Invaders from Mars

1986

Action / Horror / Sci-Fi

14
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 38% · 16 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 33% · 2.5K ratings
IMDb Rating 5.5/10 10 10524 10.5K

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Plot summary

In this remake of the classic 50s SF tale, 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 aid of the school nurse the boy enlists the aid of the U.S. Marines.


Uploaded by: OTTO
October 01, 2014 at 04:57 AM

Director

Top cast

Karen Black as Linda Magnusson
Louise Fletcher as Mrs. McKeltch
Jimmy Hunt as Police Chief
Laraine Newman as Ellen Gardner
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
756.10 MB
1280*720
English 2.0
NR
23.976 fps
1 hr 40 min
Seeds 1
1.44 GB
1920*1080
English 2.0
NR
23.976 fps
1 hr 40 min
Seeds 4

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by Hey_Sweden 6 / 10

"Marines have no qualms about killing Martians."

Tobe Hooper's elaborate, bigger budgeted 80s remake of the 1953 science fiction classic does have scale going for it, as well as a see-it-to-believe-it cast and talented crew. Scripted by Dan O'Bannon & Don Jakoby, it tells the story of David Gardner (Hunter Carson), ordinary kid who witnesses first hand the invasion of evil Martian creatures which proceed to enslave lots of local humans, Davids' own parents (Timothy Bottoms and Laraine Newman) among them.

The problem, at least for this viewer, is that this doesn't have the stark nightmarish quality of the original, and is also often too silly for its own good, going for a camp quality, in terms of both acting and dialogue. Depending on ones' sensibilities, they can either appreciate or groan at lines such as "You'd better hurry, or you just might blow it." and "You don't carry loose change into combat, sir.". We also have the parents acting all goofy and eating either meat that's been overcooked or not cooked at all.

Yet, moments like this contrast with some pretty good sequences such as seeing how the humans get their minds manipulated or when the tunnelling devices emerge from underneath the ground. The sets are quality stuff, what with people like Leslie Dilley ("Star Wars") as production designer and Craig Stearns ("Halloween" '78) as art director. The special effects are amusing, to say the least, with Stan Winston and crew crafting some memorable "Mr. Potato Head" aliens as well as a Martian intelligence that is actually kind of a cute lil' thing.

The actors are mostly all pros (with the exception of Carson, the real-life son of co-star Karen Black) and some of them do a pretty fine job of maintaining poker faces. In addition to those actors mentioned, we've got Ms. Black doing an appealing job as the school nurse, Louise Fletcher playing her umpteenth Nurse Ratched like role as the miserly frog eating teacher, Bud Cort as a nerdy young S.E.T.I. scientist, the great James Karen of "The Return of the Living Dead" as an ass kicking, cigar chomping Marine general, Jimmy Hunt (who played the kid in the 1953 film) as the police chief, and veteran military technical adviser Dale Dye in a bit.

One good thing about "Invaders from Mars" '86 is that it's never boring, and it does have nice touches here and there (the bit with the copper, the cameo by the original Martian Intelligence), and it's at least pretty true to the first film when it comes to the resolution. It's best recommended to undemanding fans of 80s genre fare.

Six out of 10.

Reviewed by BA_Harrison 6 / 10

Another flop for Hooper.

Director Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre), visual effects wizard John Dykstra (Star Wars), make-up FX genius Stan Winston (Aliens), screenwriter Dan O'Bannon (Alien), cinematographer Daniel Pearl (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre): there's a wealth of experience and talent behind this lavish '80s remake of '50s cold-war sci-fi classic Invaders From Mars, but it amounts to little more than a thoroughly cheesy and rather camp piece of trashy escapism. For some, that might be enough, but given its pedigree, I expected, nay, DEMANDED much more.

The film's weakest point is undoubtedly its young lead Hunter Carson, who appears in almost every scene, but is unable to even run convincingly, let alone persuade the viewer that the planet is under threat from Martians (what's with the flappy arms, Hunter?). A better actor in the central role would have helped immensely, although Hooper's direction also proves lacklustre, his film lacking in suspense but loaded with schmaltz (the overly saccharine opening family scenes suggest that the director spent far too long in the presence of Spielberg during the filming of Poltergeist). Serving to undermine the film's effectiveness further are the somewhat clunky aliens—far from Winston's best work.

Mindlessly entertaining in the way that only an '80s Cannon movie could be, the film is admittedly never boring, and benefits from some interesting set design and impressive lighting, but as a big-budget sci-fi (by Cannon Pictures' standards, at least) from the man who gave us Leatherface, this can only be deemed a disappointment. Oh, well, at least this film's failure (along with his previous sci-fi/horror flop Lifeforce) resulted in Hooper returning to familiar territory for the long-awaited Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2.

5.5 out of 10, rounded up to 6 for IMDb.

Reviewed by mark.waltz 4 / 10

Invaders from Muppetland.

While her character resembles Auntie Em from "The Wizard of Oz" , she is closer to Miss Gulch and gives one of the most laughable performances put on screen ever. She is Louise Fletcher, the Academy Award winning actress from "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (Nurse Ratched) and has never seemed to have given a performance outside of that infamous character's lack of personality. Hunter Carson isn't much better as a confused kid being chased by Fletcher who has something implanted in her neck that makes her answerable to the Martians who have invaded Earth and are now taking over the minds of the townspeople including his parents, Laraine Newman and Timothy Bottoms. His only protector is another school teacher, Karen Black, as frantic as always, and even when she's calm, you expect her to go into hysterics at any minute.

When you go into the Martian dwelling that is underground, it looks like something out of a George Pal 1950's movie and not at all like something you'd see in the very blockbuster technology age of the mid-1980's. By this time, audiences expected special effects on the level of Spielberg and Lucas, and what they get here is far from it. This film is bizarre on so many levels, and while I can enjoy a 1950's science fiction film, it has to have been made then rather than an 80's film that looks like it was 30 years old when it first came out.

As for the creatures themselves, they're pretty disgusting to look at, and when the had Martian comes out of its lair, is unfortunately rather phallic, looking like part of the female anatomy with lots of mini legs added on. James Karen is over the top as a military officer in charge of the investigation, and veteran actor Bud Cort is equally as bizarre. The script is rather juvenile to so you don't really take it all that seriously, and the lack of imagination in making this look modern shows how pointless the remake was. The original version isn't exactly a classic either, so the fact that this ended up being one of the biggest flops of the 1980's is not a surprise. A few unintentional laughs does not make a good film, and without a kid that you can really root for, it ends up completely pointless.

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