Invasion of the Remake

"Release the Kraken!" Those words were first shouted in 1981 in the now classic Desmond Davis film Clash of the Titans with effects by the incredible Ray Harryhausen. In 2010 Louis Leterrier remade Clash with modern effects to mixed reviews. Comedian Monty Scott joins the invasion team to see who would win in a fight, Harry Hamlin's Perseus versus Sam Worthington's Perseus, or Laurence Olivier's Z...

This week Jason, Trish and Sam travel down memory lane reminiscing about their favorite fantasy films from days of yore and current favorites. Legend, Krull, The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, Mirror Mask, Ator the Fighting Eagle, Game of Thrones, Clash of the Titans, The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Chronicles of Narnia, Pan's Labyrinth, Willow, Edward Scissorhands, Stardust, The Princess B...

Continuing our month long Fantasy Film June the Invaders remake an 80's fantasy classic. The highest grossing independent film of it's time, The Sword & the Sorcerer looked cool, but is a narrative mess with a great core idea. It's perfect for the Jason, Trish, & Sam to remake with today's audiences in mind. The Sword & the Sorcerer starred Lee (Hateful Eight, Django Unchained) Horsley, Kathleen (...

In 1982 a retired body builder relatively new to acting got his big break as one of the the most iconic literary characters of all time. That character was Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian, and that man was Arnold Schwarzenegger! Director John Milius co-wrote the script with Oliver Stone and had an all-star cast to support Arnold, like James Earl Jones, Max Von Sydow, Sandahl Bergman, and Ma...

Richard Donner could do no wrong in the 1980's cultivating many hits like Lethal Weapon, The Goonies, Superman, Scrooged, and The Omen. In 1985 Donner directed Ladyhawke with Matthew Broderick, Rutger Hauer, Michelle Pfeiffer, Leo McKern, John Wood, Ken Hutchison, and Alfred Molina. While loved and appreciated at the time, the film was not a hit and has become a largely forgotten romantic, fantasy...

Two movies based on The Hunter by Donald E. Westlake under the pen name Richard Stark brought Westlake's most famous character, Parker, to the silver screen, but they wouldn't be actually called Parker. Westlake famously protected the character and the name Parker wouldn't be used until after his death when Jason Statham starred in a movie title after the titular character. Point Blank (1967) with...

When an old god-monster is resurrected, a grieving family seeks to stop it before it kills everyone in the town. Clive Barker's short story from the Books of Blood, Rawhead Rex (1986) also became his first story to hit the silver screen and he hated it! This lead him to take a more controlling roll on the Hellraiser film. On this episode we take a look at what went wrong, how we might bring it bac...

Breaking the goofy type-casting Keanu Reeves had fallen into from two Bill & Ted movies, he starred in his first action film, Point Break (1991) from Director Kathryn Bigelow. Co-starring Patrick Swayze, Gary Busey, and Lori Petty, Point Break became a cult hit of the 1990's. Flash forward to 2015 and a new take on the concept by Director Ericson Core and Screenwriter Kurt Wimmer starring Edgar Ra...

Long before his "tiger blood" drove him completely insane (allegedly), Charlie Sheen shot a low budget sci-fi, supernatural, revenge flick called The Wraith (1986) along side Nick Cassavetes, Sherilyn Fenn, Randy Quaid, and Clint Howard. Does this ghost with a really cool car hold up? This week the Invaders with comedian Brittany Lyseng are in the driver's seat and rework this movie to make it wor...

Sean Connery is the original James Bond and after Diamonds are Forever he said he would never play Bond again. Never say never. Those are the words that became the title to the 1983 remake of Thunderball (1965), Never Say Never Again. The Invaders sneak into the files of MI-6 to see which of the Ian Fleming, Kevin McClory inspired stories can defeat the evil S.P.E.C.T.R.E. and is the best of 007....

In 1981 John Irvin brought many elder statesmen of Hollywood together to bring Peter Staub's novel Ghost Story to the big screen. Hollywood legends like Fred Astaire, John Houseman, Melvyn Douglas, and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. are joined by the highly expressive Craig Wasson and the gorgeous Borg Queen Alice Krige in this dramatic, supernatural, mystery film. Join Jason, Trish, and Sam as we remake t...

The best thing about South Korean films is that they are really, really insane! Chan-wook Park brought the fan favorite manga to the big screen in 2003 with great success. Fast forward a decade and director Spike Lee remakes Oldboy for an English speaking audience starring Josh Brolin to mixed reviews. Often found on worst film remake lists, is the Spike Lee version really that bad? Listen to this...

"From outer space they came! Meteor borne, meteor strange! Now these amazing Monolith Monsters reveal powers! Shocking beyond belief! The most shocking science-fiction concept ever brought to the screen! Stranger than anything science had ever discovered!" These are the words that accompany the trailer for the 1957 Universal Pictures sci-fi classic The Monolith Monsters. Arguably the most unique i...

In 1990 France's Luc Besson wrote and directed La Femme Nikita, a coming of age action story with bullets, starring Anne Parillaud, Tcheky Karyo, Jean Reno, Jean-Hugues Anglade, and Jeanne Moreau, which went on to become an international sensation spawning two television series and the remake Point of No Return directed by John Badham and starring Bridget Fonda, Gabriel Byrne, Dermont Mulroney, An...

Flash...ah aaahhh...savior of the universe! Mike (Get Carter, Omen II) Hodges brought Flash Gordon from the Alex Raymond comic strips to the big screen in 1980 in big budget, campy fun. Starring Sam J. Jones as Flash Gordon, Melody Anderson as Dale Arden, Max Von Sydow as Emperor Ming, Topol as Dr. Hans Zarkov, Ornella Muti as Princess Aura, Timothy Dalton as Prince Barin, Brian Blessed as Prince...

Two children befriend one and another in this throat ripping coming of age story...wait what? In 2008 a small Swedish film based on the novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist called Let the Right One In made quite the splash at film festivals and global cinemas. Two years later the newly resurrected Hammer films took interest and remade it for English speaking audiences starring Chloe Grace Moretz, Richar...

It's Jason's birthday episode and the Invaders put on there shades and take a stab at remaking John Carpenter's conspiracy classic They Live with special guest Sam Stepanenko. They Live may be sparse in dialogue and yet it is full of quotables by the late Roddy Piper and some great performances by Keith David, Meg Foster, George Flower, Peter Jason, and Raymond St. Jacques. Improving on a sci-fi c...

in 1967 Edouard Molinaro adapted a frantic vaudevillian style play by Claude Mognier into the first screen adaptation of Oscar. In 1991 John Landis Americanized the French version by setting into the gangster 30's era with an all-star cast featuring Sylvester Stallone, Ornella Muti, Peter Riegert, Chazz Palminteri, Art LaFleur, Tim Curry, Vincent Spano, Linda Gray, Marisa Tomei,  with a special ap...

You've heard the predictions from the most qualified movie analysts now you can hear the predictions from the least qualified of all, the Invaders! Can Bryan Cranston upset Matt Damon & Leonardo DiCaprio? Does Mad Max: Fury Road run down the Revenant? Does Inside Out induce blinding rage in Jeff? Has anyone actually watched an Oscar nominated short film? Are snubs intentional? Find out the answer...

This week Trish forces us to watch & remake My Best Friend's Wedding. For Jason this is like kneeling in broken glass while acid drips into his eyes. We've now scratched that nagging itch Trish had for reworking a romantic comedy. Thankfully we watched this so you don't have too. We took that bullet for you. Listen to this humorous rage filled episode as we rip apart this Julia Roberts, Dermont Mu...

Needless to say ****SPOILERS*** for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Yes, we went there. If you've seen both Star Wars: A New Hope (1977) and Star Wars: The Force Awakens it is hard to deny the similarities. So Jeff, Jason, and Trish use the Force explore the similarities and differences between these two films. A stealth remake that still gives us new and amazing characters to explore in a galaxy fa...

By the power of Greyskull we are podcasting! Invasion of the Remake is joined by comic artist and special effects make-up artist Reid Fisher to flashback to 1987 and our childhoods to revisit Masters of the Universe starring Dolph Lundgren as He-Man and featuring Courteney Cox in her first feature film lead role. We travel the halls of Eternia and spot the incredible Billy Barty, Meg Foster, the w...

Strange noises, that thing in the corner of your eye, seething with murderous intent. The only thing is that there is nothing there, nothing but a hand. A twitching, moving hand that is strong and can kill. One wouldn't think there are to many rebellious limb movies, but we list several during this episode and focus on The Beast With Five Fingers (1946) starring Robert Alda, Julie Holden, and the...

In the near future walking flash drives hold the cure to a plague that is wiping out humanity...unless you are named after a guitar. The final nail in the coffin for the bankrupt Canon films was the Albert Pyun film Cyborg (1989) starring a then brand new superstar in the making Jean Claude Van Damme. Originally planned as a sequel to Masters of the Universe (we'll get to this one in an upcoming e...

Presenting the first ever Invasion of the Remake...remake. Our original Blobcast got swallowed by a gelatinous Christmas Song & in a grand sense of irony we have remade our original episode because The Blob is to good not to get an episode. Steve McQueen starred in the 1958 sci-fi classic, but the Chuck Russell remake goes full horror with Shawnee (Saw) Smith and Kevin Dillon. Which Blob will come...