Invasion! (1999)

B-movie fans only need apply

I've lost count of how many times I've watched it. Campbell Scott and Tom Everett Scott are brilliant. I don't remember how I first came across this movie but I make everyone I know sit through it. Maybe the whackiest most original film I've seen. September 16, 2006

TURN ON THOSE TVS

I have to say up front, I really enjoyed this movie. While not the same type of spoof as AIRPLANE or SCARY MOVIE, INVASION is a delightful spin on those beloved alien movies of the fifties.
Campbell Scott in a smart and shrewd performance plays an atomic scientist, studly yet simple, heroic but foolish. Can't you just picture John Agar, Richard Denning or Marshall Thompson in these kind of roles? Scott has some wonderful throwaway lines that you have to really tune in on to see the sharp humor. His "plastic buddy" is unique and quite off the wall. Then there's Fiona Loewi, this century's answer to Mara Corday, Faith Domergue or any of those other 50s beauties. She sways, she swoons, she flirts and has a wonderful time. Add a surprisingly effective Tom Everett Scott as her brother/lover, and you have a weird combination, but Scott is blisteringly funny. There's a lot of sly humor here, and it's so wonderfully camp, I just had a good time with it. Much of it came out of the blue but it was funny. A delightful lost gem! September 4, 2004

Campy tounge-in-cheek invasion spoof

There are many people who feel a spoof should be at the level of Airplane, non-stop gags loosely tied into a theme. There are less smash-on-the-head spoofs such as many of the films of Mel Brooks. This one is somewhere in between.

The town of Exceptional Vista used to be a major manufacturer of machine nuts. But now the factory is closed and the town is dried up. Everyone who could leave already has.

But then some interesting things happen. Something falls from the sky and lands near the town, a world famous nuclear scientist arrives for a vacation, all television reception is out, and there seem to be a lot of traveling salesmen about.

The aliens have landed and it is up to an unusual cast of characters to save the day. The movie then follows a rather typical 1950's B-movie theme, complete with the aliens being defeated with a simple weapon.

Things heat up when the first body is found "in the lumpy bumpy part of town outside of town." Yes, that phrase is actually used. Repeatedly. Much of the humor is subtle. Pay attention to the dialogue (particularly that of the scientist) and the background visuals. Watching our heroes being scared to pass through a bead curtain is just one instance.

This is a good spoof, but not one that will appeal to most spoof fans. It is a little to subtle for most although I quite enjoyed it... May 23, 2003

Misleading cover design and title

Avalanche Video deliberately retitled this film and designed the packaging to fool people into thinking it's a Zucker Brothers style non-stop gag fest like Airplane! or Top Secret. Rather, Top of the Food Chain (the movie's real title, which still appears on the film itself) is an eccentric, amusing exercise in absurdity. As such, it's not for everybody, but who wants to see movies that ARE for everybody? (I know, plenty of people.) The director, John Paizs, is an associate of Guy Maddin, so if you like Maddin's films, you may like this. Not that this is at all like Tales From the Gimli Hospital or Careful, but those open to intelligent, offbeat movies will probably enjoy it. The rest of you are free to rent Scary Movie, he said, cinema snob that he is. March 5, 2003

What????

Well, perhaps those who reviewed this film favorably need to be brought back to earth.

Mind you, I love bad movies. Ed Wood and Phil Tucker are among my favorites. And I have a few others in my libary which I applaud as they have $2.68 special effects budgets that make them worth watching. (And some are made by those who later became big!)

But, as far as budget, yeah, this one's low. As far as humor, the funniest thing about the story was the fact that at the fire dept. dance or whatever it was, all the dishes on the buffet table were a variation on the theme of lime jello. The rest of the humor consisted of silly, over-used cliches.

If you want to see this one once, okay. I doubt you'll want to see it again.

All right. It's more enjoyable than "Battlefield Earth." That in itself says....something. January 20, 2002

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