The Crazies (2010)

[Barney_DaPurple1]

"The crazies have breached the containment area!"


Distribution Studio Anchor Bay/Overture Films
Director Breck Eisner
BO Release Date February 26, 2010
BD Release Date June 29, 2010
MPAA Rating R, for bloody violence and language.
Genres Political Thriller, Horror
Runtime 1 Hr. 41 Mins.
Video 1080p/24 (fps) | 2.40:1 | VC-1
Audio English 5.1 Dolby Digital (Default) | English PCM 5.1 Uncompressed
Subtitle English SDH (Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing), Spanish
Region A
Digital Copy




OTHER MOVIE COMPARISON
Resident Evil meets 30 Days of Night | Children of the Corn, Zombieland, The Road, Quarantine, Daybreakers, The Signal, Legion, Invasion of the Body Snatcher, Edge of Darkness, Outbreak, I Am Legend, Doomsday, The Happening, Doom, District 9, A Perfect Getaway




WHAT'S THE MOVIE ABOUT?
The military accidentally crashed landed near a small town of Ogden Marsh, Iowa. The plane was filled with a dangerous highly contagious experimental biological toxin that turns the town folks into violent murderous psychopaths. As the government is trying to cover up the incident, Sheriff David Dutton (Timothy Olyphant - Hitman, Scream 2, Live Free or Die Hard), his wife Judy (Radha Mitchell - Surrogate, Pitch Black), and Deputy Russell (Joe Anderson) find themselves in a fight for survival as their once peaceful small town is now an epidemic outbreak containment area.




TRAILERS, CLIPS, AND MUSIC VIDEOS

Gary Jules - Mad World




BARNEY'S BOOMOO FUNFACTS AND TRIVIA
Barney does not assume the accuracy for these funfacts. They are to be used for entertainment purposes only.

• Breck Eisner directed Sahara (2005).

• The original The Crazies (1973) was directed by George A. Romero. He's the father of all of the Dawn of the Dead series.

• Romero was originally slated to write and direct Resident Evil (2002). He dropped out of the project due to some creative and direction differences with the film and studio.

• Romero resented the movie producers and studio for not doing a good job at promoting The Crazies when it first came out in 1973. He blames a large portion on them for the movie failure.

• Co-writer Scott Kosar also worked on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003).

• Gary Jules' "Mad World" was only heard in the trailers for The Crazies. It was never played in the actual movie, nor listed in the soundtrack. However, "Mad World" was performed by Gary Jules on the Donnie Darko soundtrack in 2001-02.

• "Mad World" was originally performed by Tears for Fears 20 years earlier, back in 1982. The song was their first Top 40 hit and their first music video.

• The original script for the 1973 The Crazies was written by Romero's friend and co-worker Paul McCollough. Its title was "The Mad People".

• The Crazies (1973) took place in Evans City, Pennsylvania. The Crazies (2010) took place in Ogden Marsh, Iowa.

• Like the original, the term "the crazies" was coined by the soldier referring to the mad town's people. It was uttered only once the entire movie. The rest of the time, it was more PC to use the term "sick" instead.

• What was on the plane was "Trixie", a prototype Rhabdovirus. Rhabdoviridae is family of over 75 species of viri. Most notorious is the Lyssavirus Genus Rabies virus (or just Rabies for short :D. I know, Barney is soOoo smart, aint he?). Once bitten by an infected host, half actually acquire the disease. However, if the infection becomes symptomatic and untreated, death is certain... Trixie was highly the probable viral agent in Quarantine (2008).

• Trixie is Speed Racer's girlfriend. In the 2008 Speed Racer movie, young Trixie was played by Ariel Winter. Ariel starred as Julie in the first episode of Jericho (2006-TV), similar theme to The Crazies. The older Trixie was played by Christina Ricci (Wednesday Addams of The Addams Family (1991)).

• According to the Urban Dictionary, trixie is defined as "white yuppy slang; a rich blonde chicago yuppy whore who thinks its ok to be a whore because she lives off daddies money, and actually has nothing interesting about her but her oral skills".
  
  OK, why do I feel the urge to put a picture of Paris Hilton next to this definition?

BD MAIN MENU

BD PLAYERS PERFORMANCE

OPPO BDP-80

Total Loading Time: 0 min. 50 sec. | OSD Shift: Yes | Subtitle Shift: Yes | Zoom: Yes
Firmware Version: 10-1230

Sony PlayStation 3 80GB

Total Loading Time: 1 min. 02 sec.
Firmware Version: 3.40

Panasonic BD-35K

Total Loading Time: 1 min. 03 sec.
Firmware Version: 2.1

Samsung BD-P1400

Total Loading Time: 1 min. 22 sec.
Firmware Version: 2.3

DISC FEATURES, BONUS MATERIALS, AND PACKAGE CONTENT WORTH NOTING

• Annoying Menu Button Sound or Option No

• Secondary Audio Yes, audio commentary with director Breck Eisner.

• Skip Previews "Shortcut" Yes

• Resume Play Yes

• Bookmark No

• Behind the Scene with Director Breck Eisner • Paranormal Pandemics • The George A Romero Template • Make-up Mastermind: Rob Hall in Action • The Crazies Motion Comic Episode 1 • The Crazies Motion Comic Episode 2 • Visual Effects in Motion • Storyboards: Building a Scene • Behind the Scenes Photo Gallery

WHADABOUT THE MOVIE BARNEY?

Boomoo Rent-O-Meter
Boomoo Collection Worthiness (Local Rental)
Overall Home Theater Experience

Barney's Comment on the Movie

Movie: Stupid So-So [ Spectacular ]

Like Robin Hood (2010), The Crazies is not one of the worst movie I've seen this year. That honor I'm afraid goes to the well deserved Parnassus. On the contrary, it is actually a great flick. I know many folks didn't like this movie, saying it's too predictable and all. Nevertheless, it is still entertaining, at least to me. The plot has enough material to make you want to watch it through, all the way to ending. Having the setting in a small town in Heartland America with the endless wheat and corn fields was brilliant. I'm a fan of the political thriller theme. This is a well made remake (tho I have not seen the original). It has sparked some interests in me to view the original George Romero's 1973 classic. I'm hooked and already considering punching my ticket for The Crazy Too if they decides to make it. I hope they do.

Barney Rating the Video

Overall Picture Quality Rating

Picture Clarity and Sharpness
Color Richness and Saturation
Picture Detail and Definition
Lighting
Blackness Level

1080p/24fps OFF | Subtitle is placed within the picture area.

Barney Rating the Audio
Note the default audio track is 5.1 Dolby Digital. I've changed it manually to 5.1 PCM for this review under the settings menu option. Overall an excellent surround sound mix just lacking a balanced volume output and more dynamics to fill the front stage would have been nice (most were to the surrounds).

Overall Audio Presentation Rating

Dialog Clarity
Balanced Volume
Detail, Integrity, Resolution, and Definition
Dynamics (Bass, Treble, Separation, and Transition)
Ambient Background Music and Soundtrack
Low Frequency Effects


DRC: Off | Bitstream to Onkyo 805 | Reference Listening Volume : 56.0 db (abs)| Late Nite Mode: Off | Re-EQ: Off | 7.2 Surround Sound Setup

Barney's Recommendations
The Crazies is a strong rental recommend, with confidence. I'm still on the fence about adding it to my boomoo collection. I think what will drive its stock up is if (and when) they announce the sequel The Crazies Too? Yaw enjoy... and try not over-analyze the movie too much; to the point where you missed the plot.

[davidjschenk]

Excellent review, Barney! Thanks much for doing it.

Yours,

David

[Barney_DaPurple1]

Excellent review, Barney! Thanks much for doing it.

Yours,

David

My pleasure, buddy. Note the new exclusive HDJ watermark on the screenshots. It actually looks better than that if BLT ever saw my PM!!!

[davidjschenk]

My pleasure, buddy. Note the new exclusive HDJ watermark on the screenshots. It actually looks better than that if BLT ever saw my PM!!!

Hey, yeah--I hadn't noticed that! That's a nice, nice addition. Way to go, Barney!

Yours,

David

[Barney_DaPurple1]

Can't get enough of this song.

[Barney_DaPurple1]

This is a good Tears for Fears performance, Night of the Proms (Rotterdam, Netherlands 2006).

[CC]

WOW! Holy crap! I didn't expect anything from this movie and came away loving it. The best horror movie I've seen in a year. Really well done!!!

[ImRizzo]

WOW! Holy crap! I didn't expect anything from this movie and came away loving it. The best horror movie I've seen in a year. Really well done!!!

It's on my menu for tonite

[CC]

It's on my menu for tonite

Enjoy!

[ImRizzo]

Huh? I musta missed a turn some where ?

[GLOW]

I definitely preferred the remake to the original... I feel bad saying that since George Romero is one of my fave directors but it's the truth!

[CC]

I definitely preferred the remake to the original... I feel bad saying that since George Romero is one of my fave directors but it's the truth!

Yep, same here, and I'm also a huge Romero fan. I even think its better the the Dawn of the Dead remake.

[ImRizzo]

I've reviewed this in my head again(The Crazies), and I still don't get it. I guess I was over-analyzing and anal-intent watching to hard looking for the BIG clue never picked up on it and Bang the movie was over WTF ?

[ImRizzo]

Gonna finish Willie Wonka Original in Blu the transfer quality was nicely done the coloring is really brought to life in WonkaWorld besides nobody does Wonka like Gene Wilder , Johnny Depps character was completely another character, also good for WONKA fans.

[CC]

I've reviewed this in my head again(The Crazies), and I still don't get it. I guess I was over-analyzing and anal-intent watching to hard looking for the BIG clue never picked up on it and Bang the movie was over WTF ?

It's not a deep movie. It's just a fun, well made, horror movie.

[Barney_DaPurple1]

I've reviewed this in my head again(The Crazies), and I still don't get it. I guess I was over-analyzing and anal-intent watching to hard looking for the BIG clue never picked up on it and Bang the movie was over WTF ?

It's not a deep movie. It's just a fun, well made, horror movie.

It had that Red Dawn meets Children of the Corn and a little bit of Quarantine and Resident Evil feel to it. I'm not a big fan of movies these days setting up for sequels and trilogy.... and some 10 part anthology collection , but you see they can really do The Crazies Too with how it ended.

The key was understanding "Trixie". From there, they can really expand into the sequel and the trilogy and some godforsaken Saw 16 Anthology Collection!

[CC]

It had that Red Dawn meets Children of the Corn and a little bit of Quarantine and Resident Evil feel to it. I'm not a big fan of movies these days setting up for sequels and trilogy.... and some 10 part anthology collection , but you see they can really do The Crazies Too with how it ended.

The key was understanding "Trixie". From there, they can really expand into the sequel and the trilogy and some godforsaken Saw 16 Anthology Collection!

Speaking of Quarantine have you have seen [REC]? Quarantine was the remake of that movie. If not, go check it out.

[Barney_DaPurple1]

Speaking of Quarantine have you have seen [REC]? Quarantine was the remake of that movie. If not, go check it out.

Ya, it's the same exact scenes. It's insulting to call Quarantine a remake cause they didn't bother to change the plot some. Should have called it [REC] American Copy-cat Version? :D I liked both, but the Mexican dialog was a little hard to comprehend...

[BruZZi]

Thanks Barney.

It was a pretty good movie. IMO