Nice that Veronica Cartwright, who was in the 1978 version makes a cameo, but really, this is the 4th direct remake of the 50s classic, and god knows how many other movies have been "inspired by it...
TRAILER:
http://pdl.stream.aol.com/aol/us/moviefone/movies/2007/invasionthe_024581/invasionthe_trlr_01_700_dl.movTalk about a dearth of new ideas...
REVIEW:
http://www.dreadcentral.com/index.php?name=Reviews&req=showcontent&id=1453Invasion, The (2007)
Starring Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Jeremy Northam, Jackson Bond
Directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel
Body Snatchers. For my money, there’s nothing scarier than those emotionless flesh-pods. I love and cherish Don Siegal’s original Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Philip Kaufman’s 1978 remake, and Abel Ferrara’s 1993 re-imagining. They were all terrifying in their own right, and each one explored their themes in unique and satisfying ways. Most importantly, these were the films you could point to and say, "You see? Remakes can work."
But this is 2007 and Hollywood has gotten progressively dumber. Now we come to The Invasion, another modern train wreck in the remake trend. This particular film is even more depressing by virtue of the fact that it had a lot going for it, namely Oliver Hirschbiegel, the German filmmaker who brilliantly plumbed the depths of mental terror with Das Experiment (review). Who better to tackle the complex psychological nightmare of the Body Snatchers? Sadly, like all foreign directors, Hirschbiegal’s big American debut got the shaft when his version was rejected by the execs at Warner Bros, reportedly for its lack of big scale action sequences. Their solution? Bring aboard V for Vendetta director James McTeigue and the Wachowski Brothers to re-shoot half the film and amp it up for summer movie audiences.
You can almost see some dim-witted suit in a studio saying, "All those Body Snatchers movies were old! Today’s audiences want to see them hurl molotov cocktails during kick-ass car chases!"
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...bummer. The 1978 version scared the crap out of me when I saw it in the theater at age 9. It's still my favorite.