The Cinema For 2/26/10: Let's Just Move To Next Week

Cop Out of "Cop Out" or else

The Cinema is back this week, as it is burdened with another dreadful movie in the month of February. It is of course the Tracy Morgan and Bruce Willis film "Cop Out."

I'm just going to let Richard Roeper sum "Cop Out" for you in three words: "An unholy mess."

"Bruce Willis is playing a New York police office, who would have thought of that?"

Perfect from Roeper. Because that is what this unoriginal trash is. What in the hell was director Kevin Smith thinking about when he signed on this?

This week does have one notable release saving it, as the remake of "The Crazies" is not a bad horror flick at all in the minds of most.

The Star-Ledger's Stephen Whitty gives it an encouraging look:

If the plot sounds vaguely like “28 Days Later,” and tempts you to yell “rip-off!” well, contain your own rage. That hit movie used the same idea (without credit) as the original version of “The Crazies,” made in 1973 by zombie king George Romero. This movie is the official remake, made with Romero’s blessing — albeit not all of his political, paranoid style.

His gritty, DIY version featured some memorable (if unrepeatable) acts, as all humanity fell by the wayside. This slicker, more polished movie contents itself with simple good scares.

It has a bunch of them, though, and an appealing star in Timothy Olyphant, as the sheriff of that small Iowa farm town. With one deputy, one jail cell and a town drunk, it’s pretty much a Mayberry existence.

There are others though, like The Detroit News' Adam Graham, who were disappointed with it.

Director Breck Eisner ("Sahara") creates an eerie mood early but can't sustain it, and doesn't make us care about the characters once they're pared down to a few survivors. Furthermore, he relies too heavily on "gotcha" instances for scares and surprises, and scenes staged in a car wash and an oil change pit are too silly and too cramped, respectively, to be effective.

If there's a message in all this, it's buried in blood splatter. Which is fine, but makes "The Crazies" more disappointing than if it had less lofty goals.

Just a short interesting note about "The Crazies." The team behind the movie is Participant Media, who backed "An Inconvenient Truth" and "Good Night, Good Luck." So good for them, either way.

And that's it for The Cinema this week. With "Alice in Wonderland" on the slate next week, hopefully I will be able to give you a full review myself instead of the usual other sources.

Until then, FIN.