DIRTY HARRY (1971)

"...you've gotta ask yourself one question: "Do I feel lucky?" Well, do ya, punk?"

This early pioneer of the gritty, lone wolf, tough guy cop genre still holds up pretty good today.  San Francisco cop Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) is on the trail of of a serial killer who calls himself "Scorpio" (played creepy and deranged as hell by Andy Robinson).  Scorpio's been going around killing random people and even boasting about it in messages to the cops.  But after an encounter with Callahan things get personal between Scorpio and Dirty Harry.  During all of this, Callahan still has to deal with random hoodlums causing a ruckus around town and his unhappy superiors who just can't handle his special brand of justice.

Awesome musical score, great views of San Francisco, tons of 70's cars and fashions, naked chick, good pace, PLAY MISTY FOR ME playing at a local theater, tons of shooting where hardly anybody ever hits what they're aiming at, macho speeches about guns, good supporting cast.  Not as gritty or violent as I had hoped, but still worth checking out.

Part 2 - Magnum Force (1973)
Part 3 - The Enforcer (1976)
Part 4 - Sudden Impact (1983)
Part 5 - The Dead Pool (1988)

INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1956)

Small town California doctor Kevin McCarthy rightfully thinks that something strange is going on in his peaceful little berg when people he's known his whole life start acting strange.  At the same time, others tell him that their relatives are not their relatives.  McCarthy doesn't know quite what to think about this, but when his old flame comes back into town, he puts all that on the back burner in order to get laid.

Unfortunately, his hot date is ruined when he receives a phone call from a friend telling him there's a clone sleeping on his pool table.  Naturally, most people would absolutely freak the fuck out at this point, but McCarthy takes it pretty well and says keep an eye on the clone!  He still doesn't even freakout that hard when, later that same night, he finds a clone of his girlfriend in her basement!  What does it take to shake this guy?!! 

That's just some of the many questionable things that happen in this film.  The idea of your fellow citizens being taken over by aliens is super scary, but when the main character's logic only promotes the takeover (and therefore pushing the movie forward) all of the tension goes right out the window.  Eventually McCarthy realizes what's going on, but even then he just does a bunch of stupid shit that ends up getting people killed.

Despite the main actor's stupidity and the illogical way the pods made it to the earth, I still enjoyed the movie.  Cheap gas prices, quick pace, interesting supporting cast including Sam Peckinpah and Morticia Addams, nice photography.  Interesting idea that doesn't pan out, but still a fun watch as long as you don't take it too seriously.  I would absolutely love to watch a well-made, slow-burn, creepy as fook retelling of this story idea.  Like a miniseries on HBO.

Remake 1 - Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
Reboot 1 - Body Snatchers (1993)
Reboot 2 - The Invasion (2007)