Snap Review of “The Crazies (2010)”

Nick Ondras — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:17:52 +0000

The first great B-movie of the new year. The Crazies is a gory joyride that wholly satisfies nearly every part of me that was craving a good time.
I loved George A. Romero’s 1973 anti-government horror classic, but it never really had enough time to ever come across as scary. However with director Breck Eisner’s reboot he makes that his top priority. Using the low funds I’m sure he had to work with, Eisner uses his camera to capture every which way to make this the cheesy fun I was hoping for.
The 2010 Crazies is basically about the same thing as Romero’s was: a manifested government creates a lethal toxin that accidentally spreads like wildfire in an Iowa town. Of course the original took place in Pennsylvania, but I won’t hold that against it. If you pick apart a movie like this you’re bound to find numerous reasons not to love it.
Timothy Olyphant seems to be my acting god when I’m looking for a guilty pleasure movie. He starred in another garbage thriller last summer that I enjoyed, A Perfect Getaway. I won’t mention a word about his performance in this movie because to be honest I don’t really care. I mean, Danielle Panabaker is in a movie entitled “The Crazies”. You think I’m going to start an Oscar campaign for any of the people in this?
All in all The Crazies does everything I wanted it to do. It doesn’t alter the original too badly, it never for a second takes itself too seriously, and above all it just has fun. From a shear entertainment standpoint, The Crazies delivers. And isn’t that what you go to the movie for, to be entertained?

3.5 out of five stars.

Watch my full review of The Crazies here!

3/01/10 Box Office Results: ‘Shutter Island’ Craziness Tops Romero

Nick Ondras — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 02:33:10 +0000

Staying at #1 for a second weekend, Martin Scorsese’s psychological thriller Shutter Island wasn’t hit by the wave of Cop Out or The Crazies. It fell 45.9% and grossed an estimated $22.2 million, bringing its total to $75.1 million in ten days. Not far off from the $80 million budget Paramount gifted to make the film. Here in the northeast snow hit pretty bad this Friday, however I still made it out to the movie theater and apparently so did a lot of people. Due to great word-of-mouth yet for some reason only fair reviews of Scorsese’s latest, about two U.S. Marshalls sent to an insane asylum to locate a missing inmate, Shutter Island exceeded studio expectations these past three days.

Debuting in wide release this weekend were two movies: Cop Out and The Crazies. While I predicted Crazies would top Kevin Smith’s latest the box office results proved me wrong. Both films on Friday made $5.9 million, however by Sunday Cop Out took second place with $18.6 million. Though Smith only served as director of the project, the flick had the highest opening weekend ever for any one of his films. This could be due to the unexpected controversy over Smith being described as “too fat to fly” on a Southwest Airline plane, and then later booted off, or it could be due to Cop Out’s being the most commercial Smith movie. About two police officers en route to find a missing baseball card, the comedy surpassed Smith’s previous work Zack and Miri Make a Porno’s first admission of $10.1 million in October 2008. Critics didn’t help the movie’s total too much, however. Cop Out finished on Friday with a rotten rating of 20% on site Rotten Tomatoes.

Breck Eisner’s remake of George A. Romero’s horror The Crazies was also introduced this weekend. The revival, about a government’s accidental spreading of a lethal war contaminant, managed $16.5 million at #3. This opening gross didn’t beat director Eisner’s last effort Sahara, probably due to the fact that the former had a rating of PG-13 with recognizable stars while Crazies held a restricted tag and starred no one as big as Matthew McConaughey. Although this flick earned itself a fresh 71% on Rotten Tomatoes; Chicago Tribune critic Michael Phillips even went as far as to calling it “better than the original”. Crazies was unable to overcome last February’s horror reboot Friday the 13^th’s opening haul of $40.6 million. But to be fair nobody called that one making as much as it did.

James Cameron’s massive success Avatar dropped only 13.8% to fourth place with $14 million, still in the top five after 11 weeks in release. Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief brings us out at #5 this weekend with $9.8 million. The kiddie flick’s total is up to $71.2 million in three weeks.

Out of the top five-

Jacques Audiard’s French gangster fiasco A Prophet (Un prophète), nominated for best foreign film at next week’s Oscars, started off on nine screens and grossed $170,000, a per screen average of $18,900.
Adam Kane’s thriller Formosa Betrayed starring James Van Der Beek debuted with $69,000 playing on 15 screens.
Writer-director Peter Stebbings dramedy Defendor, starring Woody Harrelson as a regular guy who thinks he has super powers, opened with $21,000 on four screens after playing on one less last weekend.

Here are the box office results according to studio estimates Sunday-

1. Shutter Island…$22.2 million
2. Cop Out…$18.6 million
3. The Crazies…$16.5 million
4. Avatar…$14 million
5. Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief…$9.8 million
6. Valentine’s Day…$9.5 million
7. Dear John…$5 million
8. The Wolfman…$4.1 million
9. Tooth Fairy…$3.5 million
10. Crazy Heart…$2.5 million

TheMovieBanter.com » The Crazies

Snap Review of “The Crazies (2010)”

3/01/10 Box Office Results: ‘Shutter Island’ Craziness Tops Romero