The Invaders (1995) User Reviews

Worth a look only for performance from a supporting player

[garrard · 5/10 · 18 April 2006]

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.

Anemic attempt at reviving the classic TV series

[Thomas_Veil · 5/10 · 27 April 2008]

Give the producers of this movie credit for making one smart decision, and that is to make it a continuation of the classic 1960s TV show, and not a complete from-the-beginning remake.

Give the writers credit also for the very subtle subtext which equates the invading aliens with their more human counterparts who still don't believe in environmentalism or global warming. Never actually said outright, it's kind of implied that those who knowingly promote more and more pollution are not only anti-American, but anti-Earth.

That said, there's plenty in this four-hour pilot that gets an E for effort but a C- for execution.

The plot is familiar territory, even those not familiar with the TV series. Earth is being secretly invaded by aliens who look like us, and we follow the adventures of one man who knows the truth.

Sci-fi fans old enough to remember the classic show, as well as any number of similarly- plotted motion pictures, will instantly spot some problems with this film.

Possibly the goofiest is Richard Belzer as a Rush Limbaugh clone who vents his warped thoughts across the Los Angeles airwaves every morning. I suppose he's supposed to bolster the subtext I mentioned above, but in point of fact he has no actual impact on the story and never connects with the other characters, leaving us with the impression that this movie ran fifteen minutes short and that they shot the Belzer footage as filler.

Equally disappointing though is the lethargic pacing. "The Invaders" is really a decent two-and-a-half to three hour movie (with commercials) in a four-hour slot. There's little sense of urgency to the proceedings, a situation not helped by keeping star Scott Bakula in a passive mode for much of the show.

Too, there is a little bit too much modification of the "Invaders" canon. We see the aliens' true form, and frankly, it's nothing more gruesome than you've seen in other sci-fi/horror shows. We DON'T get to see what was a favorite moment in the old series: an alien burning up as it died. Nor do we get to see their spaceship. A more ornate version of the saucer from the old TV show would have been welcome, but here we get little more than "Close Encounters"-style bright lights coming out of clouds.

They've also muddied the whole idea of "regeneration". As originally conceived, the aliens had to return to "regeneration stations" regularly, to be placed in glass tubes and processed so that they could appear human and continue to breathe our atmosphere. Here the "tubes" appear to be used to suck the life out of humans so that it can be infused into their identical-looking alien impostors. And the new regeneration consists of things like inhaling truck fumes.

This also introduces an "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" aspect that, unless I'm wrong, was not a part of the original series. In the TV show, aliens (in human form) appeared to have been always "there", in the same way a mole infiltrates a spy organization and lays low for years. There was none of this "yesterday Person X was a human, and today he's been replaced by an identical- looking alien" stuff -- again, at least as far as I recall.

Then, those neat little discs that induced apparent coronaries in human beings are gone. Pity, because they were a handy way for the aliens to get rid of eyewitnesses. On the other hand, introduced is some kind of telepathic ability the aliens have to control certain people, which I don't recall being a part of the show either. Not that I'm against entertaining new facets of the aliens' "lore", but it would have been nice to have more stuff from the original TV series to get a handle on, before introducing new ideas.

Returning back to things which are gone, however...if you're waiting to hear the familiar theme music from the TV series, you're waiting in vain. Surely it wouldn't have been hard to get some composer to re-orchestrate some of that classic Dominic Frontiere music. It doesn't sound like an important thing, but just the music alone could have been enough to give this production more of the feel of the classic show.

One welcome spark of life comes from the all-too-brief appearance of David Vincent (Roy Thinnes, as the same character he played in the 1960s TV show). The manner in which he's woven into the plot is fine, and I suppose it makes sense to have an aging Vincent "pass the baton" to someone younger, but that facet is never explored, and Vincent is gone from the story all too soon, leaving us wondering what he's been up to for the last twenty years anyway.

Almost as disappointing as X-Files: F**K the Future

[Globalcharmer · 6/10 · 23 November 2006]

As a fan of the '60s series, this movie was a big disappointment. The alien threat isn't any more threatening than the environmental policies of Bush 43.

If the producers just wanted David Vincent (Roy Thinnes) to phone it in, they might have done the character justice by killing him off while valiantly fighting the aliens instead of portraying him as an ineffectual sad sack for the previous 27 years.

Nolan Wood's son Kyle is the only one in the movie with any brains or guts. Nolan's ex-wife is so stupid he was better off divorced and in prison.

Why didn't John-Boy Alien snuff Kyle the minute he suspected Kyle knew his true identity wasn't human? He could have easily convinced totally clueless wifey that Kyle's demise was an accident and she would have happily gone back to schlepping steak and eggs for her Stepford customers.

Why did David Vincent burn off right after telling Nolan of his odyssey fighting the aliens? He had something better to do? He told Nolan it was best if they separated so the aliens couldn't capture them together. Hey Dave, you haven't accomplished anything fighting them for the past 27 years. No one believes you. You are a joke. Even the aliens make fun of you. So it only makes sense for you to split from the one person in the universe who actually believes you. Does the word masochist ring a bell? Is being an architect really that bad?

It seems the aliens haven't accomplished a whole lot either in 27 years. Blowing up a subway train with an environmentalist politician is the best they can do? Whoa, move over Al-Qaeda.

Another cinematic assassination of a classic TV series.

[DC5guy · 2/10 · 11 July 2001]

The Invaders by Quinn Martin with Roy Thinnes was successful because, in my opinion, we never saw the true form of the alien beings from a dying world.....

There were also certain rules that we learned about what they were and their terrestrial limitations. We learned, for example, that they had taken human form and had to remain in that form while on Earth or they would die. They had been here for untold years before David Vincent's fateful encounter with them one dark night on a lonely road at a deserted diner, thus they had infiltrated positions in society from a prostitute in a bar to positions of power within the Department of Defense. They could be men, women, and even children. Paranoia was rife because one could not be certain that anyone from the paper boy on his bike to a high ranking politician on telly was human. In every way they looked and behaved like normal human beings.

We also learned that the aliens did have limitations that could reveal their identity. Though they had the outward appearance of being human, they were very different inside: They had an irregular skeletal structure, no heart, and no blood; when cut, they would not bleed. An X-ray, blood test, or any number of medical procedures would quickly disclose their less than human nature, however a simple test was just to take a pulse which would give the appearance that they were dead even though they were fully conscious and ambulatory.

They had to regenerate periodically to remain in human form. Only in human form could they breath our weak 20% mixture of oxygen for limited periods of time before they would have to regenerate; pure oxygen would bring on an instant requirement for regeneration. They knew their limitations and would regenerate long before the need became critical. When, on occasion, the need became critical, they would begin to return to their alien form, but since they could not live on Earth in their native form, they would die before the transformation was complete. Either by design or happenstance, they would incinerate at the moment of death in our atmosphere. Before they could turn to their native form, they would begin to glow (an indication that they were dying and that incineration was imminent). Thus they could be killed as easily as any human, but since David Vincent's need was not just to kill them individually, but to have a living specimen to prove to a disbelieving world that they were here and the nightmare had begun, and since their dedication to their purpose and anonymity was greater than their fear of death, he just could never bring off a perfect disclosure.

IN THE FILM VERSION, we were given the hype that this would answer the question of what became of the aliens and David Vincent in the quarter century since the show was terminated without catharsis. The reality was that the only hint of a tie-in was the presence of David Vincent for what amounted to a cameo appearance in the first and second part. They did not have the polished human appearance of those in the series; they looked and behaved like whacked-out zombies and instantly drew suspicion that all was not well. The rules were all changed and they made the mistake of trying to show the aliens in their native form. This killed the mystique and violated the principle that THERE IS NOTHING THAT THE EYE CAN BEHOLD THAT IS AS HORRIFIC AS THAT WHICH CAN BE CONJURED IN THE MIND. With the series, we each had a mental vision of what they looked like that was far more terrifying than the Hollywood magicians could give us at their best, let alone the 1950s style, rubber masked freaks that were offered here.

Artistic infidelity is not just limited to book to film translations. The film version of the classic television series of The Invaders shows that in various media, some things do not lend well to artistic license and should be left in the form for which they were designed.

Dreadfully tedious

[raoulfenderson · 2/10 · 6 February 2008]

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.

Bad, Bad, Bad!

[possumopossum · 19 June 2007]

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.

A sci-fi thriller in the style of the X-files

[The-Sarkologist · 7/10 · 25 January 2013]

The Invaders is more of a mini-series than a movie but I will treat it as one. I saw it over two nights and thought that it was okay. The Invaders has many echos of the Charlie Sheen movie The Arrival. The plot is almost exactly the same. Aliens have landed on Earth and have established themselves. They are now infiltrating the world and slowly terraforming it so that they may be able to survive on what is to them a hostile environment. The movie ends in a way that the battle is won but the war is far from over.

Compared to the Arrival, I found The Invaders to be a much more subtle and horrific movie. Though both movies had a hidden alien agenda, the Invaders deals with the aliens using humans to destroy the world for them while the Arrival has the aliens destroying the world themselves. Though both movies have aliens disguised as humans, the aliens in The Invaders use controlled humans to execute their plans while they just stand by and watch. These aliens are far more intelligent than they are in the Arrival.

I find that the Invaders is by far a better movie. The actors are unknown which brings the focus more onto what is happening than onto the star whom most people go to see. The plot is very much in the vain of an X-file, with the truth not being exposed to the viewer until near the end. The hero (or more of an anti-hero in the case of the Invaders) is alone in his fight against the aliens. The victory that was won was a very small one, much smaller than the victory in the arrival. At the end the audience is left with the wondering of whether the victory really did something at all. The aliens are entrenched and there is no realistic way that they are going to be removed quickly. I liked this movie. The characters were reasonable and non-stereotypical. Some might find aspects of this unrealistic but I feel that this leads to a new level in characterisation. There is no true pure hero. The setting is very dark and gloomy and so are the characters. There is a huge amount of futility for though the aliens are known the evidence just does not exist. The ending does not offer a solution either for the hero does not become a hero in the Hollywood sense of the word.

This movie is spooky and well thought out. It is one that brings out thoughts and really entertains the audience. Though it is long, one does not worry about this for the suspense brings it quickly to the end – and the end leaves you wondering; which to me is the sign of a very good movie.

Sorry, no.

[lrek-1 · 3/10 · 27 August 2005]

The movie was broadcast, and appears on the commercial VHS release, in two parts. The first has some creepy moments (although they have little to do with the show's '60s incarnation), but the second quickly deteriorates into a simple-minded impending-disaster-on-a-train scenario that just left me cold and probably belonged in another movie. Made more "relevant" for the mid-90s -- by introducing the idea that the aliens were trying to get us to degrade our planet and thus make it habitable for them -- the ecological subtext seems a little knee-jerk ten years later. The acting was competent, although I doubt that Bakula's confused, rather passive protagonist could have sustained an entire series. Not even an interesting failure.

The Invaders Movie

[ronbo36316 · 7/10 · 18 January 2010]

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...

Failed reboot

[vonnoosh · 5/10 · 26 October 2020]

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

A great pilot movie--too bad it never took off

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 13 December 2006]

The original INVADERS series from the 1960s was exceptional and very engaging. So, I was thrilled in the 1990s when it was announced that they were making a new pilot movie for a new series. I made super-sure to see it and enjoyed every minute. It was pretty faithful to the original ideas and plot and I looked forward to the shows. And I waited,...and waited,...and waited. It seems that this movie just didn't spark enough interest and so the idea of a new series was killed. It's a real shame, as I loved the notion that aliens had landed and were slowly taking over the Earth and no one seemed to know or care. And, each week the hero would try, often in vain, to get everyone to wake up to their insidious plan. Too bad. The people that made this film really did do well despite inspiring little, if any, hoopla about the series.

Amazing!

[this_is_Nuh · 10/10 · 7 February 2003]

One of the best scifi alien-related movies I've seen so far, and I've seen a lot of them. No idea why this movie isn't popular here in the US and why it's hard to find. It was a hit in Germany (where I watched it).

Great UFO flick (not many of those)

[Don Muvo · 8/10 · 16 March 2018]

I sincerely miss movies like this. There are a few lame sequences like the car in the warehouse, but the premise of this movie is very appropriate to today, and the cast and crew pull off a very exciting action movie. I found the movie very rewarding, and worth the extra length needed to tell the whole story. Yes there is methane in LA, which is why the rail was cancelled. The ecology tie-in is spot-on. Ecology-friendly politicians are opportunists and a lot of politicians and eco-propagandists run around with chickens with their heads cut off, but this movie makes it quite clear that individuals under pressure will always make the right choices.

Cigarette smoking is another important theme, since smoking was about to become virtually illegal in California, and it is what the Aliens needed to simulate their home environment.

David Vincent as narrator and mentor is great concept.

[SaintNinja · 10/10 · 3 March 2023]

Too bad the alien invaders killed this show from the beginning. I wish Scott Bakula guided by the guardian voice of veteran Roy Thinnes fought the secret enemy for two or even three seasons. Roy was in great shape in 1995 and he could do small or big guest appearences in every episode. I would watch it. Well, this is life. I guess, X-Files and their "Alien ark episodes" were more viable on the field of the 90s. Pilot episode of the X-Fles was part of the Alien Ark and it was more tasty than pilot of the new Invaders. But, c'mon, it had the mighty David Vincent! It could have been good TV show even without David Vincent. As a big fan of Alien Invasion stories and original Invaders in particular I mourn the sudden death of this show. I would recommend it for the fans of tv sci-fi only.

Terrible

[StuOz · 8 March 2024]

Terrible attempt to cash in on The Invaders TV series of the 60s. This sort of thing was going on in the 90s with Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1964) becoming SeaQuest DSV (1993). There was also a remake of the 60s Outer Limits series.

In fact during this period I felt so swamped by remakes of 60s shows that some of them just went right over my head.

The original Invaders TV series of 1967 was a very professional looking production with knockout music cues (mainly in the first season) and it had the unusual situation of having wonderful looking Ford cars appearing all the time (this was because Ford sponsored the series and they demanded the cars be constantly seen).

The old series was a product of the time and it simply does not belong in 1995. Which is probably why this 1995 production gets negative reviews.