made an $80 million event movie based on a series of scummy, hyper-violent trading cards. Which is a shame, really, because there’s so much to love about “>Mars Attacks!” - from Jack Nicholson‘s Peter Sellers-esque dual performances as the President and a Las Vegas sleazebag, to Industrial Light & Magic‘s Harryhausen-y visual effects, to the fact that Warner Bros. Tim Burton‘s “ Mars Attacks!,” released several months later, was defined by its prickly cynicism and more or less bombed. “ Independence Day,” with its easily digestible gulps of rah-rah patriotism, was released that summer and made bucketfuls of cash. The cinematic landscape in 1996 was punctuated by a pair of big budget, heavily hyped alien invasion movies. Even Hooper’s considerable stylistic flourishes can’t save this from being little more than a late night oddity. The movie has some bright spots, for sure, including a typically jaunty Henry Mancini score and an admirable lead performance by the underrated Steve Railsback, but it’s mostly a mess - an unintelligible mishmash involving space vampires, Haley’s Comet, and lots of hot alien nudity. Not that this explains anything you see onscreen. The production, which was co-written by “ Alien“‘s Dan O’Bannon, infamously ran over-budget and was marred by disagreements in the editing room between Hooper and his production company, the dearly departed Cannon. Most alien invasion movies are defined by flying discs, but Tobe Hooper‘s “ Lifeforce” is most fondly remembered for a pair of orbs - namely, the breasts of lead actress Mathilda May, who spends most of the movie walking around completely naked. “They’re here already! You’re next!” A true classic. Despite the opening/closing bookends shoehorned onto the film by the studio, the ending (featuring one of the best examples of breaking the 4th wall in cinema history) is still chilling. Widely seen as an indictment of McCarthyism, the film works as both paranoid thriller and political allegory (the best ones usually do.) Watching the film today, it’s amazing to see the way this movie walks the line between many genres (noir, sci-fi, horror) without ever stepping into silliness. It appears that people are being replaced by perfect duplicates grown in pods who are identical to their human counterparts but lack all emotion. It centers on a doctor ( Kevin McCarthy) whose patients insist their loved ones have been replaced by imposters. Based on the Jack Finney novel “ The Body Snatchers,” the story should be familiar to anyone semi-literate in film. The “ Citizen Kane” of 1950s science fiction films, the original “ Invasion of the Body Snatchers” is still the best. But as much as the city-sized UFOs and telepathic aliens push the story toward its gleefully inevitable conclusion, Smith’s charm is what makes it all watchable over a decade later. Crispin’s Day speech delivered by the president ( Bill Pullman), but it’s far easier to just have fun and enjoy the effects-driven ride. It’s easy to be sarcastic about this bombastic, over-the-top blockbuster with a blush-inducing St. An army of “that guys”–and some genuine stars like Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum–take on the invading hordes and (spoiler alert) win, as the whole world waits for America to save the day on the Fourth of July. įiercely nationalistic, casually racist, and embarrassingly entertaining, Roland Emmerich’s “ Independence Day” could be B-moviemaking at its silly best. It should also be noted that Frank Darabont and Chuck Russell crafted a sturdy remake in the late ’80s that upped the gore quotient with elaborate special effects but retained the rebellious teens-versus-small town authority core that made the original so indelible. “The Blob” is a quaint, easy-going drive-in movie that probably won’t scare you today but is still likely to make you smile. But then, of course, they figure it out too late (about the time it takes up an entire movie theater). Authorities don’t believe the kids when they say that a blobby bit of galactic goo has started to eat people and grow in size. There are twin invasions present in the 1958 “ The Blob,” and both signify a direct threat to the good townspeople - both the amorphous alien menace and… the emergence of teenagers (led by Steve McQueen). The 15 Best Survival Movies, from 'Cast Away' to 'The Revenant'Īdam Driver-Led 'White Noise' Premieres at 2022 Venice Film Festival: Get the Detailsįortunately, there’s plenty of far superior pictures dealing with the same subject matter in a much more watchable manner, so we’ve delved into the archives to pick out a selection of seminal movies featuring alien aggressors that will make you feel something other than a fear of “ Clash of the Titans 2” and concern for Aaron Eckhart‘s career. Best Criterion Collection Deals: 'Parasite,' Fellini, Agnès Varda, and Moreīarry Jenkins' 'Moonlight' Journey: How the Year's Great Discovery Became an American Cinema Milestone
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