Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4295 in DVD
• Released on: 2000-06-19
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Dubbed, Full Screen, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish
• Dubbed in: French, German, Italian, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 114 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
In San Francisco everyone can hear Veronica (Alien) Cartwright scream. In the ultimate urban nightmare, to sleep is to die, to be replaced by a soulless alien duplicate. Less a remake of the 1956 classic of the same name, more a fresh vision of Jack Finney's source novel, Invasion of the Body Snatchers is the archetypal story of humans supplanted by unemotional "vegetable pods". A masterstroke is the introduction of SF icon Leonard Nimoy as a very West Coast relationships guru determined to explain everything in terms of urban psychological alienation, and the story does prove more unsettling on the big city's forbidding streets. This is very much an ensemble movie, with outstanding performances from Donald Sutherland and Brooke Adams, and what proved to be the first of several key genre roles for Jeff (The Fly, Jurassic Park, Independence Day) Goldblum. With minimal effects and very little gore, but filled with unnerving camera angles and a underpinned by a chillingly effective score, the film is relentlessly suspenseful, culminating in a sequence of terrifying set-pieces and a truly spine-tingling finale. More resonant with each passing year, the story was reworked in 1993 as Body Snatchers.

On the DVD: While the print is more than acceptable there is a loss of detail and some shimmering artefacts in the very dark scenes. The disc is not anamorphically enhanced, which really should be a standard DVD feature. Still, the picture is considerably ahead of VHS and the stereo sound is highly unsettling. An eight-page booklet gives an intelligent overview of all three Body Snatchers movies, and director Phil Kaufman's commentary is packed with information. --Gary S. Dalkin

Special Features
4:3 Full Frame
1.85 Wide Screen
French\German\Italian\Spanish
English\German
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital Stereo English\Mono French Italian German Spanish
Dolby Digital Stereo
Mono
Directors Commentary
8 Page Film Guide
Original Theatrical Trailer
Danish\Dutch\English\Finnish\Norwegian\Polish\Portuguese\Swedish

Synopsis
In this remake of the 1956 cult classic, terror slowly and silently strikes San Francisco as the city is mysteriously covered by alien spores that produce strangely beautiful flowers. Unbeknownst to the people, the flowers are the bearers of alien pods that make a spiderlike webbing that captures their victims as they sleep and replicates their human form. Although they still look human, the victims are transformed into emotionless creatures by a strange race of aliens out to consume and control humanity--and only four people are left to stop them. Donald Sutherland stars as Matthew Bennel, a Department of Health inspector whose close friend and coworker Elizabeth Driscoll (Brooke Adams) is overwhelmed by fear and paranoia when she begins to suspect her boyfriend, Geoffrey (Art Hindle), of no longer being human. Together, with their friends Jack (Jeff Goldblum) and Nancy (Veronica Cartwright), they are out to stop the bizarre alien invasion before they fall victim to the alien pods. Leonard Nimoy costars as Dr. David Kibner, a guru psychiatrist who might not be whom he seems. This haunting parable of human paranoia is a creepy glimpse of a city overrun with robotlike yuppies threatening to wipe out all of humankind. Sutherland gives a knockout performance as the leader of the last four humans left in San Francisco in this terrific blend of B-movie science fiction and modern terror.

Customer Reviews

One of the most frightening films ever made
I recently saw the re-make of this film starring Nicole Kidman, which was not as bad as reviewers would have you believe, but in comparison to this masterpeice of horror, starring Donald Sutherland, really is trash.

The paranoia and suspension in the film are captured particularly well. The horror is created, not by gore and sharp shocks, but by the constant atmosphere of things going wrong and the sense of impending doom. Donald Sutherland acts particularly well and you feel his struggle to escape to the bitter end.

The final scene is probably one of the finest ever captured by film, but be warned, it will not make you feel good.

Absolutely wonderful. A cinematic masterpiece

THROW OUT YOUR POT PLANTS TODAY
This is a great film. Very clever storyline and quite creepy as you don't know who is real and who is Veg. Donald Sutherland does himself proud as our hero, until that famous closing scene when he points at a real human survivor and does that weird screaming noise.

Big City Paranoia
Adapted from Jack Finney's novel, 'The Body Snatchers', Philip Kaufman's 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' takes the story out of small town Santa Mira (the location for Finney's novel and Don Siegel's 1956 film adaptation)and into San Francisco. With little use of special effects, Kaufman's movie evokes the paranoia using techniques like shaky hand-held shots and shots through frosted glass, immediately evoking a feeling that there is something wrong in the city.

Other techniques include the use of ultra violet green lighting, suggesting the invasion of these alien plant forms (pods); using mirrors to grosely distort the actors' features, and showing shots of suits constantly running through the city streets, away from ... something (Robert Duvall, in a cameo, plays the ominous priest sat on the swing at the beginning).

A crazed Kevin McCarthy also has a cameo, running through the city shouting 'They're here!', seemingly maintaining continuity, as if he has come out of one movie straight into the other.

Kaufman's film is equal to Siegel's ... although similar in theme and plot, they are inevitably different due to the time lapse of two decades. Both films are excellent adaptations of Finney's novel (Abel Ferrara's 1993 version 'Body Snatchers' is also acceptable).

Donald Sutherland would later star in Robert Heinlan's 'Puppet Masters' - the 1994 film adaptation of the well plotted 1950's novel.

The disc includes an informative director's commentary and original theatrical trailer - the disc is subtitled.

Recommended:
'The Body Snatchers' by Jack Finney (1950's novel)
'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' (1956)
'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' (1978)
'Body Snatchers' (1993)
'The Puppet Masters' (1950's novel)
'Puppet Masters' (1994)