The Puppet Masters (1994): C

Robert A. Heinlein may have written The Puppet Masters five years before 1956’s classic Cold War allegory Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but that does little to diminish the been-there, done-that vibe of Stuart Orme’s 1994 adaptation of Heinlein’s novel, about a secret government agency’s efforts to combat slug-like aliens who control humans by latching onto their backs. His thirst for fighting extraterrestrials apparently unquenched by his starring role in 1978’s superb Body Snatchers remake, Donald Sutherland headlines this thriller as Andrew Nivens, the leader of the Office of Scientific Investigation, a covert outfit – which also includes Nivens’ bland agent son Sam (Eric Thal) and exobiologist Mary (Tommy Boy’s Julie Sefton) – that’s tasked with preventing the rapidly reproducing invaders from spreading from a small Iowa community into the country proper. In the hands of director Orme, unfortunately, humanity’s suspense-free quest to stop the tentacled creatures is about as nerve-wracking – and profound – as a warm bath. That everyone, heroes included, get to temporarily experience the aliens’ string-pulling powers is a nice touch; the fact that their emotionless personalities while possessed are no more flat and robotic than their regular demeanors, however, is emblematic of this supernatural adventure’s pervasive dullness.