release year: 1978
genre: horror/drama
viewing setting: home DVD, 7/11/99
what I expected: couldn't remember
what I got: VERY slow horror movie
synopsis: Plants from outer space are replacing humans with identical evil duplicates.
impressions: Damn, this was slow-moving. Worse, many of the lines were mumbled, requiring me to turn up the volume and skip back to figure out what was said...only to find that it was in fact meaningless mumbling. Once it got going - about an hour and 12 minutes into the movie - it moved along a lot faster. Still, basically, it was plodding and often boring. The idea was creepy enough, though, and watching everyone around you get replaced in the space of a few days has got to be spooky.
acting: Donald Sutherland, Leonard Nimoy, and Jeff Goldblum all played freaky weird characters. Veronica Cartwright played a whiny weak fool just like in Alien a year later. Brooke Adams was the only sane protagonist.
final word: Average horror fare; it had its creepy moments, but was mostly boring.
rating: C