When a movie opens with the exchange “A caper!” “A rat turd!” “A caper!” “A rat turd!” you know it can’t be a total waste of time . . . something tells me I still prefer the original Fifties version of this movie, though it’s been a long time so don’t quote me on that. The effects here though are obviously better – seriously freaky in places. The cast is pretty terrific, including Donald Sutherland, Jeff Goldblum, Leonard Nimoy, and nifty cameos by the original’s director, Don Siegel, and star, Kevin McCarthy, who almost makes the movie into less a remake than a slightly overlapping sequel. There are more lines like that opening exchange, too (Veronica Cartwright on one of the evolving pod people – “Don’t touch it, you don’t know where it’s been.”), and quite simply one of the greatest horror movie endings ever. I just realised, I even liked Abel Ferrara’s version of this story – and this year’s The Invasion doesn’t look like it’s gonna break the pattern – I can’t wait!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 9th, 2007 at 2:09 am in 4 hearts, Movie Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.