If you don’t like this movie, I get it, i really really do. But to me, it’s the mid-tier inoffensive horror movie that if you go along for the ride, you can be entertained. Of course, that’s all horror, but some pretentious fucks will try to tell you why Psycho, The Exorcist, and Rosemary’s Baby are works of fucking art while Saw 2, Blair Witch Project, and Slither aren’t. Well, who the fuck are they? “They” probably also liked Paranormal Activity. A movie where half the story they keep talking about bringing some dude back to their house, only for him to finally come back, stay for 30 seconds, and then leaves. Most pointless plot device ever as far as I’m concerned!
Now, where was I? Ah yes, the Crazies. No beer and no TV make Homer something something. Timothy Olyphant is probably better than this movie, but he is such a fun fit that I couldn’t have been happier. Thomas Jane may have also worked well. I like Radha Mitchell of Man on Fire fame in this as well. Yeah, there are some slow weird points, but by and large, this movie delivers some sweet kills, and most importantly a couple of clutch scenes. If you have seen this movie, you already know the few that stick out. My favorite being the Car Wash scene. What an amazing scene was done perfectly. I also love the beginning scene and the one at the farm, and a few others. Oh and the fucking pitchfork!!! The tension built up in that scene, tremendous! Ya know what? This movie deserves more respect than it is often given. Yeah, it has a few dumb things, or cliched scenes, but what isn’t cliche nowadays? All about appeasing the lowest common denominator, am I right? My point is simple, if you didn’t like this movie then re-watch it. If you haven’t seen it, go watch it.
So as you can tell, I am a fan. I can’t feasibly give it an 8, or can I? Pound for pound, why the hell not? Eh, 7.8 to be safe. 2 other things to point out for you lovely people. Hold that thought while I get some french bread pizzas. Why the fuck do I ever get french bread pizzas? My least favorite thing on pizzas is a thick crust and a crunchy crust. I’m a dumbass.
Back to the 2 things, and lightning and french bread surprisingly wasn’t it. 1. The sleeve for this movie’s Blu Ray is fucking impeccable. Why I don’t own it? Probably because I have been broke lately. And why is that? Fuck you, that’s why. 2. The closing credits song is Willie Nelson’s take on Bring me Sunshine, who I dedicate to somebody all the time. They know who they are. They aren’t reading this. Nobody is, so what the fuck does it matter. Watch this movie!
All the pictures used in this blog are for review purposes. They are the property of:
- Overture Films (presents)
- Participant Media (presents)
- Imagenation Abu Dhabi FZ (in association with) (as Imagenation)
- Penn Station Entertainment (uncredited)
Please go find a copy and support the creators.
2nd Viewing Alert
I sometimes watch the same film multiple times for a variety of reasons for this blog. This allows you to get an updated viewpoint from me. Most of the time, this is me trying to give a film a second chance. This review was over 3 years later.
A horror flick starring Timothy Olyphant? Crazy bastards and all-out chaos? Hell yes!!
We start off with a little Johnny Cash, always a great start. David is the local sheriff (Timothy Olyphant) and he is at a high school baseball game. Rory just walks on the field from center field with a shotgun. David is trying to get him to lay the gun down. This is a nice showdown. Rory lines up a shot, and David takes him out. Russell, David’s deputy, is there to help out. The coroner is going to run his blood alcohol level. Rory’s wife, Peggy, and son, Kurt show up. She is wondering what he was doing, and Kurt is livid. David says that he was drunk, but Peggy says that he had been sober for 2 years, and slaps him.
Hello Judy, Radha Mitchell, she comes out to see David, and she is pregnant. The next day, the medical examiner, Jim, calls David. David doesn’t believe it, but no alcohol in his system. So that means Rory was just crazy. David goes to the baseball field, and he sees Ben he is like in a trance. Bill comes to the doctor’s office, but his wife, Deardra thinks something is wrong. Their son, Nicholas was there too. Deardra sees some badass piece of farm equipment, I will call it a mangler. She turns it off, but where’s Bill? She hears Nicholas scream in the house. She goes looking for him, and he finds her. They hide in a closet. He tells her that Bill has a knife. He locks the door and walks away and is pouring gas all over the house, inside. He then lights a match and sets it ablaze. Damn. David gets a call about this. That was fucking crazy. Judy asks Bill what happened. Bill is just zoned out and whistling.
We have 3 hunters, and they are in a swamp area, and find a parachute with a soldier attached to it. Apparently Travis thought he had heard something like a plane, but he is usually full of shit. The soldier/pilot had been dead for about a week. Travis takes David and Russell out to where they heard it, and Travis is only worried about the reward. The overhead shot shows the plane underwater.
We see some computer map saying that the containment is initiated.
David wants to turn off the town’s water supply, and this is a farming community and the mayor ain’t having it. David says screw it, and he turns it off and takes the lever. At the jail, Bill is on the floor, and there is a bloody handprint. They wonder if he is dead. He gets up and acts…..crazy. David wants a transfer. The phone is down, the internet is down, and the cell service is out. Shit is fucked. The town looks dead. Some lady rode her bicycle past David, and a vehicle just took off.
At the coroner’s office, David can’t find Jim. David finds the pastor with his eyes and mouth sewn shut. Jim attacks David, gets him down, then takes the bone saw to David. He cuts him a bit. David kills Jim. That was pretty solid. Russ saves David’s nuts.
David wants Judy to leave, go to her folks, but she doesn’t want to. There’s somebody outside. The big garage has a door open. David inspects and gets abducted by the military and brought into a bus for transport, and Russ is in there as is Judy.
Well, there’s the town residents, all trapped behind fences like in Red Dawn. Nobody will tell them anything. Russ gets taken, a baby is torn from his mother. They are checking for high temperatures. Judy is now taken. David tries but gets knocked out for his efforts. The military has set up base in the school, and Judy witnesses a person get shot. People are in these biohazard suits. They gas her. David wakes up, he’s in a transport truck. We see a room full of people on stretchers. Some truck breaks the caged people free. The people escape as much as they can. David won’t leave without Judy. The military are evacuating in helicopters and shooting anybody getting in their way.
David makes his way to the station, as does Russ. Russ and David are gonna save Judy. Judy recognizes Becca, and they talk. Some dude comes in dragging a pitchfork. He is going to do some work. It’s Ben, from the baseball field. He kills one girl, then some guy. He goes for Becca, but Judy screams at him, so he stops and approaches her. He raises the pitchfork and gets shot by David. So we have David, Russ, Judy, and Becca. Russ is worried about getting sick, he is feeling it. They see 2 dudes punching a dumpster. The first truck they find is booted. Most of them probably are. Oh, Russ found one that is, but blood is dripping from it. They hear a gunshot. Our 3 hunters found a guy and shot him. They are proud of their work. They put this new victim in the bloody pick up with 3 or 4 other bodies. The gameplan is to go to David’s place to get a car.
They go to the McGregor farm. Becca’s boyfriend, Scottie lives there. They find Scottie, and he pulls a gun. Scottie appears to be healthy. Military show up so they hide in the barn. They are taking Scottie’s mom. Scottie runs out to save her. He gets shot while running, she gets shot to see her son. They both get the flamethrower. One military guy comes in. David and Russ nab him. They steal his gun. The guy tells them what is happening. They need him to stop the next guy that it’s clear, and he keeps his word. This disease has gone airborne supposedly.
They make it to David’s, and Judy is worrying about towels because there’s always that scene of somebody needing to do something normal in the midst of a catastrophe. Judy checks out the nursery one last time. Peggy is in there. David checks on her, and she is tied to the chairs. Kurt starts choking David from behind. Kurt stabs through David’s hand and they now have the gun. Peggy is aiming it at Judy, David distracts her. He knocks the gun away, uses the knife in his hand to kill Peggy. She falls, and Kurt has the gun, but Russ snipes Kurt from the ground. Russell shoots the bodies in the head, just to be sure.
Judy says that Russ is sick based on what he did, but David says that he saved their lives. Becca is coughing a lot. Russ is worried that Becca is sick. David tells Russ not to lose his head, and Russ takes exception to it. A helicopter flies overhead. David goes into the car wash. This is my favorite scene. Judy says that they can’t stay on main roads to avoid being seen, and David is like, they can see everything from above. Becca just saw someone, and the car wash has started, and the car won’t start. Of course, it won’t. We just saw somebody in the back. Visibility is limited. Russell is shooting. There are 3-4 people I think. One has David, one is attacking Judy. Then one is on top of the car, wraps a hose or cable around Becca’s neck and as he speeds away, she is pulled out and lynched. They get out to see if they can save her. Instead, she’s dead, and the car just got exploded. Fucking A.
That was such a bad scene for them. They lost one member, they lost their mode of transportation, they lost all of their supplies. A vehicle is coming down the street, and David is going to take it. And just as he’s about to take a shot, Russ tosses out the spike strip, ruins the vehicle. They start talking, find out that it would cause a pandemic. David wants to use him to get to safety. Russell then shoots the guy. He is slightly aggressive. He scavenges the vehicle. He comes out, and David takes the rifle. Russ doesn’t like that, so he takes out his sidearm. Russ says that he has no saved David’s life 3 times. They are going to walk in front of Russ. Smart.
Russ says the rifle is getting heavy, so he shoots the rifle til it’s empty. David says that he is going to confront Russ. He gets closer, and then Russ puts his gun down, so David punches him, and steals the gun. Russ realizes that he’s not right. Poor dude. He wants to walk with them, for just a bit longer. Why are they keeping Russ behind them, when he is the one who is infected?
Russ volunteers to distract the guards so that David and Judy can escape. He wants his death to mean something. David gives Russ the gun. Russ approaches, and they ask him to identify himself, which he does. They want him to surrender himself and get down on the ground. He pulls his gun instead and gets shot up. He’s still alive, and they approach him, so he says “Fuck you for what you did”.
David and Judy make it to the truck stop. They look around, and a chain and hook are swinging slightly, and they split up. Smart. David goes looking for her, finally finds her dumbass, as she didn’t stay where she was supposed to. They find a vehicle with a ton of bodies.
David wants to make it to Cedar Rapids, and she is negative Nancy. He wants to get the truck, and he grabs a backpack and starts gathering water, a lighter, clothes, shit like that. She gets up to get a bottle of water, and we see in a backroom, like in the kitchen, there’s a guy staring at her. David looks for a truck, sees more bodies, and the lights just went down. Judy grabs a nice kitchen knife. She sees one, and there was a second one. These are the hunters. Not good company.
She is not very good at being quiet and not causing any movement. Just saying. A guy comes in the room, can’t find her and walks out. She should have gone for his Achilles. David finds her, they make it to the big rig. Of course the wrong keys. He goes to get them, one guy with a gun spot them. David gets pulled down by a hoss. Gunner is hunting Judy. He opens the door, see the passenger door is open, she’s hiding in the back, shoots and kills him. David rams hoss is like a moving oil tray, gets the guy covered, and uses the lighter.
They leave in the truck as she checks the map. They hear a countdown. She asks what happens when it hits 0. He is flooring it. T minus ten seconds, folks. BOOM, nuclear bomb dropped. The explosions lift the truck up and crashes it. They survive the crash. I don’t think they would have survived that, would they?
End film
We see that Grand Rapids also had a protocol initiated. We see the newscast, and it’s a mess. This is all to the tune of Willie Nelson singing “Bring me Sunshine”.
I love this movie for various reasons. The deaths are good and numerous. It does seem borderline reasonable that this would happen if there was an airborne virus like this. Everything worked for me, with one exception. I would have just had them die in the blast, not give hope for a sequel. I don’t think that they would survive. I love Timothy Olyphant and like Radha as well.
Final rating: 7.7
Best death scene: Becca’s lynching
I don’t own the rights to these pictures or film. It’s from the film or TV show, so they are the owners, not me.