Colorful and expensive remake of the 1956 sci-fi classic, with mopey, sleepy-eyed Sutherland playing the part originated by Kevin McCarthy, a health inspector giving a hard time to San Francisco restaurant owners when he finds rat droppings in their kitchens. Instead of the original
setting, a little town in California, the setting here is the sprawling city of San Francisco, now under alien attack by the mysterious pods (with Nimoy as the psychiatrist advocating the takeover). The film collapses midway--because of unsure and sloppy direction, splintered story continuity, and
the overacting of Adams, Cartwright, and others. The battle between Sutherland and the aliens in the "pod factory" at the end is simply absurd and sophomoric. In a nod to the earlier classic, McCarthy appears at the beginning of the film, shouting hysterical warnings to motorists until he is
struck and killed by a car. A great number of shots show the Transamerica pyramid building in downtown San Francisco, a subtle plug for the distributor of the movie, whose corporate offices are housed there.
