Rating: 
Summary: The Least Successful of the Body Snatcher Movies...
Review: ...but entertaining, nevertheless.Abel Ferrera...I don't really know what to think of his movies. Some (like "New Rose Hotel")are dreadful beyond all probability, and some are quite enjoyable (like Body Snatchers). Ferrera's "Body Snatchers" is entertainment that hits its mark. That is, it isn't a botched stab at "art" the way the inexplicably horrible "New Rose Hotel" is. The narrative moves along at a fast clip, the editing is slick, the acting on target. It just isn't as creepy as the earlier versions. In this version, the body snatchers take over military bases...well, a soldier's crisp demeanor is rather body snatcherish to begin with--as it should be! While one might expect this to heighten the sense of paranoia--"Is he one of them?"--in this movie, it doesn't. There are some obvious holes in the narrative, and the pod people are not quite the emotionless drones that they were in earlier versions. They seem to show traces of malice. Still, this is an entertaining flick, and worth a look.
Rating:
Summary: The Least Successful of the Body Snatcher Movies...
Review: ...but entertaining, nevertheless. Abel Ferrera...I don't really know what to think of his movies. Some (like "New Rose Hotel")are dreadful beyond all probability, and some are quite enjoyable (like Body Snatchers). Ferrera's "Body Snatchers" is entertainment that hits its mark. That is, it isn't a botched stab at "art" the way the inexplicably horrible "New Rose Hotel" is. The narrative moves along at a fast clip, the editing is slick, the acting on target. It just isn't as creepy as the earlier versions. In this version, the body snatchers take over military bases...well, a soldier's crisp demeanor is rather body snatcherish to begin with--as it should be! While one might expect this to heighten the sense of paranoia--"Is he one of them?"--in this movie, it doesn't. There are some obvious holes in the narrative, and the pod people are not quite the emotionless drones that they were in earlier versions. They seem to show traces of malice. Still, this is an entertaining flick, and worth a look.
Rating:
Summary: The Least Successful of the Body Snatcher Movies...
Review: ...but entertaining, nevertheless. Abel Ferrera...I don't really know what to think of his movies. Some (like "New Rose Hotel")are dreadful beyond all probability, and some are quite enjoyable (like Body Snatchers). Ferrera's "Body Snatchers" is entertainment that hits its mark. That is, it isn't a botched stab at "art" the way the inexplicably horrible "New Rose Hotel" is. The narrative moves along at a fast clip, the editing is slick, the acting on target. It just isn't as creepy as the earlier versions. In this version, the body snatchers take over military bases...well, a soldier's crisp demeanor is rather body snatcherish to begin with--as it should be! While one might expect this to heighten the sense of paranoia--"Is he one of them?"--in this movie, it doesn't. There are some obvious holes in the narrative, and the pod people are not quite the emotionless drones that they were in earlier versions. They seem to show traces of malice. Still, this is an entertaining flick, and worth a look.
Rating: 
Summary: Absolut Great.
Review: A wonderful movie. I just saw it and the effects are a skin-crawly as you'll see. Worth buying.
Rating: 
Summary: Could have been good. Wasn't.
Review: Body Snatchers (Abel Ferrara, 1993)
Okay. Put together a sure-fire story, with a reworking by low-budget horror master Stuart Gordon. Slap on a B-movie who's-who cast with a couple of more prominent names, and then hand the whole thing to cutting-edge wunderkind Abel Ferrara. As an added bonus, add in that most of them were coming off career-high performances. It's a slam dunk, right?
Well, not quite. Ferrara (who'd recently made news with Bad Lieutenant) and Gordon (cruising high on Honey, I Shrunk the Kids) teamed up to come up with a pretty good script. Certainly not one of Gordon's best, but it's workable. They then managed to find a casting director with impeccable taste. And yet, somehow, the whole thing never quite jells.
Marty (Scent of a Woman's Gabrielle Anwar) and her family are travelling to a military base for the summer. Her father Steve (Terry Kinney, coming off Last of the Mohicans) works for the EPA, and is out investigating rumors of PCBs in the local water supply. Also along for the ride are Marty's brother Andy (Reilly Murphy, in the middle of his very brief film career) and Steve's new wife, Carol (Meg Tilly, who'd had a part in The Two Jakes a few years previous). Needless to say, teenage daughter + stepmother = tension. The base is headed up by General Platt (the ever-present R. Lee Ermey), who doesn't care whether they have a problem or not. His foil is the camp medic, Major Collins (Forest Whitaker, coming off his fantastic role in Article 99), who's not only convinced there's a problem, but that it's causing imminent danger to the men. Unless you've been in a cave for the past fifty years, you know what happens next.
Yet, somehow, a whole lot of good actors, a great screenwriter, and a fantastic director managed to come up with a movie that's just "eh". One expects nudity from an Abel Ferrara film, and one is rewarded (albeit briefly). But one also expects good acting, especially from a cast of this caliber, and a certain feeling of unease, and neither one exists. Basically, it just doesn't feel like an Abel Ferrara movie.
Worth watching if you're a fan of any of the principals, but don't expect a movie as good as either of the other versions. **
Rating: 
Summary: The Best Sci.Fi.
Review: Great performance, great acting and alot of neat sound effcts. The best movie I ever seen. Now when I go to sleep I'm afraid that they will invade my body.
Rating:
Summary: Analogies Of All Eras
Review: I have only caught sight of this movie on cable in the past few weeks, and I find it thoughtfully disturbing. While the 1956 original is often thought of as a parody of Communistic paranoia, this one is definitely a comment on the AIDS virus and how it operates. Just as HIV attacks the body's immune system,the pods here take over a military base-the first line of defense against any invasion.Not only that, they turn the military into a means of distribution, spreading themselves around to other bases.Those who escape become "antibodies", fighting off the infection.
Rating:
Summary: Untitled Review
Review: I'm the first to get bugged when they remake the classic -- andthis is the second reworking of an original which stands as amasterpiece of both science fiction and horror. To be sure, this is a retread of a scenario so familiar that the reference 'pod people' has entered the language as a recognizable expression. That said, this is simply a sharp horror film. Miles above the thing done in the '70s, this film is tight, building tension in each scene and never letting loose. I live for the experience of recommending a class act most folks have probably not heard of. This is one of those pictures.
Rating:
Summary: Not the best
Review: I, personally, thought that this movie didn't really go anywhere. I think that the 1978 version was a whole lot better than this one. I haven't seen the one made in the '50's but I'm sure it's also better than this one.
Rating:
Summary: A fun way to pass the night, but not exceptional.
Review: If books are generally the best editions of any given story, then the first movies adapted from them are usually the best. "Body Snatchers", which is based on the book "The Invasion of the Body Snatchers" by Jack Finney, is the third adaption of this story, via VHS. There is one black and white version from 1956 which I haven't yet seen (which is really a paraody of the 50s fear of communists, or so I hear) and then there is a 1970s version starring Donald Sutherland, Veronica Cartwright and Jeff Goldblum, which scared my hair gray. This movie is the americanized version of an alien tale. It is over-done to the point of glowing, it is so polished. Some people like perfection, but in horror movies, especially "hokey" horror movies, I like a few flaws. This movie has the sense of having been regurgitated through the ages. Nothing in it seems "new". Despite that, the youthful cast (practically all the main characters are "kids") do the best job possible, given the circumstances. I rate this movie a 6 out of a 10. It is a good thing to pick up if you're looking at the video store for a last-minute rental, and are stumped, but if you want a thriller for a birthday party or something, see the 70s version.
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