not horrible nor great

Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

I caught this film as an episode of the cult riffing show, Mystery Science Theater 3000. From the looks of it, though it was certainly not a huge success at the box office, it did manage to turn a tidy little profit. The film is clearly trying to get people on board with the idea of spending money on the military through taxes, having a draft and having factories make military equipment. These days, of course, the military has no problems getting stuff manufactured as there is profit in it and spending remains high, the draft is still no longer around, but who knows what the future may hold. There are areas of the film that do a somewhat decent job of depicting events going on, but for the most part what you are watching are people in a bar, stock footage of World War II and a bunch of newscasts on the television.The story has people in a bar in New York and they are all kind of apathetic towards more military spending and stuff of this nature. When a strange man talks about how things could go badly all of a sudden an invasion begins. A mysterious force attacks Alaska and it is communist so of course it is kind of implied that it is Russia. Troopers are diving out of planes, A-bombs are dropped and cities taken over and decimated. Granted, you do not really get to see any of this. A man from San Francisco who scoffed earlier about making tanks in his tractor plants rushes back home with a guy from Texas in tow so that he can fire up his plants to make the tanks the military needs. The guy from Texas and a cab driver then make their way to wherever he lives and end up being caught up in the destruction of Boulder dam. Then a politician is on capital hill begins pleading for more resources when before he wanted to cut military spending and a newsman and woman have a bit of a romance before New York is attacked and soon we get an ending that is pretty lame.This made for an okay episode of MST3K. When I first read the title of the film for this one I had thought they riffed the Chuck Norris film of the same name, but it turned out to be another film pretty much like Rocket Attack U.S.A. It had its moments, but most of the moments came during the last section of the show. Just a bunch of stock footage jokes for the most part. It was just an okay episode as nothing was really all that laugh out loud funny. I think it would have been a much funnier episode had they done the Chuck Norris film instead.So this film had some parts in it that were okay as the film plays out a bit like the much later film Red Dawn. There are scenes they do a pretty good job with, but most of the time the action that is taking place is that of stock footage of World War II. Even the aftermath footage of 'New York' in the film is that of London after the blitz. The film is obviously trying to rev up the red scare that was prevalent back when this film was made and it ended up profiting off people's fears and may have drummed up some business for the military too. However, add Chuck Norris to the equation and the tides turn and we win easily as seen in his film of the same name!

Invasion U.S.A. (1952) * 1/2 (out of 4) If you listen to most reviewers they'll have you believing that this propaganda film is among the worst movies ever made. The story is pretty simple as a group of strangers are sitting in a bar when the news breaks that the Soviet Union have invaded America. Before long most of America has been hit with an Atomic Bomb.INVASION U.S.A. is considered by many to be one of the worst movies ever made but I think that's rather extremely. There's no question that there are some very bad things in the picture but at the same time it manages to hold you attention no matter how bad things get. I think the biggest problem with the film is the fact that its budget was so low that they really weren't able to do anything good with the picture.I say that because even though the film is only 72-minutes long, I'd say a third of that is made up of stock footage, which obviously makes the picture look cheap. There are so many scenes where it's either stock footage or projection stuff that you can't help but not be frightened by anything you're looking at. The entire point of this picture was to frighten you into thinking that the Soviet Union could strike at any moment but without the drama there's just not much here. To make matters worse, there are some unintentional funny moments including a scene where the Hoover Dam is bombed and a family gets taken out by the water.There are some decent performances here including Gerald Mohr and Dan O'Herlihy. Character actor Tom Kennedy is also on hand playing the bartender. Another problem I had with the story is the fact that America pretty much falls without any issue. I mean, as easy as it was for us to be taken over it would be impossible for America to beat anyone. Still, INVASION U.S.A. isn't nearly the bomb some make it out to be.

This could have been a serious disaster/war production but with the very low budget on the scale of a minor Republic serial, it falls to grade C propaganda and paranoia. It is not that the effort is bad, per se, there was just not much to work with at any level. Forget about any kind of realistic war scenario here but then again, it is no more nonsensical than Red Dawn was and Red Dawn DID have a substantial budget. In fact, given the realities and psyche of the time, this is at least insightful into that, whereas Red Dawn was a nonsensical fantasy that no one could take seriously even at the time it came out. We do get stock footage from WW2 and Korea with glimpses of almost everything that flew from 1944 through 52 along with ships and heavy AA. Look for Dan O'Herlihy and his first class voice in a smallish but significant role.

Invasion USA is another movie I had been looking for and recently obtained an NTSC VHS copy off E-Bay.A motley collection of people in a bar in New York are watching TV when it is announced on the news that the USA is being invaded by communists. Alaska is invaded first and then moving south, invading San Francisco, New York which is hit by an A-bomb and then Washingtion DC, where troops invade and takeover the White House.This is one of the more interesting movies made during the Atomic Age/Cold War and gave you an idea on what could happen if it happened in real life. Quite scary really.The cast includes both actresses who played Lois Lane in the 1950's Superman series, Phyllis Coates and Noel Neill. Also, Peggie Castle (Beginning Of The End), Gerald Mohr, Dan O'Herlihy and Edward D Roninson Jnr.Invasion USA is well worth checking out. Interesting and quite frightening.Rating: 3 stars out of 5.