This movie has some really convincing performances. Ellen Page is great, the depth of her emotions are intense and believable. Evan Rachel Wood is also really good, she does her sensitive character a lot of justice and portrays a vividly brutal scene with real honesty. This movie is unsettling because it is all too possible. What happens when we are suddenly left without power is shocking - we are plunged into a lawless past, with no protection. This movie really conveys that well, and at the same time explores the theme of what it means to be a family. I was moved to tears several times. The forest setting is lush and beautiful. The direction was good - the pace was tense and believable, the only slow part I didn't care for were some of the love scenes in the beginning, and the dance scenes were pretty dispensable, but all in all I really liked it!
Reviews
2 Reviews
Invasion of the Golden Perms
20 April 2015
Warning: Spoilers
I couldn't believe I hadn't seen this movie before. It stars two of my favorite actors Donald Sutherland and Jeff Goldblum, and even Leonard Nemoy as a kind of swinging psychoanalyst -- which would be reason to watch it alone. Donald Sutherland (with the worst golden perm ever) and Jeff Goldblum join little Brooke Adams (a dead ringer for Genvieve Bujold) in the"Invasion of the Body Snatchers" remake of 1978.
How could I have possibly missed this gem?
Well, it turns out that despite the super-star power in the movie, it isn't a gem at all. In fact, boy is it bad. But bad in a pretty entertaining way.
So we all know the story's premise: that alien life forms come down in the form of spores which turn into large flowering plants that replicate already-existing humans. It's a "get-you-while-you-sleep" kind of thing. When you wake up you're one of them, which honestly didn't seem to be that bad, in my opinion. I mean, the aliens in their human forms seemed very calm and orderly. No one was making any trouble, they were just tending to their plants! But, Sutherland, Goldblum, Nemoy and the rest don't seem to relish the makeover, so they band together and try to stop them.
Before I go on, can I just mention one scene that stands out as one of the WEIRDEST things I've ever seen in a movie? Something that might actually give you nightmares, and all the more startling because it was so unexpected. I mean this movie really could be one of the most boring "horror" movies ever made, at least for the first 40 minutes, but then the CREEPIEST HUMAN-FACED DOG FREAK COMES RUNNING OUT! My jaw hit the floor. I mean, WHAT THE HELL?! What writer's alcohol-induced nightmare did this come out of? So then the human-faced dog runs away and the story continues. Ahem.
SPOILER ALERT
Of course smooth-talking Lenard Nemoy turns out to be one of them, too. I should have known by that weird leather thing he wears on his hand. What IS that? Alien style? It's never explained. Nemoy, wearing a turtleneck and pointy sideburns along with that weird leather thing advises Sutherland "Not to get hung up on old concepts." Then he shoots him up with a sedative. Sutherland says to him, "David you're killing me." I say, David, those side burns are killing me, too.
Sutherland TRIES not to get hung up on old concepts, but he just can't help himself. And you can't blame him.
In one scene he finally falls asleep and one of the pods starts to replicate him. Like many other elements in this weird boring movie the plants themselves are ridiculous. Straight out of Sid and Marty Crofts reject pile, the cloth-and-wire petals do not look capable of pushing out the DISGUSTING, MEATY, PUS-COVERED human forms that they do. The "special" effects of the births of the new aliens is pretty gross. Call the midwife, anyone?
One of the pods pushes out another Donald Sutherland. Suddenly there are TWO golden perms and TWO blonde mustaches, but only one of them is covered in goo! Yuck! Luckily the real Donald wakes up and takes a shovel to his doppelganger's perm, resulting in some really messy effects that were almost worthy of HBO.
Unfortunately Goldblum is killed by a red plastic dart to the neck. Dang!!! One of the reasons to watch the movie is gone. But I make myself keep going.
Finally, Brooke Adams gets transformed. They got her while she slept. In one scene she strides unexpectedly on screen, completely bare breasted and makes a sound like a dying pig. Totally freaked me out! (I'm sure her real-life parents were dismayed by the turn this role had taken, can you imagine their faces when they saw that scene for the first time? And probably every time after? I wonder if they ever spoke about it at family get-togethers.)
Donald is the only one left now. He escapes from the aliens by pulling the old "hide under a bridge while they run by" trick.
And--what is up with the gratuitous priest on a swing set scene?
The next thing you see Donald is watching a truck unload more pods and the loudspeaker announces the next destinations which happen to be Medford, Eugene, Portland and Vancouver. Hey, maybe THAT'S how all the hipsters got here!
The end of the film was just embarrassing. Nobody should make Donald Sutherland make that ridiculous face. And frankly, I did not want to get that close to his mustache.
All in all, a really terrible/hilarious/campy movie. Good fun.
How could I have possibly missed this gem?
Well, it turns out that despite the super-star power in the movie, it isn't a gem at all. In fact, boy is it bad. But bad in a pretty entertaining way.
So we all know the story's premise: that alien life forms come down in the form of spores which turn into large flowering plants that replicate already-existing humans. It's a "get-you-while-you-sleep" kind of thing. When you wake up you're one of them, which honestly didn't seem to be that bad, in my opinion. I mean, the aliens in their human forms seemed very calm and orderly. No one was making any trouble, they were just tending to their plants! But, Sutherland, Goldblum, Nemoy and the rest don't seem to relish the makeover, so they band together and try to stop them.
Before I go on, can I just mention one scene that stands out as one of the WEIRDEST things I've ever seen in a movie? Something that might actually give you nightmares, and all the more startling because it was so unexpected. I mean this movie really could be one of the most boring "horror" movies ever made, at least for the first 40 minutes, but then the CREEPIEST HUMAN-FACED DOG FREAK COMES RUNNING OUT! My jaw hit the floor. I mean, WHAT THE HELL?! What writer's alcohol-induced nightmare did this come out of? So then the human-faced dog runs away and the story continues. Ahem.
SPOILER ALERT
Of course smooth-talking Lenard Nemoy turns out to be one of them, too. I should have known by that weird leather thing he wears on his hand. What IS that? Alien style? It's never explained. Nemoy, wearing a turtleneck and pointy sideburns along with that weird leather thing advises Sutherland "Not to get hung up on old concepts." Then he shoots him up with a sedative. Sutherland says to him, "David you're killing me." I say, David, those side burns are killing me, too.
Sutherland TRIES not to get hung up on old concepts, but he just can't help himself. And you can't blame him.
In one scene he finally falls asleep and one of the pods starts to replicate him. Like many other elements in this weird boring movie the plants themselves are ridiculous. Straight out of Sid and Marty Crofts reject pile, the cloth-and-wire petals do not look capable of pushing out the DISGUSTING, MEATY, PUS-COVERED human forms that they do. The "special" effects of the births of the new aliens is pretty gross. Call the midwife, anyone?
One of the pods pushes out another Donald Sutherland. Suddenly there are TWO golden perms and TWO blonde mustaches, but only one of them is covered in goo! Yuck! Luckily the real Donald wakes up and takes a shovel to his doppelganger's perm, resulting in some really messy effects that were almost worthy of HBO.
Unfortunately Goldblum is killed by a red plastic dart to the neck. Dang!!! One of the reasons to watch the movie is gone. But I make myself keep going.
Finally, Brooke Adams gets transformed. They got her while she slept. In one scene she strides unexpectedly on screen, completely bare breasted and makes a sound like a dying pig. Totally freaked me out! (I'm sure her real-life parents were dismayed by the turn this role had taken, can you imagine their faces when they saw that scene for the first time? And probably every time after? I wonder if they ever spoke about it at family get-togethers.)
Donald is the only one left now. He escapes from the aliens by pulling the old "hide under a bridge while they run by" trick.
And--what is up with the gratuitous priest on a swing set scene?
The next thing you see Donald is watching a truck unload more pods and the loudspeaker announces the next destinations which happen to be Medford, Eugene, Portland and Vancouver. Hey, maybe THAT'S how all the hipsters got here!
The end of the film was just embarrassing. Nobody should make Donald Sutherland make that ridiculous face. And frankly, I did not want to get that close to his mustache.
All in all, a really terrible/hilarious/campy movie. Good fun.
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