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Review:
With INVADERS FROM MARS, Director Tobe Hooper has delivered a less than
memorable remake of the classic "Invaders From Mars" (1953).
Hunter Carson ("Rip Van Winkle") is David, a young boy who
lives with parents Timothy Bottoms ("Texasville" and "The
Paper Chase") and Laraine Newman ("Saturday Night Live")
in a small California town. As the film opens, father and son are outdoors
at night watching shooting stars. Hooper, and his Director of Photography
Daniel Pearl, give us a stylized, visually pleasing shot of the
house, the night sky, and the meteor showers.
Later that night, when he's in bed, thunder and lightning strike. David
wakes up, and goes to the window, in time to see a huge, weird looking
UFO land in the sand dunes across the fence from his backyard. Special
Visual Effects Wizard John Dykstra ("Star Wars", "Battlestar
Galactica") gives the viewer great FX. Unfortunately, the film
goes downhill from here very quickly.
The next morning at breakfast dad is acting strange. Bottoms , as unimaginatively
Directed by Hooper, delivers your standard zombie performance. He walks
and talks slow, delivering his lines in a distant, distracted manner.
We know he's been taken over by Martians long before David sees the
incision at the back of dad's neck.
Later, when mom is taken over by the Martians, Laraine Newman gives
a performance exactly like those she used to parody in old Saturday
Night Live sketches like "The Coneheads". The logic in hiring
a comic actress to give a seriously stupid performance escapes me.
One of the best aspects of the original, INVADERS FROM MARS, is that
the whole film was from the kid's point of view. Many of the shots of
adults and buildings were shot from low angles, to emphasize how things
look from a child's point of view. Director Hooper, however, though
he spends a lot of time with the kid character, gives us a film from
an adult, somewhat removed perspective.
Louise Fletcher ("Brainstorm") and Karen Black ("Five
Easy Pieces") give adequate performances as a bad teacher (alien
dominated) and good teacher respectively. They've both been better elsewhere.
Lets talk aliens here. As Designed and Created by Stan Winston (not
the tire guy!), they look pretty silly. As little David describes them
to Karen Black, they're, "Huge, giant, slimy, Mr. Potato Heads".
Nuff said!
My favorite scene is where David catches science teacher Fletcher eating
a live frog. The image of Fletcher, eyes bulging, with the frog's legs
sticking out of her mouth, creates a strange, truly alien moment in
the film.
The Music, by Christopher Young, is over orchestrated, and about as
subtle as an alien biting your head off. The film's color is also overly
bright, a candy apple look, which was one of the visual trademarks of
the now defunct Cannon films.
This film is only watchable for the very young (who might like the silly
aliens) or the very bored. And if you're a fan of the original INVADERS
FROM MARS, avoid this film unless Martians have already taken over your
brain!
MovieMonday.com
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