MovieChat Forums > Strange Invaders (1983) Discussion > What A Piece of Dreck!

What A Piece of Dreck!

posted 18 years ago by Samantha-Kimmel
38 replies | jump to latest

Where to begin.... This hideous excuse for a motion picture makes "Plan 9 From Outer Space" look well thought out. The music? It's culled from every single overwrought piece of PD shlock in existence. The focus? Hell, doesn't matter if in one shot there are thirty people standing in the road; the new angle shows a lone Packard with a waitress posing for Argosy Mag shots.

Paul Le Mat, Diana Scarwid, Louise Fletcher, Wallace Shawn: fine actors who must have all been starving to death at that point in their lives and the director lured them to sign on with tempting bits of cat food. The production budget must have skyrocketed to well over fifty cents with the addition of The Space Alien Phallic Transportation Machine which, for a time, must have meant that the Oscar Meyer Wiener Mobile was not available.

When Bad Movies Happen to Good Actors

[–] 11 years ago

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[–] 11 years ago

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[–] mamamiasweetpeaches 10 years ago

LOL LOL LOL "the director lured them to sign with tempting bits of cat food" Thats hilarious!

I liked the movie. It wasnt Masterpiece Theater but it was somewhat enjoyable. Paul le Mat could have "given more" though. Agreed.

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[–] Dark_Phoenix89 9 years ago

I disagree; I thought it was a pretty good film actually. Granted it takes a while to really get going, but once it does it's a pretty intriguing flick (Certainly surprised me, as I was expecting another film about killer aliens, but as it turned out this film went a lot deeper than all that). It dealt with the loss of family, loss of innocence (in the case of Elizabeth), had a great comic relief character in Willie (played awesomely by Michael Lerhner), had some spiritual meaning as well (the truth about the aliens mission; they were not there to really harm (although they were not above using force to get their way), but rather to study and gather information about our species, and to see if humans and aliens could truly learn to live together and co-exist peacefully (not only on Earth, but on their own world as well).

I agree the film has some flaws (mostly due to bad pacing), but overall I thought it a pretty well made, character driven sci-fi flick (every character has something about them you either like or dislike, and each drives the plot in their own ways).

"Speak of the Devil, and He shall appear."

[–] jmarkoff2 9 years ago

I hated the film. It wasn't "deep" enough to take seriously, and it wasn't funny enough to be a spoof. And for about half the film practically nothing happens. Much better as a low budget film option from the same time period is The Ice Pirates, a hilarious movie.

[–] shoolaroon-9-43507 8 years ago

I was quite surprised by this film. Yes, there was a lot I didn't like - the music notably, and the lead actor, but there were parts of it I think border on genius. I would especially recommend the part where the mental patient's family (is his name Bill?) is dehydrated and turned into balls of light - very creepy and disturbing and sad, especially when they float out the window to God knows where. I also think the whole bathroom scene with the "Avon lady" and Wallace Shawn was very well done - and the scene in the hotel room when the overheated alien "takes off" his mask. There are many excellent and creepy moments in this movie and a wonderful sense of paranoia and distrust of our ever lying government - which I always like to see! I also like that the aliens don't actually KILL anyone, they just put the into this light sphere state...they're surprisingly gentle for such menacing looking creatures, despite our expectations. We're the ones who end up killing them.

On the whole, I'd recommend this movie and I'd like to...I hesitate to say it considering what Hollywood has done the past few years....see a remake.