Adam reviews the new scary movie remake: The Crazies.

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Rated R – 1h41 -

The Crazies is capable horror film. It’s tense, and a little smarter than the average scary movie. It needed a little more dread and fewer predictable things jumping out from the dark at you.

The film is a remake of Horror God George Romero’s 1973 “The Crazies,” and manages to achieve the task of doing a good job with it.

Small town Iowa Sheriff David Dutton (Timothy Olyphant) finds himself at the center of town gone crazy after a military jet carrying secrets crashes nearby. One by one, the town’s residents turn into murderous psychotics and no one can explain why.

I wouldn’t say the town folk are turning into zombies, but rather the do not kill instinct in their brain gets turned off.

The film is set in Iowa, but a rather generic looking military force is sent into clean up the mess. It seems like it would be the U.S. military that’s sent on a contain-and-eradicate mission, but it’s not clear.

What is clear, is the idea of who’s crazier? Is it the infected locals, or the government that’s bringing down a big hurt on its own citizens? Who are the hero’s to run from? The infected or the military? Is this a horror story, or a man without a country whose on the run?

In my head, those ideas muddied what seemed to be a pretty good idea for a scary story. Adding in the tension where the viewer and the characters in the film can’t quite tell whether a person is infected, or just way stressed out is a nice touch.

It’s not bad, but Romero always adds a far superior gloom to his work. It was a little lost on this one.

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     This weekend, we’re counting down the top 70 songs of the 70s.  And we have 70 reasons to love the 70s here.  When I checked out the list, #15 popped out at me.  “Nancy Drew” mysteries. 

     See, I’m a “Trixie Belden” girl myself.  She’s a little different from Nancy, a bit younger, at 13.  Trixie and her friends Honey Wheeler and Di Lynch (along with Trixie’s brothers and other friends) are in a club they formed called Bob-Whites of the Glen.   There are 39 books in the series and believe me when I tell you I’ve read each one many, many times.  Books 1 through 15 have been reissued–grab ‘em for the girl who loves to read in your life!

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The gross, nasty 140 year old hot dog…or this reporter’s Brooklyn accent.

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     So, headed to the airport today to pick up my mom and she’s clearly bringing the Florida sun with her.  Now, if we could just work it out to where she brought Florida temperatures with her as well…I don’t know though, it’s been chilly down there lately.  I mean, we’d be wearing short sleeves here if we had temps in the 40s now.  But Floridians are bundled up and complaining.  I do think after a weekend of highs of only near 30, my mom at least won’t be complaining that much anymore!

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     American Idol judges Simon Cowell and Randy Jackson have both openly admitted to wanting a girl to win this season’s singing competition.  But right now, on a betting site, the odds on favorite is contestant Andrew Garcia at 4 to 1.  

     But I am not a betting woman.  Nope, not me.  I champion contestant Crystal Bowersox.  She is the calmest, coolest, most collected contestant I can ever remember.  And when Simon mouthed off last night that she needed to be more original…Crystal calmly and quickly reminded him contestants can’t sing original songs.  Which just begs the question, how many original songs has she written and when do we get to hear them?!?

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You’ve heard of Ole’ Miss right?

The University of Mississippi was featured in Sandra Bullock’s movie “The Blind Side” but it’s also the center of a mascot battle, which may only be resolved by using “the force.”

They wanted to get rid of old southern references, so they ditched their old mascot Colonel Reb. The students are voting on who should be the new mascot and the guy leading the way is Admiral Ackbar. You may remember him from “Return of the Jedi” where he held the title Supreme Commander of the Rebel Alliance fleet and had the famous line “It’s a trap.” (see below)

So the question is, can this Mon Calamarian make the cut? It’s a pretty cool title he has. Ole’ Miss are the “rebels.” Supreme Commander sounds a little dictator-esque, but hey, we’re talking about winning games.

Don’t forget, he won’t be fooled by trick plays. The guy obviously knows when its a trap.

I say may the force be with you Admiral.

Now you can really geek out with the outtakes:

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I found this while wasting time at work today. Who woulda thought that dog’s hate Law & Order?

Are they upset with the splintering into Criminal Intent and SVU, or is there something deeper. A lot of people have tried it, check out the results. Its weird.

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     What an awesome idea!  The only rules — bring cupcakes, share cupcakes, eat cupcakes. All for free.  That’s what happened a few years ago when a group of friends in San Francisco launched the very first Cupcake Camp.  They expected 40 people and 300 showed up!  Now cupcake camps happen all over the world but all with the same spirit. 

     Sounds like something sweet any set of friends could set up and enjoy.  Bring, share and eat indeed!!

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Rated R – 2h18 -

Sure Martin Scorsese has done better, but you get his full “mental health treatment” this time. The best thing about it is, you’re guessing about what’s going on, right up till the end.

It would be wrong to label Shutter Island a horror film, rather a sometimes intense and very dark thriller. Set in 1954 on a Boston harbor island, US Marshall Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) is on his way to investigate the disappearance of a patient in a mental institute for the criminally insane.

It seems pretty routine that Teddy and his partner would be in search of a missing person at a federal prison, but from the second they step on the island, we begin to get the sense that something just isn’t quite right.
In case you weren’t getting the full Scorsese “dread vibe” from realizing you’re watching one of his works…the rusted gates, overgrown brush and the old time civil war fortress turned into a mental institute does the job.

I think the appeal to Shutter Island is the motivations of the characters. Are they working for or against the hero? Why are they doing what they’re doing? Why do the institute guards seem to be a little overprotective? Is there a Nazi secret hidden deep in the institute’s innards? So many questions, and this conspiracy lover only has so much time. Resident therapist Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley) appears to have the interest of his patients in mind, but you also think on the sly, he might very well be into the old time mental health treatments that he protests.

A lot of questions are thrown around, but you rest assure knowing that they are being guided by the steady had of a filmmaker we expect good things of.

On the downside, the setup to the resolution takes time. I found myself lost in some of the mood of the film, wishing to the story would progress. There are parts that don’t seem to fit, until you realize the movie as a whole. I think that sometimes throws movie goers for a loop, but don’t be disheartened. The exposition and rising action are worth while.

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