Product Description

The Invasion tells the story of a mysterious epidemic that alters the behavior of human beings. When a Washington D.C. psychiatrist (Nicole Kidman) discovers the epidemics origins are extraterrestrial, she must fight to protect her son, who may hold the key to stopping the escalating invasion.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3502 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2008-01-29
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish
• Dubbed in: French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 99 minutes

Features

• The Invasion tells the story of a mysterious epidemic that alters the behavior of human beings. When a Washington D.C. psychiatrist (Nicole Kidman) discovers the epidemics origins are extraterrestrial, she must fight to protect her son, who may hold the key to stopping the escalating invasion. Format: BLU-RAY DISC Genre: SCI-FI/FANTASY Rating: PG-13 Age: 085391176183 UPC:

Amazon.com
The Invasion deserves a second chance on DVD. This ambitious sci-fi thriller represents a flawed yet worthy attempt to bring contemporary vitality to Jack Finney's classic science fiction novel, previously filmed as Don Siegel's 1956 classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Philip Kaufman's suspenseful 1978 remake, and Abel Ferrara's highly underrated Body Snatchers from 1994. And while those earlier films are superior in many respects, The Invasion is not without strengths of its own, particularly for those who prefer action and suspense. Unfortunately these strengths were compromised by the unpredictable misfortunes of production: Original director Oliver Hirschbiegel (hired on the strength of Downfall) was eventually replaced by James McTiegue (V for Vendetta), and the Wachowski Brothers (of Matrix trilogy fame) added high-octane action sequences to the original screenplay by David Kajganich. Perhaps the movie had a curse on it (star Nicole Kidman was almost seriously injured in a stunt-car mishap during last-minute reshoots), but it's really just a matter of disparate ingredients that don't always fit together, resulting in a slick-looking film that can't decide if it's a sci-fi mystery, action thriller, or political allegory. It tries too hard to be all things at once.

Despite this, Kidman rises to the occasion with a solid performance as Carol, a Washington, D.C. psychiatrist who's convinced (with the help of costars Daniel Craig and Jeffrey Wright) that a flu-like virus is spreading throughout the population, its alien spores turning victims into soulless "pod people"... only in this case without the pods. The idea is that you'll be fine if you don't fall asleep, and especially if you don't let anyone sneeze or vomit on you. (There's a lot of vomiting; don't say you weren't warned.) With a crashing space shuttle to deliver the alien threat, cute tyke Jackson Bond as Carol's threatened son, and a nod to Kaufman's film with a small role for Veronica Cartwright, The Invasion will surely fare better on DVD than it did in theaters. If nothing else, it proves the timeless relevance of Finney's original premise, which continues to inspire a multitude of variations. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

Yet another remake of a classic story.
Every era seems to have a connection to the "Body Snatchers" as there have been about 4 films so far that are based on the classic tale and it has spawned numerous similarily themed films and silly rip-offs (Invasion of the Pod People).

The first version and arguably the best is Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) which dealt with McCarthism. The next take on the classic came in 1978 with Invasion of the Body Snatchers and has become my favorite version of the tale. It focused on our need to be emotional even when it makes no sense, hence, the appearance of Leonard Nimoy in the film who built a career playing Spock, part emotionless Vulcan and part human, on Star Trek. Then there came Body Snatchers in 1994 and although that was a rather forgettable version, it did have something to say about the "me" and "greed" era of the 1980's.

Now we have "The Invasion" in which Nicole Kidman takes on Leonard Nimoy's supporting role in the 1978 version and makes it the starring role. She is well-supported by the new James Bond, Daniel Craig (Casino Royale, and even the actor who plays the new Felix Liter in the same Bond film. In addition, there is Jeremy Northam (The Net) who has made a nice career playing heavies, and in a moment of inspirational casting there is Veronica Cartwright playing a patient of Kidman's.

Cartwright was terrific in Alien (the first one) and has been in more supporting roles in film and television than I can remember. But why is she so memorable for being in this film? She was in the 1978 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers with Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, and Leonard Nimoy. She is a consistently strong supporting actress and to see her return 30 years later in this remake is fun and it's nice that her role isn't some small cameo either.

The film itself is rather unremarkable even though it is enjoyable. I think it may end up being only a bit more remembered than the 1994 version of this tale only because of it's cast as the direction, effects, music, and photography are all rather pedestrian. In addition, many may recall this film for NOT having the infamous "pods" for which this tale is so well-known for. While this makes this take a bit unique, I think it's a flaw as it treats the invasion more as an infection and less than an interglatic fight to exist as we are and not as another being would have us be and that is ironically the focus of this film even though that isn't played up until near the end (as if it were an after-thought).

This tale continues to be haunting even with the lackadaisical approach here because this tale speaks to us in this era that seems to suggest that everyone not exactly like one group is wrong or bad. We have become in this era rather ethnocentric and this film lightly explores how if we were all alike there would be no more wars, distrust, hate and so forth, but for that kind of world we must give up our souls. In the end, this film attempts to redeem it's own pointlessness by throwing in the question of whether is it better to have wars over religion, status, wealth, etc. or have peace at the cost of not being who we are and our right to express that.

The film wastes the talents of all by only hinting on this theme rather than exploring it with more depth and sincerity as the previous versions explored their visions of paranoia, isolationism, and the deadening of emotions in an ever increasingly violent world. For this lack of seriousness and earnestness this film is all too much like the 1994 version which was more like this one in that it had a good cast and was appropriately chilling, but lacked significant punch and/or influence.

This film is mild popcorn fun and the whole family can see it, but don't expect it to hold up to the first two far superior versions of this timeless tale.

Fuzzy at the edges
Ok, most bad reviews here are justified. Did we need another remake? For sure not. But on the other hand, a really strong story at the core of the script proves nearly unkillable.
And I want to place on record my objection to the Kidman bashing: I think she does a very good job and makes the movie watchable despite all efforts to the contrary, she certainly helps safe the suspense, which is not totally out. (Hope nobody noticed that I am the chairman of the Kidman fanclub in Morning Land.)
One objection to the script: the story is 50 years old, the efforts to place it at the turn of the century have given us some nice anachronisms. There is a Czechoslovakian Ambassador in the story, at the same time that the Irak war and the Darfur crisis are issues. Of course one can't expect a Hollywood script writer to keep up with all the political changes in Europe...

Typical Hollywood Dumbed Down Garbage
Simply terrible. Aside from being able to bask in the magnificence of Ms. Kidman, who is indeed magnificent and does all she can with her role, this film has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Sophomoric white bread direction, shameful use of news footage and witness interviews from the latest shuttle disaster, zero character development, bland camera work and editing, no emotions (it's hard to tell when characters have turned since aside from Kidman the screenwriters and director don't allow the cast to convincingly exhibit any while still human,) and no pods!

This could be a hundred other movies over the last twenty years - bad guys chase good guys around downtown Washington DC, car chases every five minutes, cell phones, elevator buttons, basement parking lots, cars on fire, child must be rescued, blah blah blah.

Oh, and instead of pods the "disease" is passed by people throwing up. In people's coffee. In each other's faces. Nice, thanks for that. That's really challenging intellectually. That's fine scriptwriting. Is that the Academy calling?

The original remains an almost sacred masterpiece and it still hasn't been topped. The remake staring Donald Sutherland was excellent and genuinely creepy, cleverly directed and scripted. The third version was quite OK. This edition is beyond lame and doesn't for a second create a tenth as much mood as an average Twilight Zone episode. Your standard dog food commercial is more frightening, more mysterious. (And better directed.)

If you want to find a textbook case of how void of creativity big studio Hollywood has become, and how they denegrate the intellect of their audience, look no further.