Los invasores

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.

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.

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.

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.