The Invaders

I am a huge fan of "evil aliens" movies, plus I absolutely loved the original TV series from back in the day. So of course I was ready to really enjoy this flick. Egad! What a woofer! Nothing you haven't seen numerous times before -- hey, the premise works! it's entertaining in theory! -- but when you've got such low-quality acting, cheesy effects, a meandering script ... blah! The only thing it had going for it was Richard Belzer practically in a reprise of his "cigarette-smoking man" role in "Puppet Masters." It takes a real conspiracy of incompetence to make a "body-snatchers" themed movie utterly fail, but they managed to achieve it with this one. No surprise they never revived the TV series if this piece of dreck was the pilot.

Quinn Martin had scored in the mid-sixties with a show starring David Jaansan about a man running for his life from the relentless pursuit of a law officer (Barry Morse). "The Fugitive" was also seeking to find the murderer of his wife: the elusive "one-armed man." This cat-and-mouse drama played out for five successful years.

Martin revamped the concept by having architect David Vincent (Roy Thinnes), after discovering aliens on this planet, starts his own quest to bring them down, traveling, a la fugitive, throughout the country.

This TV-movie tries to update the classic series by having a popular sci-fi star ("Quantum Leap's" Scott Bakula), a popular family show star ("The Walton's" Richard Thomas), and having Roy Thinnes, himself, appear as protagonists.

Well, the plot is basically the same, with updated effects, and "contemporary" political and military intrigue. Unfortunately, the characters and the situations are not very involving and the movie only "gains steam," literally when Bakula is aboard an out-of-control subway train.

That's when Jon Politto (late of NBC's "Homicide") does the most credible acting as the subway supervisor who must figure out a way to stop the speeding transport. His nail-biting performance is a feat of intensity, unmatched by anyone else in the cast.

'Too bad the rest of the film isn't as good as he is.

I agree that the movie "The Invaders" had its problems, it was long and tedious, and sometimes confusing. But to diss a movie because of Factual errors? Its Hollywood; what did you expect? them to hire Physics experts to give them the information to keep these factual mistakes down? raoulfenderson must be such, maybe he or she should offer services to Hollywood.. I enjoyed the movie for what it was, a movie, even though it was low tech, and tedious sometimes, as I believe the makers were shooting for. After all, the movie was based upon a somewhat campy/cheesy TV show from 1966/1967. As I write this, I am watching the series on SciFy Channel, just as cheesy as the movie, but just as enjoyable as the old days...

I only started watching the original series of The Invaders about a year ago. It had intriguing plot twists based on the various ways the alien invaders wormed their way into society and the methods they used to manipulate people to do their bidding. The show wasn't 9n long but it was enough of a cult classic to lead to a mid 90s reboot attempt.

Roy Thinnes sort of reprises his role as David Vincent but the writers didn't do a great job updating the character. The story shifts entirely to Scott Bakula's character, Nolan Wood probably because it makes better sense having a 40 year old doing action sequences.

The story is a little weak. Aliens come to earth and they seek to ruin the environment because they have an easier time breathing polluted air. Once the environment is beyond the point of no return, they will be able to take over. They all uniformly smoke like chimneys and eat steak and eggs.

The same elements in the original series are in this with updated special effects. I think what wrecked this is the success of the X Files. This reboot feels as bad as the Kolchak reboot. I can't imagine either attempt happening if the X Files weren't thriving.

I recommend the original series. That's a good 60's action show but with aliens. This miniseries is a good curiosity to view if you really like the QM series from the 60s but if you aren't a fan or never saw it, you'll likely think this is a waste of 3 hours or a lame X Files knockoff

The original show produced by Quinn Martin was intelligently done with Roy Thinnes as architect David Vincent as the lone voice that cried out in the wilderness against these alien beings. This mini series made a joke out of it. Now, the old boy makes only a couple of cameo appearances. If you blink, you'll miss him. You would think this movie would open with him stumbling on this Nolan Wood guy and the two of them would work together to try to bring these beings down, but no. Just a mile ride down a lonely country road, he says they need to split up so they won't be captured together and blah, blah, blah. What is this crap? After all these years, I would think he would be glad to find a kindred soul who would be of some help to him. Vincent looks like a dingbat in the brief appearance he makes in this series. They should have teamed up together.

This series also got pc on us. It seems to imply that anyone who smokes is a hostile being from another planet. Any smokers out there willing to get the ACLU after the people who made this pile of crap? And this business with the flies was just a little bit gross. And Nolan's ex-wife had to be one ditzy female. At least their son called her on not noticing that there is anything weird about all these people coming in and having steak and eggs with their cigarettes and coffee. Got to give them credit for that at least. And what was with this radio announcer who, I think was supposed to be a Rush Limbaugh clone? Here's a news flash for you, folks. Rush isn't as hateful as this guy was. But I digress. Bottom line: this show ain't worth a tinker's damn without David Vincent. They just used this movie as an excuse to preach misguided environmental themes. As I said in the heading, BAD! BAD! BAD! (Did I mention it was bad?) 1 out of 10, and that's being generous.