When a studio chooses to remake a movie for the third time, it’s taking a big chance, which explains why the decision by Warner Bros. regarding The Invasion might not have been wise. Even mega-stars Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman can’t bail this one out of the doldrums.

The Invasion is a sci-fi film about extraterrestrial pods, or in this case spores, that grow replicas of people who have no emotion, worry or feelings of love, anger or hate. It's the third remake of the 1956 Invasions of the Body Snatchers starring Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter. That film was intended to be a B-movie but became a cult-classic. The 1978 version starred Brooke Adams, Donald Sutherland and Jeff Goldblum. The story changed very little, mostly mixing up the genders and professions. Body Snatchers, a 1993 version, barely make an impact at the box office. The story in each of the movies is based on Jack Finney's novel, The Body Snatchers.

The newest version begins, as all the others, with some type of invasion -- a mass that grows into pods (1956), a sticky goop that turns into flowers and then pods (1978), debris from a space shuttle explosion (2007) that rains down on earth. Carol, a Washington DC psychiatrist (Nicole Kidman), becomes concerned when more than one of her patients tells her things like, "My husband is not my husband."

Estranged from her husband Tucker (Jeremy Northam), Carol is now seeing Ben Driscoll (Daniel Craig), a fellow doctor, who soon realizes that the situation people are describing is happening at an alarming rate. People waking around like zombies are everywhere, and anyone exhibiting any emotion -- crying, surprise, happiness -- is in danger of being seized by the crowd and forced into the re-morphing.

In the previous movies, there had to be a body within every pod that would overtake the earthlings, but in this film it’s a virus-spread disease regurgitated into the food or water supply or directly into the mouths of unsuspecting victims. Ben and Carol discover the transition occurs the next time the person falls asleep. A long as they don't go to sleep, they'll be all right.

Carol is particularly concerned when Tucker returns and wants to see their son Oliver. Carol was already hesitant about letting her beloved son go with his troubled father. When she sees Tucker  acting very strange, she's even more worried. Tucker is a high-level official with the Center for Disease Control, and has retuned to Washington to investigate the disease that’s taking over the town, but Carol isn't so sure which side he's really on. Tension builds as Tucker keeps Oliver from Carol and as she and Ben fight to stay awake or find a cure or a way out of town. 

I’m a big fan of the original film. It was interesting, frightening and different. Perhaps that's why I wasn't so taken with this newer version. To me, Craig and Kidman have too much talent to be pigeon-holed in such limited roles. I think waiting for someone to fall or not fall asleep is about all The Invasion has to offer.

Sci-fi fans who have never seen any of the originals might find this story intriguing, but I encourage anyone in that situation to rent the original version and watch it as well.

(Released by Warner Bros. Pictures and rated "PG-13" for violence, disturbing images and terror.)

Review also posted on www.reviewexpress.com.