Nicole Kidman's latest bomb: THE INVASION

[Auggie27]

Posted: 8/15/07 at 5:13pm

Variety today panned the hell out of this remake of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, provoking yet another round of "Why can't Nicole Kidman make a good movie?" Surely she's offered just about everything, so you'd think she'd stay clear of anything that smacks of a recycled idea, after the tediously campy and unfunny STEPFORD WIVES (compare it to the original -- never considered great but now seems subtle and riveting -- to reconsider how bad it was), then the busy but too-high-a-concept BEWITCHED. Her only interesting work in recent years has been the smaller projects, i.e. BIRTH, but even that ultimately fell apart in the third act.

Maybe Variety is way off base, and maybe THE INVASION will prove more substantial and fun than it has been made to sound. But as has already been noted: mid-August is like February -- a boneyard of poorer (poorly tested anyway) films. Apparently, this version had to have a third of it reshot.

Nicole, find yourself a script that isn't written by twenty writers, in turnaround for five years...or dare to take a supporting role that's meaty, or come back to Broadway (Dolls House? A new Charles Busch? PLENTY?), but please stop looking for "a hit movie." Your quest for a great commercial property that opens with 75 million and glowing reviews has failed. Fire everyone who advises you.

Updated On: 8/15/07 at 05:13 PM

[jasonf]

Posted: 8/15/07 at 5:20pm

I don't know - August is SUPPOSED to be the time for dumping movies. Stardust WAS pretty good, and Superbad is getting VERY strong reviews from what I've heard...

[AnnaK<3LMIP]

Posted: 8/15/07 at 5:20pm

What is The Invasion even about?

[Auggie27]

Posted: 8/15/07 at 5:25pm

Curious, though, did STARDUST test well? It made only 9 million last week, I believe, because it seemingly cannot find its target audience. It will sink out of sight now.

I know, there's successful alternative programming in August (hey, remember a little thing called THE SIXTH SENSE?), and February, but with Kidman and Craig -- if this was good, would it be coming out 8/17? Just a question, not a pronouncement. And when you consider all the post work and rewrites and reshoots -- for a remake of a remake of a remake?

More to the point, we need new ideas, not the old ones recylced. The first two BODY SNATCHERS are classics of a sort (at least the original). Maybe we just didn't need this cool post 9/11 take, which apparently is the POV.

But Ms. K needs a hit.

Updated On: 8/15/07 at 05:25 PM

[AnnaK<3LMIP]

Posted: 8/15/07 at 5:28pm

Isn't she in The Golden Compass? That'll be successful, I bet.

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 8/15/07 at 6:33pm

Why did Hollywood feel we needed a 4th screen version of this story; and, why did she feel she needed to be in it? I don't like her in anything, so I was skipping it, regardless of reviews (which I pay no attention to, anyway).

[DG]

Posted: 8/15/07 at 6:46pm

I have a feeling that Baz's AUSTRALIA with her and Jackman will make a bit of noise.

[pab]

Posted: 8/15/07 at 7:20pm

"What is The Invasion even about?"

"Variety today panned the hell out of this remake of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS"

[DG]

Posted: 8/15/07 at 7:23pm

Oh Pab, please - you're expecting reading comprehension?!?!?

[pab]

Posted: 8/15/07 at 7:25pm

Yeah, sorry, I almost forgot I was in tweenland.

[Raviolisun]

Posted: 8/15/07 at 7:55pm

The Golden Compass looks really cool.

[jasonf]

Posted: 8/15/07 at 11:10pm

Stardust's rating on Rottentomatoes was pretty high - 74%. Not blockbuster, perhaps, but pretty solid. It's a shame the movie isn't doing better since it is pretty entertaining. Still, I saw that; I don't really have any intention of seeing The Invasion.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 8/16/07 at 11:59am

Perhaps STARDUST will ultimately take on a cult status, once it's on DVD. It has some of the earmarks.

I will be among the first to see this INVASION, as a lifelong fan of the original -- still a near-masterpiece, despite the bit of cheeze whiz at the end.

New ground in sci-fi/horror seems a bewildering challenge. I remember when Spielberg's AI came out (a movie I personally adore, though many loathe it), and THE TRUMAN SHOW. People were wringing their hands about how the genre(s) had declined. Yet now, those two movies seem breathtakingly original in the age of gore-fests.

Yes, we had compelling stuff from M. Night Shamalyan. But even he let down the hoardes with THE VILLAGE and especially the debacle of last summer with Ron Howard's daughter in a pool.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 8/16/07 at 12:31pm

I still enjoy the 1978 remake with all those flaky 70's San Franciscans turning into...well, bigger zombies. Very well written and directed with surprisingly good chemistry between Donald Sutherland and Brooke Adams. The Queen of Movie Hysteria Veronica Cartwright is also in it, doin' her thing.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 8/16/07 at 1:06pm

Ms. Cartwright is in the latest version.

[SorryGrateful]

Posted: 8/16/07 at 1:55pm

I really wanted this to be good since I, unlike a lot of people and understandably so at times, ADORE Nicole Kidman. I also really like Daniel Craig and not just because he's a fox.



Oh Nic, Nic, Nic. You are so good when you get a good script. Can't we go back to the great times when you did Moulin Rouge, Eyes Wide Shut, Dogville, The Hours, hell, I even liked Cold Mountain, even though you were clearly too old for your part(not that you're old, but you can't pass for 20 anymore).

Please?

Love,

SorryGrateful

[roquat]

Posted: 8/16/07 at 8:08pm

Actually, this could count as the fifth remake, if you count "The Faculty", which is basically "Body Snatchers" in high school (and references it endlessly, in that pseudo-hip nineties-movie way). I agree it's not exactly fresh, but that story seems to work, to an extent, in all its versions.

Ms. Kidman certainly could use some career rehab, especially as she approaches 40 (that dreaded Hollywood cutoff point for actresses). I too long for the "Moulin Rouge" glory years. Maybe, with "The Golden Compass" as a start, she can forge a new seductive-villainess career, as Michelle Pfeiffer appears to be doing with "Hairspray" and "Stardust."

[Auggie27]

Posted: 8/16/07 at 8:14pm

seeing double

Updated On: 8/16/07 at 08:14 PM

[Auggie27]

Posted: 8/16/07 at 8:14pm

She needs new people around her, to offer entirely different career advice. But the Aussie western looks promising. I'm personally tired of the Doris Day era -- lame comedies and "suspense" films that she walks through. But isn't she already 40?

I think it's she and Julia Roberts redid THE CHILDREN'S HOUR. Why not? I almost think it would work.

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 8/16/07 at 10:49pm

Oh Nic, Nic, Nic. You are so good when you get a good script. Can't we go back to the great times when you did Moulin Rouge, Eyes Wide Shut, Dogville, The Hours, hell, I even liked Cold Mountain,

You just highlighted exact why her name keeps my ass out of a movie theater seat. I detested every one of those films.

[DG]

Posted: 8/17/07 at 1:54am

"I think it's she and Julia Roberts redid THE CHILDREN'S HOUR. Why not? I almost think it would work."

Auggie, you might be onto something here. But I don't want a redo, I would like an honest adaptation!

[Auggie27]

Posted: 8/17/07 at 9:39am

{DG: I rewatched the MacLaine/Hepburn version recently and was astounded at how the drama holds. Put aside admittedly relevant concerns about gay self-loathing, manifest in the ending (which might be intrigingly re-thought), it's still a helluva cautionary tale. It could be remade with a lush, FAR FROM HEAVEN styled homage to period. I thinking going full-tilt into the world of repression, with the heady climate of teenage girl budding sexuality, could give the material a (sexual) immediacy it lacked. I always thought it strange that the sexual climate ofthe all-girls school wasn't mined.}

But today's Times review of this apparent mess sadly said the same old same old "A miscast Nicole Kidman..." I'll be curious to see the weekend numbers. It could sink like a stone.

[DG]

Posted: 8/17/07 at 11:07am

I'm thinking a splashy openning, and then *poof*, it's gone.

As for CHILDREN'S HOUR, I always think of Shirley MacLaine speaking about it in THE CELULOID CLOSET. She claims the subject was never even discussed - which boggles my mind as much as it seems to have boggled hers.

[Fan2]

Posted: 8/17/07 at 3:41pm

Nicole has MARGOT AT THE WEDDING coming out in the fall (by the same guy that did THE SQUID AND THE WHALE) which is getting good buzz, and she has THE GOLDEN COMPASS in December. Then after that it's AUSTRALIA with Hugh Jackman, directed by Baz Luhrmann. I've been following this production and from the look of the set and the tidbits we've been getting this sounds amazing - Baz thinks it will come out around November 2008.

http://www.australiamovie.net

[SorryGrateful]

Posted: 8/17/07 at 3:49pm

"You just highlighted exact why her name keeps my ass out of a movie theater seat. I detested every one of those films."

You hated every single one? Awwww, that's no fun. Maybe you just don't like her, rather than just not liking her movies. I'm not sure that makes sense. I'm so tired.