The Crazies

I have seen The Crazies before. I have also seen the original version of the film before. The earlier one was made in 1973 and sports all the craziness one would expect from a horror flick made by George A. Romero. The kung fu was probably the most ridiculous bit.

I much prefer the new version, for several reasons. Firstly, there is no kung fu in this. The lead is played by Timothy Olyphant, who is very easy on the eyes. And the new version is set in Iowa. Why they would change the setting from Pennsylvania in the original to Iowa in the remake I do not know.

The disaster is caused by a combination of accident and government involvement. A plane transporting a bio-weapon goes down in a body of water that supplies the county with drinking water. Very unfortunate. Not only does the water now turn the locals into the crazies in the title within a 48 hour incubation period, but the government also tries to contain not only the virus (for lack of a better word) and the information that this ever happened. The latter, of course, means that everyone - healthy or sick - has to be terminated.

The ones walking away are the local sheriff and his pregnant wife, who walk, run and fight they way out of the military controlled (or the lack of it) area. The last thing they see of their former home is a mushroom cloud. But this being the naughties, the will only end up in the next contamination area.

No revelation, to be sure, but good fun for an hour and a half.

6/10

Surrogates

In a story set in the future, instead of leaving their comfortable chairs people move about via surrogates. You know, much like today they do online. This means that you could be the grossest slob in person, but cut the dashing figure out in the world.

This has gravely lowered the crime rate, but things are starting to come apart at the seams when a weapon that kills not only the surrogates but also the people operating them appears and is being used on humans. The first victim is the son of the original inventor of the surrogates who has long been disgraced and kicked out of his own company and now works against the use of surrogates.

The killer was actually sent to take him out, but his son used one of daddy's surrogates. Out to find the mysterious weapon and trying to uncover the people involved in its use is FBI agent Greer, who is beginning to become uncomfortable with the use of his artificial self and goes rogue (this is Bruce Willis, so of course he would).

A bit confusing and the artificial visuals are not at all charming.

4/10