Where's the pod? Not here!
by Flick Chick Vique
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The Invasion earns 31/2 Red Vines for being an ok remake |
It’s hard to remake a classic. I often wonder why Hollywood is so hell bent on doing so. Every once in a while you get gold like when Tim Burton remade Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. But more often you get something like The Invasion.
First of all, let me say that I enjoyed The Invasion. It had some good scares and some tense action scenes. Nicole Kidman does her usual job of being fantastic. Even sexy Daniel Craig is along for the ride. Yet when all is said and done you are still left wondering why Hollywood even bothered.
The Invasion is a remake of the 1956 sci-fi horror classic, Invasion of the Body Snatchers. In it, Kevin McCarthy plays Dr. Bennell, the local small town doc. Suddenly his town is gripped by a psychological epidemic where people claim their friends and relatives are no longer who they say they are. Paranoia seems to be running amok. That is until the good doc and his friends discover some unearthly ‘pods’ that develop into humans while they sleep, then replace the very people they developed into! The movie made such an impression that to this day whenever people see a big change in acquaintances they greet them with “Hey, where’s the pod?!”
The movie was so popular it was remade with great success in 1978. That time around Donald Sutherland played the heroic Dr. Bennell. Flash forward to 2007 and Nicole Kidman is the doctor trying to save her loved ones and the world.
In this remake the invasion comes in the form of spores that hitchhike here aboard a crashed space shuttle. Kidman’s ex-husband (Jeremy Northam) is with the CDC and he picks up the virus first hand while investigating the crash. In fact, lots of people become infected at that crash site and from there the virus multiplies and is out of control within hours.
Writer Dave Kajganich and director Oliver Hirschbiegel drag the 50-year-old storyline into the future with images of President Bush and Venezuela’s President Chavez embracing and wars around the world ending. Yes, the virus brings a world where there is no hate or fear. But there is also no love or happiness because there is no emotion of any kind. And while film aficionados can argue till the cows come home that the story is an allegory to reflect the fears of communism, there are others, like me, who just appreciate the original and its ’78 remake for being good old fashioned scary movies.
Yes, I liked The Invasion but it is not as special or memorable as its predecessors. If it had been the first one made I seriously doubt it would have inspired a remake half a century later. To avoid disappointment, I suggest you see it at a bargain matinee or rent it some Halloween
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