The Crazies Stages Nifty Action Sequences in Remake

"It's Dad. He's got a knife." So do many of the dads in the Midwestern town of Ogden Marsh, where men and women alike are suddenly developing blank stares and homicidal urges. The boy hiding in a closet with Mom, while Dad stalks them with that kitchen knife, is destined for an unpleasant end, in a sequence that re-creates the opening scene of George A. Romero's 1973 film, The Crazies.

Brett Rickaby, Timothy Olyphant, and Radha Mitchell ride out The Crazies.

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More About

• George A. Romero
• Breck Eisner
• Timothy Olyphant
• Ray Wright
• Scott Kosar

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For the remake, director Breck Eisner (Sahara) and screenwriters Scott Kosar and Ray Wright have kept the key elements of Romero's scenario, including the U.S. military's heavy-handed attempt to contain the virus it accidentally unleashed, while largely doing away with the speechifying that drags down the original (sorry, Mr. Romero). Despite a mid-film lull of his own, Eisner stages a series of nifty action sequences, nearly all of which feature a moment of surprise, as well as gruesome wit, including a memorable bit of business involving a sheriff (Timothy Olyphant) with a badly stabbed hand and a nearby crazy who must die.

Although English actor Joe Anderson nearly steals the movie as the sheriff's increasingly unhinged deputy, Olyphant grounds it with his ever-fascinating mix of soulfulness and swagger. Any day now, he's gonna be a star.