A Needed Winter Triple Feature: Second, Shutter Island

Oh, Martin Scorsese. How my heart is torn.

After seeing "The Crazies" the other night, I steeled myself and looked suspiciously around at my fellow movie compatriots and wondered what airborne infectious disease I was going to catch if I ventured back into the theaters to see "Shutter Island."

I figured, "Go hard, or go home," and at 10:40pm, I certainly wasn't going home without a fight.

So, off I went. "Shutter Island" it was.

(I should give a disclaimer that I was one of those 14-year-old girls who saw "Titanic" in theaters 9 times back in the day, so DiCaprio has always been sort of a pet-idol of mine, not like Paul, but still, even when his career was waning. And, per Scorsese, I'm also a sucker for pretty much all he does, minus the "Cape Fear" remake of '91.)

Enough disclaimers.

"Shutter Island"

The assumed premise is easy: Teddy Daniels (DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) are two U.S. Marshals sent to an island holding the criminally insane to investigate the disappearance of a very dangerous and disturbed lady.

Once on the sequestered sands of old Shutter Island (near Boston), Dr. Crawley (Ben Kingsley, awesome) begins to put weird obstacles in front of Teddy and Chuck's investigation.

Oh, you want to access patient files? Hmm, I don't think that's allowed. At the Marshals' protest, Crawley and cohorts invoke obsolete chapter 3.06.11.9 rules of some handbook that gives them seniority over even the most top officials' queries.

Teddy (DiCaprio) is given some pills; we have some hallucinations of his dead wife (Michelle Williams), some head-spinnery, and the appearance of George Noyce (Jackie Earle Haley, who I hadn't seen since "Little Children"), the man that DiCaprio has a seemingly-rightful vendetta against.

Of course, there's the mysterious and creepy Dr. Naehring (Max von Sydow), who is the man in the trailer who asks DiCaprio: "Going somewhere?" Yikes.

So as not to spoil it, just know that you get distracted by the staginess of the movie -- which is clearly an intentional Scorsese move. The allusions to the old noir-ish days of long takes and very-conscious camera glances are palpable; but, for me, they worked so well.

You get Hitchcock, "The Shining," and an awesome mystery that makes you remember the days of "Clue" all in one. I know I'm the movie geek, but ... even just writing that sends shivers down my spine.

And, by the end, I had the same feelings I had from "A Beautiful Mind" and "Vanilla Sky." As I walked out of the theater chucking my popcorn in the trash and sighing, it was the first time in a long while that strangers asked me if I knew what the true ending was.

That made me smile.

Thumbs up!

And, for sh*ts, "Clue":

A Needed Winter Triple Feature: First, The Crazies

Over the past couple days, I've managed to stuff into my very (un)busy social schedule three movies that sent me reeling back into the awesomeness of the 90s/early 2000s.

On one night, I saw "The Crazies" and "Shutter Island." The next night, I found myself clutching my ever-growing gut as I giggled at Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan in "Cop Out." Yes, I willingly saw "Cop Out" and quite liked it.

I haven't had that much unabashed fun at the movies in quite some time.

"The Crazies"

Back in 2002, I'd just moved to New York from Houston and hadn't a friend in the world within 1,000 miles. I went to the movies everyday and somehow sauntered into "28 Days Later" as tiny teardrops eked from my eyeballs, wishing I were home with friends instead of alone in a theater. Yet, as soon as the Infected individuals of the movie graced the screen, I realized I was watching an effective zombie movie of yore; I relaxed and the world was right again.

Little did I know that when I waltzed into "The Crazies" this week, I was about to see the same movie -- and love it all over again.

The Crazies stars Timothy Olyphant (of TV's "Damages" and "Deadwood") and Radha Mitchell ("Henry Poole Is Here" and, awesomely, "Phone Booth") as a Midwestern couple, David and Judy Dutton, respectively, who are about to watch their Midwestern brethren become bloodthirsty human-demons with a will to kill.

It all starts off nicely enough. He's the sheriff, she's the town doctor -- both are well-revered within the community, and she's expecting a baby. David Dutton (Olyphant) has a chummy sidekick deputy sheriff (Joe Anderson) who'd just about lay down in front of a bus before his boss got hurt.

One day, the whole small town is watching a little-league baseball game, when the Town Drunk walks out onto the field with a glint of Crazy in his eyes, wielding a shotgun no less. Olyphant scurries out onto the diamond and admonishes the drunk to put the gun down; no one wants to get shot out on the green.

Well, that glint of Crazy gets Old Man Drunk shot dead, right there on the field.

After an autopsy, we quickly learn that the town drunk had been sober for months; there was something infectious in his blood that drove him to be a wavering, zombie-like psychopath.

When Mrs. Dutton encounters a patient with the same look in his eyes shortly thereafter, we realize we have a Situation on our hands.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. I was a balled-up block of angst the entire time (blood, guts, gore, thrills, etc.), but there were some surprisingly sweet twists, and the dynamic between the three protagonists wasn't without some clever quips.

The only problem I had was my mind not being able to turn off the internal: "This is just like '28 Days Later," "Village of the Damned," "I Am Legend," "Outbreak," "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," "Last House on the Left," etc. -- but, those are all good throwbacks in my book.

Next up, "Shutter Island" -- fantastic, and awful, at the same time.

"The Crazies" trailer:

PS: Any movie trailer that includes that "Mad World" music from "Donnie Darko" gets me every time.