How is possible to fuck up another version of Jack Finney’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers? This classic story of our world being taken over by planted copies of ourselves has been beaten to death in the film world - but they were all tolerable adaptations. Director Don Siegel began it in 1956 with his version, cleverly titled Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which starred Kevin McCarthy, and still remains the best of the bunch. Philip Kaufman tackled it again, in 1978, and delivered a film quite worthy to the original and its source material. Hell, even Abel Ferrera directed his own version in 1993 that was just as entertaining as the rest.

So if three other film versions of a simple story are already out for you research purposes, how can there be any room for failure? Well, the Warner Bros., with the assistance of producer Joel Silver, managed to figure it out. The Invasion, starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig, falls flat, bores, and practically kills any excitement the original story had to offer.

It’s no secret that the production of The Invasion was just as nightmarish as the final result. Word has it that Joel Silver the rest of the executives were displeased with the final result director Oliver Hirschbiegel (who crafted the amazing Downfall) finished product. So they brought in the Brothers Wachowski, along with James McTeigue (V for Vendetta), to tweak this picture into something more watchable. This is far from the first time this sort of thing has happened upon the studio’s displeasure with a film. Just look at the nightmare that was 2004’s Exorcist prequel. Like that movie before it, they all failed to accomplish said mission.

You always want problem pictures like this to have some amazing featurettes about what actually went wrong during production. Studios hate presenting us with that kind of action and directors don’t like talking about it too much either. Whatever happened behind-the-scenes is probably better than what’s on screen. Kidman takes the role too seriously and evokes zombie-like emotions the whole time, even when the screen action calls for her to a normal mother character. There is something odd here and I can’t quite put my finger on it. Was the entire cast actually replaced by pod people? That very thought is a more exciting movie than this cinematic bomb. You’re better off renting a different version instead. Save yourself the agony.