Invasion! (1999)

Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 05/22/2007 Product Description

This is my favorite movie, EVER

I am not a movie kind of person. I get headaches if I go to the theater, and I would rather spend my time watching Pushing Daisies, Psych, Burn Notice, Bones, or Forensic Files, and playing on the computer at the same time, than spending 2 1/2 hours watching one single thing.

That said, this is one of the only movies that I have ever watched (willingly!) numerous times. It's hilarious. It's subtle, it's clever, and it's just plain weird enough to make me a VERY happy camper.

Exceptional Vista is a town that everyone thinks of when they think of podunk and redneck. Usually we're not thinking Canada, though. Dr. Lamonte is, on the surface, a serious man of science. Serious men of science usually have SOME knowledge of ANYTHING, though. When aliens invade the town, the only person who appears to know anything is Dr. Lamonte, but of course, he doesn't -- since no one knows that he's a moron, they don't know that he doesn't know what's actually going on anymore than they do. Other than "worldwide perdition" -- you know, "worldwide eating people.

Enough of the plot -- I must now get to its true awesomeness. This movie is just... well, awesome. I don't even know how to describe the absolute genius of it. From the moment we meet the men named like women, the incestuous but moronic hotel owners, the sponge-seeking love interest (and hotel-owner), the movie just gets better and better.

Look, I have a pretty low-brow sense of humor in general, but this movie is so amazing that you don't realize just how cerebral it is. I cannot do it justice with a mere review. Sure, it's not "Airplane" (which was funny but not even CLOSE to the beauty of this film), and it's not Monty Python (which some people claim is too hard to get because of the whole "british humour" thing, and others think is the funniest comedy in existance -- but is still not close to this). This movie is a catagory unto its own. I wish I could somehow show you the scene where Sandy sings about Our Lady of Fatima's hat. When Sandy tells Dr. Lamonte that she needs to be held and he grips her head... well, that's just priceless.

This is probably the funniest movie I've ever seen. There is beauty in humor, and exquisite beauty in humor that is subtle, absurd, and off-the-wall. If I had only one movie that I could save, if every other movie in existance were to disappear, this is the one movie I would want to keep.

Sit down with a big screwdriver in your hand (drink, not tool), get rid of all the distractions, and bring your best friend to your house. Then put this movie on and enjoy. Sharing it with someone who also has a sense of humor will make it even better than it allready is. If you don't know how to laugh freely, or if you think that humor should be "sophisticated" in the way people found Frazier or Seinfeld funny, then you might be disappointed with this. But if you can appreciate humor in ALL its glorious forms, if you can embrace silly, crazy and just plain absurd humor, than you will LOVE this. Probably not as much as I do, but hopefully somewhat close. :) January 1, 2009

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

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