Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3972 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-02-25
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 95 minutes

Amazon.co.uk
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 re-shoots), 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

DVD Description
The mysterious crash of a space shuttle leads to the terrifying discovery that there is something alien within the wreckage. Those who come in contact with it are changing in ominous and inexplicable ways. Soon Washington D.C. psychiatrist Carol Bennell (Nicole Kidman) and her colleague Ben Driscoll (Daniel Craig) learn the shocking truth about the growing extraterrestrial epidemic: it attacks its victims while they sleep, leaving them physically unchanged but strangely unfeeling and inhuman. As the infection spreads, more and more people are altered and it becomes impossible to know who can be trusted. Now Carol's only hope is to stay awake long enough to find her young son, who may hold the key to stopping the devastating invasion.

Synopsis
This slick sci-fi horror hybrid is the fourth screen adaptation of Jack Finney’s The Body Snatchers. Infused with modern details like text messaging and 24-hour cable news, The Invasion updates the classic story for today’'s tech-centric world. After the space shuttle Patriot crashes unexpectedly, people across America begin to exhibit strange behaviour. Psychiatrist Carol Bennell (Nicole Kidman, Bewitched) begins to notice the change in those around her, including her ex-husband, Tucker Kaufman (Jeremy Northam, Gosford Park), who works at the CDC. Joined by her friend Ben Driscoll (Daniel Craig, ), Carol attempts to unravel the mystery as she rescues her young son.

Customer Reviews

dont fall asleep
I couldnt make up my mind whether i was watching this film because the beautiful and talented N. Kidman was in it or because i thought it was a decent thriller. I preferred 1978 bodysnatchers with Donald Sutherland, but thats not to say this movie is bad just a little rushed in places.

Yes, their is a lot of irony in that the alien virus which renders all emotion obsolete is also seen as a good thing. No more war, people working together for the common good as a single entity. It raises some questions about the human being good and bad. But a world without people properly expressing themselves is a very dull one indeed. The ending is also slightly disappointing in that the 1978 version was darker and overall more depressing. Attempting to explain the appearance of the alien spores and how they work, also the possibility of a vaccine is all sandwiched in between Kidman running away from infected people. Scriptwriters obviously found they had a lot to squeeze into 90+ mins and found it a struggle.

Its a shame because the movie ratchets up the tension pretty well to keep the viewer engrossed, and the performances are solid. Kidman and Craig work well together, and every scene with Kidman on the run is when the movie works best. Kidman really is a good actress and can make you feel the desperation she is going through, but without her the movie would have been flat. But for gods sake its time hollywood started to come up with original ideas, endless remakes and remakes of remakes are proving tiresome.

Atmospheric thriller
This is a good old-fashioned lights out huddled on the sofa creepy sci-fi thriller flick It seems like Hollywood stopped making these in the 70's or 80's, leaving sci-fi series like X-Files to fill in the gaps.

Craig and Kidman are perfectly cast and make a great team. The premise may not be original but it's still effective. It may be too scary for the kids but it's perfect for grown-ups who want to watch a scary movie on a Friday night.

Great looking sci-fi flick with some truly tense moments. Recommended.

The Body Snatchers film that got taken over and turned into something else...
The Invasion is a classic example of what happens when interesting ideas go bad because the studio gets a severe case of buyer's remorse in post-production. Originally intended as a `cerebral' updating of Invasion of the Body Snatchers for a post-9/11 world, Oliver Hirschbiegel's film was actually shot before Daniel Craig was cast as Bond (he got the call on the set, which must have pissed off Jeremy Northam, who for years reportedly thought he had the part in the bag), which should tell you how long it was on the shelf while Warner Bros. and producer Joel Silver tried to work out how to turn it into something more obviously commercial after poor test screenings. Their solution was to bring in the Wachowskis and James McTeigue to turn it into an action movie, hence the CGI `infection effects,' the absurd chase at the end and, presumably, Jeffrey Wright's I-really-don't-want-to-be-here-and-can't-be-bothered-to-pretend-any-different final speech explaining it all away in a scene that practically screams `shot under protest.' They probably shouldn't have bothered: with the final cost ending up somewhere around the $80m mark they probably spent more on the reshoots than the film took worldwide.

Some nice ideas do still survive. Rather than pod people, the alien threat is to an intelligent virus reprogramming people's DNA, with the government spreading it via flu jabs. There's even a lengthy debate at an embassy party about human nature and whether civilisation is simply an illusion to convince ourselves that we have conquered our primal self-interested animal instincts, something that appears to be borne out as the world becomes a more peaceful place once that troublesome human element is removed, with even Bush and Chavez embracing while the war in Iraq suddenly ends (mind you, it's not such a great new world for dogs). Of course, many of the old ground rules still apply, with the only way to fool the infected is to avoid displaying any emotion, which might help explain Nicole Kidman's Botox. But unfortunately the new hands on the tiller are just too desperate to cut to the chase and around the half hour mark just when you're thinking this isn't so bad after all the film suddenly goes haywire with a flashback montage mostly made up of soundbites from scenes that, er, we haven't actually seen because they didn't make the final edit. Yet even then enough interesting elements shine through to keep you watching until the film abandons its concept almost altogether to turn the infected into an angry Molotov cocktail throwing mob of kill-crazy zombies going on the rampage en route to a happy ending that at least has a semblance of human imperfection even if it wraps everything up too neatly.

Aside from a quite terrible Jeremy Northam as the ex-husband and government official spreading the virus, the film is capably acted even though no one really excels. Kidman is fine in the lead, Craig seems stuck in young Terence Stamp mode as the boyfriend and it's amusing to see his Felix Leiter, Jeffrey Wright, in a thankless supporting role, while Veronica Cartwright's distraught abused wife offers a nice link to Philip Kaufman's superb 1978 version. Yet there's the constant feeling that the human element has been partially removed and replaced in the name of improvement long before the virus gets them. It's a shame that the original cut wasn't given a DVD release like Paul Schrader's shelved-and-reshot Exorcist prequel Dominion, but somehow that seems unlikely. It's entirely possible that Hirschbiegel's original cut fails in different ways, but it would still be interesting to have the chance to find out. After all, it's hard to get around the irony of a Body Snatchers film getting taken over and turned into something else...

DVD extras are limited to a trio of featurettes, but no deleted scenes nor any mention of the troubled production.