Friday, March 5, 2010

The Crazies

I love me some scary B-movies. Especially zombie movies. So I was pretty excited when DH told me he wanted to see "The Crazies" instead of "Shutter Island" for our Thursday date night. Oh, man it delivered. "The Crazies" was brilliantly scary. It gave me the same uneasy reaction I had for a few days after seeing the remake of "Dawn of the Dead" in '04. I had a damn hard time sleeping - and not just because my 2 year old was kicking me in the head all night.

"The Crazies" has actually gotten pretty decent reviews, including a "SEE IT" from my 2 favorite critics. I'm an avid watcher of "At The Movies" on the Reelz channel. Michael Phillips and A.O. Scott are two of the best movie reviewers out there. I usually put their recommendations on my Netflix queue because I usually can't make it to the theatre very often. They both disliked "Shutter Island" so we gave it a pass, though we are huge Scorsese fans, they said it was his weakest film since "Bringing Out The Dead," and said some of the film's Holocaust imagery was borderline offensive. Enough said. Glad we went with "The Crazies."

I'll let you IMBD the plot. I thought Timothy Olyphant was great as the tiny Iowa town's sheriff. The film had some interesting critiques of America today, as zombie movies often do. Of course it was gory to an extreme, and there were lots of really good jump out of your seat moments that worked, because they were somehow believable despite the genre.

If any of you out there actually go and see these kinds of movies, or have other recommendations for me, I'd love to hear them!

4 comments:

caramama said...

Oh, and hubby loved Zombieland. Said it was really fantastic and so good that I'd even like it (I don't generally go for scary/gory movies these days).

caramama said...

My husband has gotten me into zombie books/stories. Other than Shawn of the Dead and Resident Evil, I can't think of zombie movies I've seen.

But I can highly recommend the books Plague of the Dead and Thunder and Ashes, which are parts 1 and 2 of what will be a trilogy.

Jac said...

I actually really dislike scary movies; not because I think they are bad but because I am a total chicken-shit. If there is a scary movie that I really want to see, I generally have to watch it in the middle of the day with all the lights on and (sometimes) with the sound muted and subtitles on (because, it's the scary music climbing to a crescendo that really freaks me out).

I do love any sort of apocalyptic, end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it type of movie (books too) and zombie movies generally fit into that category.

I am looking forward to seeing Tucker & Dale vs. Evil which recently came out of Sundance with rave reviews. It has been picked up for distribution in Canada (not sure about the U.S.). Slasher movie with a comical twist. Also on IMBD.

hush said...

@caramama - The original "Night of the Living Dead" directed by George Romero in 1969 is a zombie classic that has aged well. You & Londo should snuggle up on the couch & check it out sometime. I went into labor with DD while seeing "Zombieland," so it will always have a very special place in my heart. It is a really unique movie, full of dark laughs; if you enjoy comedy, you'll dig it.

Thank you for the book suggestions!

@Jac - How is it that I have never heard of "Tucker & Dale vs. Evil"? Thanks- I'm all over it now!! ;)