Alienating critics... Nicole Kidman in The Invasion.
It's never a good sign when a studio declines to provide advance screenings of an upcoming release. Even worse when reports of studio dissatisfaction with the end result and the hiring of a second director to re-shoot select scenes start to surface. And you really know there's a problem when a studio allows a film to sit on the shelf for the better part of a year before finally releasing it. Given that all of this can be said of The Invasion - the latest in a line of Invasion of the Body Snatchers remakes - you could be forgiven for wondering why Warner Bros didn't just swallow their bitter pill and release it direct to DVD.
Critics have been tripping over themselves to savage the movie, and I must admit, I'm no exception, having viewed it during its north American release. Fresh off a horrendous critical flogging stateside, the studio brains trust has concluded that it might be best to avoid screening it for the British press, lest they really unleash a scourging.
But while such a move is guaranteed to only add to the film's immediate woes, it probably won't be enough to prevent Warner from breaking even or turning a profit some time after The Invasion hits DVD shelves.
Part of the reason why this will happen is because there's a fair bit of disconnect between critics and the masses to which such films are targeted. Movies featuring direct-to-DVD standbys such as Steven Seagal and Jean-Claude Van Damme continue to be pumped out without ever being shown in cinemas, much less to critics. Clearly they must be generating some sort of profit otherwise they'd stop appearing on the shelves.
Ever watched a movie shot entirely with a digital video camera that was returned to the electronics store before the refund deadline (My Date with Drew), featured friends with no acting experience (Ghostwatcher), or had special effects akin to a sock puppet (The Item)? I have. Although I have to confess I stayed away from the sequel that appeared on DVD shelves a couple of years later (Ghostwatcher 2).
Take a stroll down the aisles of your local rental outlet and pay attention to the number of titles you've either never heard of or know to be junk and would never be caught dead renting. Somebody's paying to watch them - and therein lies The Invasion's salvation.
Given the fact that it features two marquee stars (Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig) and carries a sci-fi fan-boy cachet, there's little doubt it will prove a revenue-generating as well as popular winner in the DVD afterlife. In fact, having willingly subjugated myself to innumerable films of the sock puppet (and worse) ilk - all denizens of the marketer's direct-to-DVD goldmine - the only real mystery is why Warner didn't go full bore and cast Frank Stallone and Dolf Lundgren in supporting roles, thereby shoring up this lucrative market segment.
As for those ink-stained wretches - of whom I'm one, - who have flayed this film with the glee of a Spanish Inquisitor, even we should pause and reflect. For so long as prints of Eddie Murphy's Norbit remain unburned, the folks behind The Invasion can take some measure of critical satisfaction home to bed with them.
