Sunday, December 15, 2013

Invasion of the Pod People (2007)

Disjointed story about Melissa who works at a modeling agency. She has to deal with a bitchy boss, obnoxious models, and a boyfriend with whom she has the most awkward sex, which takes place in a window and on a chaise lounge. It's not supposed to be awkward, but her boyfriend looks so angry and uncomfortable. Perhaps that why he won't commit to their  relationship, well besides that he may be dating other women.

Melissa starts to notice personality changes in her boss, models, and others at work. Oddly enough it all seems to start after they are given a strange plant.  Well, to them it's strange and other worldly, but to anyone who's shopped in the produce section of the supermarket, it's a ginger root in a plant pot.

The other thing that's odd is that everyone who is taken over by the plant becomes a space lesbian. Well, I guess that's a twist on the old body snatchers formula.  Even Melissa, who isn't interested in women, can't resist the advances of the space lesbians and has a dalliance for which she is rewarded with a mysterious creepy plant (aka a ginger root).

This movie had us laughing out loud, while other times we wondered when the hell it was going to be over.  The sound is often hard to hear due to ambient noise in the room. Maybe they should have shut off the air conditioner, or done some ADR on the audio?  It's ridiculous to have this problem in a movie put out by a real studio.

Also there is just too much nonsense going on.  Why do people keep going off on their own once they know there are pod people who look just like them?  Why doesn't the guy who breaks into Melissa's apartment to warn her, say anything useful so she'll know what the hell he's talking about?  Why do people in movies have no knowledge of any horror or sci-fi film ever made? Has no one ever seen Invasion of the Body Snatchers or the multiple remakes? And why did they hire a woman whose plastic-y face seemed to be a plot device that would clue the viewer in to who had turned into a pod person, but just ended up being her real face?

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