The Crazies Blu-ray DVD Review
The Crazies Blu-ray DVD Review
Crazy-insane, or insane-crazy?
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How crazy is this? A remake that's better than the original! In this case, that's a matter of opinion (mine) — but the consensus since The Crazies big screen release a few months back, is that it's an upgrade from the 1973 George A. Romero version, which was low on budget and high on political allegories. This Crazies is a swap, trading the preaching for ramped up zombie-action!
Technically, the baddies in The Crazies are poor souls infected by a rabies-like virus that's gotten away from the U.S. Govt's control zone… but they're gooey, gross and gung-ho on killing, so it's really just a subject of semantics.
The action kicks off early on, when Sheriff David Dutton (Timothy Olyphant) is forced to shoot and kill a deranged gunman at the local Little League Game. A toxicology report comes back on the dead man, revealing unsettling results which send Dutton and Deputy Russell (Joe Anderson) on a dangerous investigation.
They soon discover that a plane carrying a deadly cargo crashed, thus poisoning the town's drinking water and turning its inhabitants into murderous berserkers. That's when Dutton's wife, the town doctor, comes in (she's played by Radha Mitchell) and adds a great deal of medical suspense into the already inherent scary / horror aspects. Director Breck Eisner did a fantastic job of balancing character with intricately-choreographed thrills, but some of the plot holes and logic-lapses are pretty hard to overlook.
Generally, I liked The Crazies. It's the actors — all excellent, and always believable — that sell it. I recommend the film by itself, but what really pushes it over the edge from renting to buying is the wealth of info in the extras. I was especially impressed by Eisner's commentary (anecdotal, but also informative — his story on the bone-saw run-amuck in the coroner's office scene is a must-hear) and everything they had on Almost Human, the boutique outfit that did the monster-effects. There's a good deal of info on the process in just about every featurette, but each one shows something different (from a recreation of the makeups in the Almost Human Studios in laid-back L.A., to on-set, heat-of-moment touch-ups while filming in Georgia and Iowa).
Special Features
- The Romero Template Featurette
- Paranormal Pandemics
- Behind-the-Scenes Featurette
- Rob Hall Makeup Featurette
- Audio Commentary
- Still Gallery
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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson
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