It falls far short as an effective sci-fi thriller, not to mention the brainy political allegory it's determined to be.

August 25, 2007 read full article

'The Invasion': Oliver Hirschbiegel's take on Jack Finney's classic story is subtly political, commenting ever so slyly on the apathy and indifference - and the lack of empathy and compassion - that have taken over since 9/11, as well as the sense of enti

August 25, 2007 read full article

There's much to recommend here. But there are too many inconsistencies.

August 20, 2007 read full article

The latest and lamest version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers might have been an accidental camp classic if its politics weren't so abhorrent and the movie didn't try to hide its ineptitude behind a veil of pomposity.

August 17, 2007 read full article

Nicole Kidman's character struggles to stay awake -- as will the audience.

August 17, 2007 read full article

Next time the aliens come invading, they may want to pass the brains, hold the lecture.

August 17, 2007 read full article

We'll have to wait until the inevitable director's cut DVD to find out what Hirschbiegel really wanted to say. It would have to be a whole lot more interesting than this accidental agit-prop, which equates pacifism with mindlessness.

August 17, 2007 read full article

The Invasion connects on a gut level in two ways, political and existential.

August 17, 2007 read full article

The Invasion has a few things to offer both summer-movie audiences and more thoughtful film buffs.

August 17, 2007 read full article

There is nothing here to be taken seriously, let alone fear.

August 17, 2007 read full article

Resistance is futile -- unless your screenplay can offer pat, absurd plot turns.

August 17, 2007 read full article

It might have been nice to see Hirschbiegel's original concept play out. As it is, the film's essential eeriness gets mashed into Hollywood hogwash.

August 17, 2007 read full article

There have been two official remakes of Invasion, and both tapped into the original's fear and dread of a society subverted by the others. This one taps only into that part of the brain that shuts down when confronted with witless tedium.

August 17, 2007 read full article

If you're familiar with the earlier films, The Invasion is even less satisfying.

August 17, 2007 read full article

The movie offers plenty of smarts and imaginative distractions to counter the stacking of improbabilities.

August 17, 2007 read full article

[It] may not be a patch on the original, but it does have a few things the other versions lack: a nonstop lurching pace propelled by jump cuts and flash-forwards, Nicole Kidman as the hero... and a bitter kind of satiric irony leaking around the edges.

August 17, 2007 read full article

In the way that certain baseball games become pitchers' duels, some movies are cutting-room battles.

August 17, 2007 read full article

If the first three movies served as parables for their times, this one keeps shooting off parable rockets that fizzle out. How many references in the same movie can you have to the war in Iraq and not say anything about it?

August 17, 2007 read full article

A movie that is ultimately a soulless clone of a vibrant original and, thus, a splendidly dull example of the very forces it warns us against -- the forces of grey and passion-sapping conformity.

August 17, 2007 read full article

Except for one terrifically adroit sequence in a subway, there is nothing understated about The Invasion.

August 16, 2007 read full article