Review – The Crazies (2010)

Once again a 21st century remake turns out to be more expensive and less interesting than the original. The plot is essentially the same as George Romero’s version from 1973: a small town falls victim to a runaway bioweapon, and creepy government forces move in to contain the situation. However, almost all the nuance is gone. The original focused not only on the efforts of a small cadre of townspeople to escape the murderous “cleanup” effort but also on the trouble telling the difference between an infected “crazy” and a normal person reacting to an abnormal situation. This one’s a much more straightforward “us versus them” drama. Further, infected blood flows so copiously that even the survivors would almost certainly have the disease, which puts a damper on the ending. Mildly amusing