as scary as a warehouse at night.

The second half introduces several idiot plot devices (gee, we can split up and I can sit here at the pie counter waiting to get attacked or I can maybe fill another back pack with bottled water - I choose A!) and after a while it seems like our heroes are just going from one encounter with the military to one encounter with zombies and then back again until it runs a bit too long.

Hollywood keeps getting better at hazmat containment scenes, crowd control scenes, and triage scenes, so it is better looking than most anything more than a few years old. Scary enough with good attractive actors, and a decent ending. 4 stars until the plot goes south. 3 stars out of 5.

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