This is meant to be a Saturday night beer and popcorn movie. Lighten up, kids! Do you not think this cast of established actors, along with a director like Tobe Hooper, did not set out to just have a fun day in the park as they made this movie? The special effects (except for the aliens) are excellent. The kid is very good, he portrays terror every time he encounters the aliens and every time he tries to explain it to an adult and nobody believes him. The scene where he goes over the hill into to glowing pit is very well done and eerie. And the music score is beautiful,especially end credits. All in all, this is an enjoyable movie to just sit back and chillax with.

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.

I'm not a fan of remakes, not at all. I don't see why films that were good in the first place need to be 'updated'. Perhaps a bad film with a nice idea would be worthy but most remakes, especially these days are just cashing in on the success of the original and usually doing a bad job to boot.Invaders From Mars is one of the most famous of the Classic 50's sci-fi films along with Forbidden Planet and War Of The Worlds. It's certainly the most disturbing of the era with paranoia and fear seen from a child's perspective along with some memorable imagery!The big surprise about this remake is that it's actually good. Really good in fact! Of course it's not perfect but it set out to do a task and in my eyes succeeded!I think one of the best things about the film is how it looks. The locations and sets are fantastic, the set of the alien space ship interior and tunnels are superb as are the locations such as the sand pit. This is all the more baffling when you consider that it's made by Canon, a company famous for uber cheap budgets and cutting corners but it certainly doesn't have that feel here. Being made in the 80's the film has that certain warmth to its feel that seemed to be present in films of that era. There is a remarkably strong Spielberg vibe to the whole film mixed in with a good does of John Carpenter from around the same era. Tobe Hooper does a great job with plenty of nice sweeping wide angles crossed with claustrophobic horror type shots and situations and some nice recreation of the iconic scenes of the 50's original such as the fence going over the hill. There are also plenty of snippets of trivia from the original film hidden here and there throughout the film which is a great tribute and obviously shows the film was made with love.Of course it's not perfect, the acting is hammy in parts which sort of ups the cheese value a little but on the whole it's pretty average and doesn't stray much into 'cringe' territory.A special mention and combined criticism must go to the Martian creatures themselves. Stan Winston's workshop created these beasts and although superbly made and animated they seems to not know whether to be scary or goofy, looking formidable with their huge teeth and grunts one might be scared stiff if they didn't look like a giant testicle from the side on.These are minor flaws though in a film that has so obviously been made with a passion for the subject.I love both versions of this film and I honestly think that more people should give it the credit that it is due!

A remake of 1953 classic. The movie is made by Canon International that had on and off successes with their movies. This is one of the off ones they made.The movie is about a boy witnessing the landing of a UFO at the back of his house. Then people of his town starts to change, their personalities taken over by the martians. He desperately tries to save his parents. His teacher helps him along the way.There's no atmosphere to this movie. The acting was bad and production crew really didn't know what the movie was all about despite that they had the 1953 classic to work off of. 1953 classic at least knew how to show the terror of one boy who is surrounded by the enemies, and how to cover for his inexperience as an actor by putting his innocence forward. This movie has no such considerations.Best pass this movie and watch the original 1953 classic which is a far better production.