By Stephen Pytak 

     Some people will walk out of this remake and say
'Ya seen one seen 'em all."
    Maybe. Maybe not. Depends what you're lookin' for..
    True, we've seen dozens of flicks about the infected, people
running for their lives, killing their neighbors and trying to save
their pregnant girlfriends. Some are known for their great 
stories and plot twists, like Zack Snyder's "Dawn of  the Dead  
(2004)." 
    While the new fangled version of "The Crazies" has an O.K. 
story, what's going to keep your blood pumping are the well-
staged seiges and scares.
    It's a great Saturday matinee. You'll have a HELLUVA time 
watching scenes like the one in the car wash, the baseball 
field, the jail, and the big show down at the choke and puke.
   The story is a classic Romero end-of-the-world scenario.
A government plane carrying some kind of biological 
weapon -- forget what it was called...'Trixie?' -- crashes
in the middle of rural America. Heck, no one even hears
the plane crash. It lands in the local lake. It poisons the
water table. And soon people start going crazy, like violent 
crazy. Like shotgun, pitchfork, firebug crazy. Hard to explain
how a biological weapon can do that to someone. Would have 
been funny if the government called that crap "deus ex 
machina."
     Anyway what's GREAT is the actor they got to play our
protagoinist, the good sheriff who's going to see us through
the shit: Timothy Olyphant.
     I didn't read up too much on this flick before I went to see
it. I heard it was good. The tomatometer at RottenTomatoes.com
was 70 percent in the red. I was curious. Anyway, when I saw
the guy playing the local lawman I leaned over to my brother
and said 'Hey, isn't that Timothy Olyphant?" He confirmed with
a nod.
     Remember him? He was the guy who played "Mickey" in
"Scream 2 (1997);" "Thomas Gabriel," the latest baddie to
piss off  John McClane in "Live Free or Die Hard (2007);" and
the title character in the dud "Hitman (2007)."
     Olyphant's performace in "The Crazies" is one of his best. 
His "David Dutton" is a likeable down-to-earth guy who is forced
to go on the run to save his family. This is the first time I saw 
Olyphant do an action hero role. Worked out pretty well. 
     The star of the show is the slick direction, tense scenarios
and the seiges and chair-jumpers. You need to come up with
a bunch of these when you do a flick like this. You have to be 
creative because, sure, we've seen it all before. 
    By the way, fans of "Friday the 13th (2009)" will recognize
actress Danielle Panabaker. I didn't at first, but it clicked 
eventually. Won't ruin her big scene completely, but her death
scene in "The Crazies" is one of the best in the show. We'll see
her later this year in John Carpenter's "The Ward," where I'm 
suret she'll run into a few more mentally challenged wackos.
    If you're a fan of Romero's "The Crazies," keep an eye out
for a cameo by Lynn Lowry, who played "Kathy" in the original.
Here she's "Woman on Bike."