Day 26. After watching and reviewing 25 movies each day this past month, it’s relieving knowing how close to the end I am. When I started this self imposed challenge I had instilled a lot of doubt within myself. First, I honestly wasn’t completely sure if I would be able to follow through. I was also worried that I would have nothing to say, and that no one would read any of my reviews. I knew though, that since I had made a verbal commitment to Narde (the owner of this site), I had to go hard and not give up. It’s one thing to be excited about the prospects of a new challenge and project, but it’s a different story when you are in the midst of things. Feeling pressure about not wanting to fail, I trudged through. This process has been very time consuming, and there were definitely times I wanted to say eff this and quit, but I knew I had to see this through to the end. Ultimately I’m proud of the work I have done thus far, and am feeling like my writing has been improving, which is one of the reasons I wanted to do this. After today there’s only five left. I hope you guys have been enjoying the reviews!
Breck Eisner, son of executive Michael Eisner directed “The Crazies”. Timothy Olyphant stars in the lead role as the town sheriff ‘David’. Radha Mitchell (star of the Silent Hill film) plays his wife and town Dr. ‘Judy’. The film also starts Danielle Panabaker as ‘Becca’, and Joe anderson as ‘Deputy Russell’, along with a cast of other great supporting actors.
Ogden March is the typical idyllic small town in middle America. Kids are riding their bikes, and families are seen walking together. At a high school baseball game former town drunk Rory walks out onto the field holding a rifle. The town’s sheriff David confronts Rory and is forced to take him down. Filled with suspense, this scene set the standard for the movie. Happening very early, I felt like it was letting the audience know that anything could pop off at any time, day or night. Satellite footage of Ogden Marsh, its coordinates, and population numbers is shown on screen. These shots looked pretty cool, and felt a bit video gamey, which I didn’t mind cause I’m a gamer. At the morgue sheriff David is confronted by Rory’s wife and sone. He tells them he thought Rory might have been drunk. The following day David gets a call at the sheriffs station letting him know Rory had absolutely no alcohol in his system. A while later various towns people start to act strangely. Judy, the towns Dr. and Davids wife, does an exam and finds nothing wrong with one of the men who have seemed to come down with an illness.
That night the same man goes insane. These scenes were scary and filled with tension, because of how worried I was for the man’s son and wife. I respect that the filmmakers didn’t wimp out and introduce some sort of “Deus Ex Machina”. We are then taken to a swamp, where a dead body attached to a parachute is found. Back at the Sheriffs office, David notes that Rory and the insane townsperson shared the same look in their eyes. It is also discovered that a plane had crashed into a lake near the town. In the sheriffs station, communication is down and the streets are bare. There is always something unsettling about ghost towns. To me it’s the emptiness and how quiet things are. Plus what makes the scene more frightening is the fact that the main street was just bustling with life earlier. The sole person we see, riding a bike down the main street, is pretty scary and definitely someone I would hope to never come across in a dark alley (what I’m doing in a dark alley is a whole different story). There are also people in a mysterious black SUV, that are taking pictures and leave as soon as David approaches the vehicle.
Whatever is going on is affecting more and more of the people living in Ogden Marsh. Some of the imagery is disturbing, but the scenes with David defending himself are action packed. In a turn of events the military quarantines all of the people in the town, including David and Judy. Seeing families ripped away from each other and taken off was hard to watch. I couldn’t imagine having my family being forced away from me. All hell breaks loose, leaving the military forced to retreat and Judy strapped to a gurney in a room full of the infected people. What happens during these scenes are graphic. Lets just say from now on I hope never to be trapped around any disturbed individuals holding a pitchfork. With Judy, Becca her receptionist at the Dr.’s office, and deputy Russell in tow, David attempts to leave town. From then on they must escape, which is easier said than done, or die trying.
I recommend “The Crazies”. There are some really frightening, and gory scenes, with a good mixture of action and gunplay. The performances were on point. Timothy Olyphant is pretty much great in whatever role he takes on. Production values and the overall feel of the movie is what makes “The Crazies” better than the average slasher flick. Keep in mind that this is a remake of a 1973 film, but I haven’t seen that version so I can’t compare the two.
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