The Invasion (Oliver Hirschbiegel, 2007)

The umpteenth filming of The Body Snatchers drafts in the director of the sporadically estimable Das Experiment and Downfall, and it's difficult to see what the aim was with either yet another act of remastication or getting an ostensibly serious director to helm it, particularly as the studio then promptly disembowelled Hirschbiegel's darker original version in favour of a formulaic progression to eventual salvation. Philip Kaufman's nihilistic 1978 version with Donald Sutherland and a choking air of irreversible, creeping encirclement should have been the last word on the concept. Here, we get police cars getting trashed in place of actual suspense, and Nicole Kidman dragging her blonde beagle-eyed boy around while trying to avoid sleep, as the audience simultaneously fights the same losing battle against somnolence.
On a positive note, Warner Bros. lost $40m at the box office on this mess, and Hirschbiegel will probably be able to sweep it under the carpet as a case study in studio interference. A cautionary tale to all involved, then.

4/10