Iowa is full of random craziness. Slipknot, meth heads, guys named Ezekiel all live in Iowa. In The Crazies, that insanity is taken to a new level.

Sort of. It all seems so familiar. Wait a minute. It's a slick looking horror movie in 2010. Yup. It's a remake. Of a George Romero movie that nobody saw.

The town of Ogden Marsh is a typical farming town. It's the kind of place where everyone knows each other and they actually listen to the local police.

Everything's fine until the day the town drunk stumbles onto the local baseball field during the big game carrying a loaded shotgun. I think maybe he went to the same gym as Barry Bonds. Luckily, the local sheriff and his trusty deputy are at the game. After they save the day, the stuff hits the fan and all hell breaks loose. Something has turned most of the folks into raving lunatics and murderers.

And, that's about it. We get the same story we've heard, read and seen before. Again.

I feel I must point out that this town's sheriff is the perfect sheriff.  He can draw his gun faster than the town drunk can pull the trigger on the shotgun and figures out what's wrong instantaneously.

Where do these sheriffs get their training? They're either ninjas with perfect aim and reflexes or complete morons. Since this movie would be super short if the drunk shot the sheriff (No, he doesn't shoot the deputy) we get ninja sheriff.

The Crazies is another remake and another ”people get infected and freak out” story. We've seen it before. I'm pretty sure we're gonna see it again. 1 pitchfork.

In reality, this movie was great. Had me going for much of the movie. It's a simple and trim movie that tells it's story and moves. You don't really see too much of that nowadays. It feels like a throwback to 70's style slasher movies but with today's technology. I'm also a huge fan of the original movie. (Rent it if you can. It's one of Romero's better movies.) And, I love how much respect they had for the original. I see this remake as the movie Romero would have made if he had the tools that filmmakers have now. It looks great and has some very cool scenes. A few caught me completely off guard. Always a good thing.