Horror remake falls short, viewers search for originality
Philip Sledge
Issue date: 3/4/10 Section: Arts & Entertainment
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Who am I fooling? They're not going to listen to me or anyone else. Hollywood will continue this path of "re-imagining" great movies. This has been proven latest by the remake of George A. Romero's The Crazies.
The original didn't do so well when released in 1973, mainly due to the $250 thousand budget (considerably low for its time) and poor distribution.
So why did it take nearly 40 years for the film to be remade?
I'll tell you; the original wasn't that great of a movie to begin with; the only reason I saw it was because George A. Romero wrote and directed it. The man brought us Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead, three of my favorite all time movies.
The original is rough; the acting was terrible, the plot was iffy and with very little special effects, you get what you see.
The original did, however, have its merits.
It's a Romero film, so there is commentary throughout the entire film. One of the many things the remake lacked. Romero's directing and editing cannot be touched; the scenes are cut at a fast pace and you are constantly caught off guard, another thing the remake lacked.
The Breck Eisner (Sahara) remake takes place in Ogden Marsh, a small farming town in Iowa, where the citizens become plagued by insanity after a mysterious toxin contaminates their drinking water.
Sheriff David Dutton, played by Timothy Olyphant (Live Free, Die Hard) and his wife Judy Dutton, played by Radha Mitchell (Silent Hill), must avoid both the military and the infection as they try to escape the quarantined town.
The Duttons have numerous encounters with both forces while trying to escape Ogden Marsh, and they nearly get caught several times.
Wow! I didn't see that coming.When they are sneaking through a deserted gas station the score music darkens and slows to a stop. You think something is going to pop out, but it doesn't. Then a few seconds later, BOOM! Something pops out.
Come on, really? I know this is a remake, but try to be a little more original.
And that's the main thing The Crazies lacked-originality.
The opening credits have a Johnny Cash song, which the remake of Dawn of the Dead has also. It looks like the screenwriters watched the remake of Dawn repeatedly before writing the script, because it's pretty much the same thing.
I would not recommend this film to anyone unless you are going to go see it with a friend who will laugh at every flaw with you. That's the only thing that made it an enjoyable experience for me.
The saddest part of all of this is that George A. Romero was the executive producer. I know his last two installments of the Dead series have been garbage, but this is whole new low for the "Godfather" of zombie movies. Well, until Survival of the Dead comes out this summer.
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