Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Rating:
Summary: Decent film, bad DVD
Review: This DVD is presented at 1.85:1 and is NON-anamorphic.

The picture quality is moderate while the audio is a bit better.

The film itself doesn't bother to be anything more then a remake of the 1956 original minus the intellectual overtones. The writing seems to assume that everyone knows what the film is about from the beginning, so the characters noticing the changes in their loved ones is very rushed.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant remake
Review: Kaufman's _Invasion of the Body Snatchers_ is a rarity: a re-make that's as good or better than the original. The film features terrific special effects, intelligent writing, and memorable characters. The cinematography is gorgeous, with the Kaufman touch--carefully-placed details that invite the eye to roam around the screen in every scene.
Jeff Goldblum is especially good, and he gets the movie's best line. See if you can identify it. There's also a great cameo appearance by Kevin McCarthy, who starred in the 1956 original version.
The film is based on the story by the amazing Jack Finney, who also wrote the best time travel novel of all time, _Time and Again_.
Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Just as B-Movie made as the Original....
Review: The 1956 movie was a comentery on the Red Scare and how fear of communisism led many Americans to blacklist and point fingers at their neighbors. The 1978 movie was a look back at how doing sex,drugs,and rock and roll came with a high price of spreading diseases and having halluicanations, and was also an attack on the yuppie/comsumer culture that the decade had seen. Both movies were called B-Movies in the sense that they had wooden performances and poor scripts. They were not very good and paved the way for ALIEN (releaed in theaters the next year). The B-Movie trend continued.

Rating:
Summary: aeeeuuuiiiiirrrrrr (my impression of the Snatchers 'scream')
Review:

This is one of the few remakes that is actually better than the original (imo) Helped a great deal by Donald Sutherland who is great (and i like his afro, very 70's) And kudos for a great commentary track by Mr Kaufman. Creepy and it can stay with you. I love it!

Rating:
Summary: Great film!
Review: This is a sci-fi classic with Donald Sutherland, Leonard Nimoy, and Jeff Goldblum. It's scary at times and very interesting to watch.

Rating:
Summary: Riveting sci-fi thriller
Review: Philip Kaufman's 1978 remake of a 1956 original (whose director Don Seigel and star Kevin McCarthy both have fleeting cameos here) is an entertaining and truly scary movie. Tension is high throughout, although at the same time Kaufman directs from WD Richter's script with a sense of humour.

On the negative side, while I appreciated the way the camera is used to create a terrifying image of a world that is already distorted long before the monsters show up, photography and editing are just a little too frenetic overall, hardly giving the audience the chance to breathe. Besides being stylish, it does fit in thematically, but it's all rather overdone, and the tension could have been maintained (and improved) without the overkill.

Only negative on the DVD is that it is not anamorphic, which really bugs me -- why is there any excuse for that? Oh, and the pictures on the DVD sleeve give away at least one of the plot twists, which is a bit of a stinker for anyone who hasn't seen the movie before.

Nevertheless, a great film that ought to be regarded as a classic of its genre. Sutherland makes an excellent protagonist, and gets good support from a cast that includes Leonard Nimoy, Jeff Goldblum, Brooke Adams and Veronica Cartwright. Effects aren't bad for its era either, and the San Francisco locations are used effectively.

Rating:
Summary: Easily rivals its predecessor
Review: Saturday, August 28, 2004 / 4 of 5 / Easily rivals its predecessor
Horror and the question of human identity: who are we, how do we define ourselves, what if an invader implants itself in us or our immediate circle. Excellent fodder over horror and sci-fi's history, The Thing, Invaders from Mars, and Invasion of the Body Snatchers are top flight examples. The 1978 version is excellent, the cast is a terrific collection, between Donald Sutherland as a Dept. of Health inspector in San Fran to Jeff Goldblum as a mud-bath owner / poet. Of course the story is well known, prime characters begin to notice their significant others have changed overnight to be emotionless, aloof, and secretive. As the story slowly unfolds, we see more and more examples; and on the street as the movie progresses more and more eyes turn furtively towards the `unconverted' until whole blocks are chasing our protagonists. It is those scenes were the film is creepily effective, the chases are not out of control zombie shuffling, or even the sprinting of the rage-a-holics of 28 Days Later, no it's a fast pace silent, emotionless pursuit, in a quicker Michael Meyers vein. Claustrophobia sets in as one by one the heroes fall to sleep until there is only a couple, and what a finale. *Grin*. Recommended.