Just made me mad... (spoilers)
I'm so tired of movies where the director just assumes the audience is stupid. I have been looking forward to finally getting around to watching "The Crazies", and was not only disappointed, but very annoyed. Almost everything was implausible, and I agree with many other posters that the "nick of time" moments were predictable and overdone. A few other things that annoyed me:
Timothy Oliphant's acting was just atrocious. His dramatic faces and just the way he delivered his dialogue made me angry.
The bone saw in the funeral home. When it was skipping towards David's crotch, there was no reason he couldn't just kick it away. And his "terrified" face? Ugh.
The discovery of the airplane in the creek. They showed the three guys in the boat from several angles just before they got to where the plane was, and you saw no signs of it. Then, as the camera pulls up, you see wings and propellors sticking out of the water. Not to mention, I don't think the US government would move this waste cross country in a prop plane, but whatever... And oh yeah, Oliphant's acting in the boat? Yeccchhh.
The whole carwash scene was just ridiculous. I know it was an older car, but up until that moment, there had been no problems starting it. Then, to build tension, the car won't start! And then, in the carwash, "we can't get traction!". And then, the helicopter silently arriving and blowing up the car. And then...you get the point.
At David's farmhouse, when the camera pans around in the nursery to show a zombie standing behind his wife. David is downstairs, and hears music coming from the nursery. He didn't hear the confrontation between his wife and the zombie, when his wife got tied to the chair? And then, the deputy shooting the zombie through the window from the yard? Come on...
Every scene where David tells his wife, "wait here, I'll be right back.". All things considered, I don't think I'd ever leave my pregant wife alone in any of these situations.
Small point, but at the truckstop, the whole parking lot is chaos and pandemonium, but even though the building was unlocked (not that that would matter), the store shelves were stacked and orderly, and the restaurant was undisturbed, with all the tables set neatly for the dinner rush. Stupid...
The government setting off a small, localized nuclear detonation in a small town in Iowa? Half the midwest would have been devastated. Iowa is not Wyoming or Nevada, where some small towns are 50 miles from nowhere. Ridiculous.
The scene where the first Crazy's wife says to the sheriff, "is that what you're telling people? You had to shoot the town drunk?". Stupid. It was a life or death situation for the sheriff, and no-he's not telling people that, the whole town witnessed that. I know she was in mourning, but the sheriff should have arrested her for assaulting an officer when she slapped him. Dumb.
I hate when people say, "and I could go on and on", when they run out of things to bring up, but I literally could list another 8 or 9 things off the top of my head. I just know people have probably baled on my post by now. I don't expect movies to be 100% factual and plausible, but writers and directors don't even attempt to figure out how to make things work, they just let things happen in some ridiculous fashion that is so out of the realm of believability that it takes you out of the movie.
Anyway, if you're still reading, here are a few more things that annoyed me...
The old police cruiser in the sheriff's garage. He still had tires on wheels ready to be mounted? And chances are, the lugs would be somewhat rusted, not to mention...they probably wouldn't have been able to get the car started in the first place...LOL-"see if you can find me a toolbox..."
There were several scenes I had to rewatch several times and still never figured out what the characters were saying. The audio/dialogue was pretty sloppy.
The plane crashing into the creek and nobody but one local hearing it go down. Again, Iowa is not that desolate.
The scene when all of the vehicles are booted, when the sheriff tells the deputy, "get away from the truck"...Because we don't want to escape in a vehicle that has dead bodies in the bed?" Jeez...
At one point, the sheriff comes up silently behind his wife and clamps his hand over her mouth, and he stifles her terrified scream, and the audience jumps. Why didn't he just come up behind her and whisper, "Judy..."
Yech...I've wasted too much time on this movie already. If you enjoyed it, I'm happy for you. I just don't like to have to work so hard to suspend my disbelief. By imdb standards, I would rate this movie a 3.