Movies releasing today: Unstoppable Crazies
For the second week in a row there are at least 2 new movies worth catching in South Africa - particularly if your cinema tastes veer towards the action blockbustery and creepy apocalyptic. Like mine!
So, yes, after a dud midyear movie season where I found myself slipping more and more into disillusionment and disappointment, I'm actually now finally in my excitement element - and I'm likely to stay like this all the way into the first quarter of 2011, with something appealing opening up pretty much every Friday.
Anyway, on this blog I've already profiled both movies opening today, but here's a little recap, and why exactly you should care about these 2 flicks.
Perhaps closer to Speed more than anything else in recent years, Unstoppable is a real-life-inspired action film centred on a runaway freight train - laden with toxic chemicals - that is heading towards a built-up urban area. It falls to engineer Denzel Washington and train conductor Chris Pine to stop it, while stressed dispatcher Rosario Dawson looks on.
I was initially worried that director Tony (Top Gun, Enemy of the State, Man on Fire) Scott wouldn't be able to suppress his obsession with gimmicky, dizzying overhead camera work. However, the film is currently 83% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, which suggests that audiences are in for a real treat - a big, dumb, and very noisy blockbuster that delivers the promised thrills. Watch the trailer for Unstoppable, and read my initial thoughts on the film here.
The Crazies, meanwhile, is apparently that rarest of things - a remake that actually improves on the original. Based on zombie king George A. Romero 1973 film of the same name, The Crazies brings horror to a quiet town in the American Midwest. Timothy Olyphant and Radha Mitchell are husband and wife, as well as town sheriff and doctor, who find that overnight their neighbours are transformed into homicidal maniacs due to a mysterious virus. With the town placed under quarantine by the military, this loving couple has to do everything to survive, and escape.
Essentially a zombie movie without zombies, The Crazies has achieved a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 71% Fresh. That is an excellent score for a horror film. Although the film isn't apparently exceptional, it's confidently made and acted, surprisingly intelligent and the end result is enjoyably unnerving. For the record, we've been waiting 9 months to finally get The Crazies in South Africa. You can watch the trailer and read my initial comments from earlier this year, right here.
So, yes, after a dud midyear movie season where I found myself slipping more and more into disillusionment and disappointment, I'm actually now finally in my excitement element - and I'm likely to stay like this all the way into the first quarter of 2011, with something appealing opening up pretty much every Friday.
Anyway, on this blog I've already profiled both movies opening today, but here's a little recap, and why exactly you should care about these 2 flicks.
Perhaps closer to Speed more than anything else in recent years, Unstoppable is a real-life-inspired action film centred on a runaway freight train - laden with toxic chemicals - that is heading towards a built-up urban area. It falls to engineer Denzel Washington and train conductor Chris Pine to stop it, while stressed dispatcher Rosario Dawson looks on.
I was initially worried that director Tony (Top Gun, Enemy of the State, Man on Fire) Scott wouldn't be able to suppress his obsession with gimmicky, dizzying overhead camera work. However, the film is currently 83% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, which suggests that audiences are in for a real treat - a big, dumb, and very noisy blockbuster that delivers the promised thrills. Watch the trailer for Unstoppable, and read my initial thoughts on the film here.
The Crazies, meanwhile, is apparently that rarest of things - a remake that actually improves on the original. Based on zombie king George A. Romero 1973 film of the same name, The Crazies brings horror to a quiet town in the American Midwest. Timothy Olyphant and Radha Mitchell are husband and wife, as well as town sheriff and doctor, who find that overnight their neighbours are transformed into homicidal maniacs due to a mysterious virus. With the town placed under quarantine by the military, this loving couple has to do everything to survive, and escape.
Essentially a zombie movie without zombies, The Crazies has achieved a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 71% Fresh. That is an excellent score for a horror film. Although the film isn't apparently exceptional, it's confidently made and acted, surprisingly intelligent and the end result is enjoyably unnerving. For the record, we've been waiting 9 months to finally get The Crazies in South Africa. You can watch the trailer and read my initial comments from earlier this year, right here.
Comments
It is not as action packed as one may want, it is not entirely intense as you'd hope, but how can it be, its a runaway train and this one doesn't have a nuclear bomb on it.
It is actually a really nice movie and surprisingly not far fetched.
(KIND OF A SPOILER...)
The only part which may send up alarm bells is the corner in the movie where it looks like its gonna derail. The way they stop it from happening is feasible, go buy a model railroad and stop the rear truck on a curve, you'll find out very quickly how easy it is to derail to the inside of a curve :)
This said, the camera work during the train scenes was cool. All the swirling and spinning did however annoy me intensely during the phone conversations, as it unnecessarily tried to make them more "exciting."