Warner Bros and Village Roadshow Pictures present a 93 minute R rated action, drama, sci fi thriller directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel and starring Nicole Kidman (Carol Bennell), Daniel Craig (Ben Driscoll), Jeremy Northam (Tucker Kaufman), Jackson Bond (Oliver), Jeffrey Wright (Dr. Stephen Galeano), Veronica Cartwright (Wendy Lenk), Josef Sommer (Dr. Henryk Belicec), Celia Weston (Ludmilla Belicec), Roger Rees (Yorish), Eric Benjamin (Gene), Susan Floyd (Pam), Stephanie Berry (Carly), Alexis Raben (Belicec's Aide), Adam FeFevre (Richard Lenk) and Joanna Merlin (Joan Kaufman).
A modern day version of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", this film has a tendency to not snatch your attention as much as distract it. It poses the question, if we would like to live in a world without war, hate, disease but also one without emotions and let alone dogs? When and if you see the film whether in the theatre or on DVD you'll know what I mean!
It all begins when the Patriot Space Shuttle breaks up over earth scattering pieces of its ship across our beloved but non-politically correct planet. It is discovered that a alien spore withstood the heat of re-entry of about 700 degrees. By entering the human blood stream it alienates its host in a sub-conscious zombie-like state. The only way of beating the contamination is to not sleep since at that time your body goes into a cocoon type condition and awakens to this alien force.
As the world becomes infected there becomes a race against time to find a cure. A cure that lies within one child, Oliver, who happens to be immune to the alien virus. As Carol, a well know city psychiatrist fights against time, her family and friends to protect her child she herself has been faced with making unspeakable choices in order for her and Oliver to survive. Around every corner she has no idea on who to trust. She continues to try to warn people along her journey while trying to fit in as one of them but at the same time fight against the aliens and virus as well.
There are several scenes that do not make sense to me. At times these beings do than don't show types of facial expressions contradicting the basis of the story. They walk in a comatose manner but than run when need to, let alone break a window when needed but at other times don't seem to have the knowledge to do so. They cannot break a sweat but can definitely vomit. At times I felt like I was watching a more horrific version of the film, "The Stepford Wives" which also starred Kidman. Let alone the moment when Carol screams at the aliens, "No one touches my child", made me feel like a take from the film, "Aliens" when Ripley yelled "get away from her you bitch".
The acting was adequate across the board. Kidman was a blessing along with the child actor, Bond. She plays the role as it needs to be played. In the scenes where she's required to show emotion, she does so the right way. In the scenes where she has to be blank (because the story dictates that in many scenes, she plays blank), but I'm not sure you can really praise a performance based on how well an actor pulled "vacant" off. As for the rest of the cast, you've got a lot of talent in nothing roles: Jeffrey Wright, Daniel Craig, Celia Weston, Roger Rees are all perfectly fine in roles that require little of them. Jeremy Notham's kind of funny because in his one scene before he has to play blank, he plays... blank.
There are several cliché moments, actual television news footage and many scenes that tend to jump around making the story seem a bit confusing but at least it won't make you fall asleep. If it does apparently a good shot to the heart seems to cure that! Overall, it's not the worse remake thriller to hit the big screen since the beginning and middle help to make up for a crashing climatic but somewhat lack luster ending that seems to come to a close as quickly as the alien life force landed on earth. I've always wondered what NASA was really bringing back from their space missions. Is there truly such a thing as an intelligent life force? Possibly a far reach from earth anyway, let alone Hollywood!
Reporting for Talkin' Pets, I'm Jon Patch.