Invasion (Blu-ray) (2007)

"Connects on a gut level in two ways, political and existential.  Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
"Gripping from start to finish.  Stephen Hunter, The Washington Post

Editor's Note This slick sci-fi horror hybrid is the fourth adaptation of Jack Finney's THE BODY SNATCHERS to land on screens. 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 behavior. 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, CASINO ROYALE), Carol attempts to unravel the mystery as she rescues her young son. THE INVASION gives Kidman a chance to act the part of an action hero. She runs in heels, crashes cars, and shoots guns, but she looks more like a Hitchcockian blonde than a latter-day heroine. Clad in steely grays, she perfectly matches the film's sober palette of neutrals. Genre veteran Veronica Cartright gives a good performance as one of Carol's patients, who suspects that her husband isn't himself. Cartright has appeared in sci-fi classics such as THE X-FILES and ALIEN, but she also starred in Philip Kaufman's 1978 version of the story. Unlike WAR OF THE WORLDS or SIGNS, the invaders here don't arrive in UFOs or appear as little green (or gray) men. Instead, the threat in THE INVASION is so creepy because the aliens look just like everyone else.

	Daniel Craig
	Jeffrey Wright
	Jeremy Northam
	Nicole Kidman
	Bruce Berman - Executive Producer
	Caty Maxey - Art Director
	Dave Kajganich - Screenplay
	Hans Funck - Editor
	Jack Finney - Based On Novel By
	Jack Fisk - Production Designer
	James F. Truesdale - Art Director
	James McTeigue - Director
	Joel Negron - Editor
	Joel Silver - Producer
	John Ottman - Original Music By
	Oliver Hirschbiegel - Director
	Rainer Klausmann - Cinematographer

Los Angeles Times
"[E]ffectively creepy and surprisingly unnerving....The new film illustrates why and how the power of the original story remains undiminished more than half a century after its creation." 08/17/2007

ReelViews 6 of 10
Based on the evidence at hand, it's impossible to say whether director Oliver Hirschbiegel's (Downfall) original cut of The Invasion would have been any good. What can be said is that the mismatched blending of Hirschbiegel's low-key horror and the Wachowski Brothers' anything-but-low-key action sequences results in a cinematic dud. The Invasion doesn't know what it wants to be - an action film, a horror movie, a science fiction allegory, a mother/son bonding picture - and, as a result, it ends up being none of the above. After an atmospheric and well-paced first two reels, the movie loses coherence as it rushes through potentially slower sequences to get to the pyrotechnic payoffs that result in an abrupt, unsatisfying conclusion...Jack Finney's source material was a thinly veiled commentary about the Red Scare (not unlike Arthur Miller's The Crucible). For The Invasion, an attempt is made to tie the body snatchers' work into a myriad of real-life current events: mistrust of government, the situation in Iraq, and the fear of a worldwide medicine-resistant pandemic. It's done sloppily and haphazardly, however. In the end, allegorical aspirations have been shunted into the background by the need to enhance the film's action quotient. - James Berardinelli