Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

Bumpy Chip It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

FlashCallahan A boy tries to stop an invasion of his town by aliens who take over the the minds of his parents, his least-liked schoolteacher and other townspeople. With the help of the school nurse, the boy enlists the aid of the U.S. Marines.....Being directed by Tobe Hooper, I assumed (wrongly) that this was going to be an all out horror/Science-Fiction movie that wouldn't pull any punches when it came to killings.As far as I know, this film has never been aired on British TV, and has never been available to buy on Region 2 DVD, So all I knew about this film was the boy with the blonde hair.And I must, say, I was pleasantly surprised with the whole outcome of the film. It's pretty clear by the house and some of the background paintings, that Close Encounters has heavily influenced this film, and this is Hooper trying to do a Spielberg.It's funny in places, but most of all, it's a very effective mild Horror that is suitable for the whole family.The violence is minimal, the creatures are so over the top that they are more like Critters than Aliens, and overall, it appears that David is the person with the most common sense.Louise Fletcher appears as the Mrs. Deagle of the film, but she soon becomes laughable when she is chasing a car down the street.I liked it, but I can understand why the film vanished without a trace.

Paul Andrews Invaders from Mars starts late one night as a young boy named David Gardner (Hunter Carson) tries to go to sleep, while lying in bed he sees flashes outside his window & takes a look outside where he sees a huge UFO land just beyond Copper Hill at the top of his garden, he runs into his parents George (Timothy Bottoms) & Ellen's (Larraine Newman) room & tells them what he saw but they refuse to believe him. The next morning & George has a look at where David said he saw the UFO land, when George returns home he has changed somehow & insists that Ellen come over the hill as well. David is convinced something is wrong & notices small wounds on the back of his parents necks, David eventually finds an opening to a tunnel in the hill behind his house which leads to a Martian spaceship buried in the ground & realises that alien invaders from mars are taking over people's minds & using them to sabotage a NASA space mission to their planet while at the same time stealing copper to use as fuel...Directed by Tobe Hooper for the notorious Cannon Pictures this seemed like an odd film for Hooper to make, best known for his horror films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) & Poltergeist (1982) this is a remake of the classic sci-fi film Invaders from Mars (1953) which was one of the better ones from the 50's. While I haven't seen the original Invaders from mars for a few years I always remember it being a great little film, it's pretty creepy at times & has a unique feel of paranoia running through it from a child's perspective as his town are taken over by the Martian invaders, here in this 80's remake the first hour or so does a fun job of recreating that feel as David finds himself in the middle of a Martian invasion but once the script introduces NASA & the military things tend to go downhill as it then becomes more of an action film & loses the creepiness. This 80's remake also has a dark comic vein running through it with some bizarre moments like George drinking a cup of coffee in one go or Ellen eating raw hamburger meat piled with salt, I didn't mind it's black humour but some might. Lasting 100 minutes this 80's remake is also a lot longer than the original which ran for just under 80 minutes, nothing of any great significance is added & all it really amounts to is a lot more running around & a little bit more build-up. The script is a bit uneven, while David, his parents & Linda the school Nusre feature heavily during the first half they become no more than bystanders once the military are introduced. It can be a bit dumb at times but it moves along at a decent pace & has some good scenes, the first venture into the Martian spaceship, the teacher eating a Frog, Davids parents strange reactions & mannerisms when taken over & the Martian intelligence creature is cool. The script feels a little unfinished, the reason for the Martian invasion is to blow up a probe that is being sent to their home planet Mars to supposedly stop us discovering them but surely coming to Earth & walking around like they own the place has a higher chance of them being discovered? Also, while their need for copper is mentioned it never goes beyond anything other than that, a mention. These two points in particular could have been expanded upon as could the taking over of the humans, who exactly was controlling them?At this point in his career Hooper had signed a three picture directing deal with Cannon, the first product of this deal was the rather good, if somewhat ambitious Lifeforce (1985) which flopped at the box-office, then came this which also flopped before Hooper finally made the also rather good The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986) which unfortunately again proved a disaster at the box-office & therefore the Hooper & Cannon relationship destroyed Hooper as a director & almost financially sunk Cannon although I Have to say I think all three films that they made together are pretty good, but money talks I suppose. This remake is far more impressively mounted than the original, the special effects are good with some cool alien monsters, neck burrowing devices & the huge Martian spaceship, I also liked the swirling whirlpool of sand effect that sucks people under the mountain. There's little gore or violence here, someone is eaten by a Martian, a few people are shot but that's about it. The organic design of the Martian spaceship is cool as well, from curved walls & doors to huge tunnel digging machines I liked the alien technology on show here.With a supposed budget of about $12,000,000 this apparently had financial problems during production & the was slashed a few times, filmed in Los Angeles. The acting varies, the kid Carson Hunter is awful while the adult cast are a little better & play it up a bit.Invaders from Mars is a film that I liked more than a great many seem to, I thought the aliens were cool, it looked good & has a weird feel running throughout it that while a little uneven makes it a bit more memorable than a straight, serious remake might have been.

classicsoncall I really have to pay more attention to what I'm doing. I thought I was making a request for the original "Invaders From Mars" through my local library system and wound up with this 1986 remake. Still, the DVD cover looked pretty cool with it's colorful, Fifties styled artwork so I figured I might as well give it a shot. Because my impression was now established that it was going to be a campy remake, I kept looking for the humor in it but it just kept taking itself more seriously than it needed to. Then, once the film made it's way to the alien cave with it's flashing disco lights and outlandish space creatures, it ceased being a serious sci-fi film for me and simply entered the theater of the absurd. So it didn't surprise me too much when it came time for the finale to reveal that it was all just the kid's (Hunter Carson) dream. Maybe that's what redeemed the picture somewhat for me, because now we're simply dealing with the kid's imagination. That's something I was able to relate to well enough, because when I was a kid, I was the only one in the whole family who knew there was a gorilla up in the attic.

Michael_Elliott Invaders from Mars (1986) * 1/2 (out of 4) Tobe Hooper's disappointing remake of the 1950s classic about a young boy (Hunter Carson) who witnesses a UFO land in his backyard and soon realizes that aliens are overtaking various people in town. The only person who will believe him is a teacher (Karen Black) and the two quickly find themselves hunted by the aliens. There were a lot of remakes going on during this era so it makes since that someone would try to remake INVADERS FROM MARS but The Cannon Group probably should have left it to someone else while they just worried about their Charles Bronson and Chuck Norris pictures. Or, perhaps they could have added Bronson and Norris to this thing and at least delivered some fun. This is a really lifeless, over-long and rather pointless remake that doesn't have much of anything going for it. Just about the only good thing that can be said about the film belongs to the special effects, which were pretty good. I thought the landing of the spaceship was rather effective with the lights being used and the monsters certainly looked very good. I also thought the set design of the cave was well done but sadly everything else here is just a bust. The biggest problem is the direction by Hooper who just doesn't bring any energy to anything going on. No matter what a scene calls for the director completely misses the boat and this includes the early scenes with him trying to show this "loving" family. There's so much sugar added to these scenes that you can't help but roll your eyes. Then when the boy comes under attack you'd expect there to be some suspense but there isn't. There are even a few hints at some comedy but this doesn't work either. The final forty-minutes of the film goes into action mode with all sorts of gun play, explosions and other craziness but these scenes too fail to gather up any excitement or energy. The performances really aren't anything to write home about either. Black is about as over-the-top in her emotions as one could get. Carson, as the young boy, isn't charming a bit and comes off more annoying than anything else. Timothy Bottoms plays the father and isn't all that entertaining. James Karen, from THE RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD, is also so over-the-top that it seems like he thinks he's in some spoof. Even former Oscar-winner Louise Fletcher goes overboard as the psycho teacher. Jimmy Hunt, the boy from the original film, gets a fine cameo. INVADERS FROM MARS is considered one of the biggest disasters from the 80s and it's easy to see why Hooper's career started to go down. With such a budget they really should have came up with something much better but at least we have the original to go to.