Customer Reviews

Invasion Iowa

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I first saw this when it aired on Spike TV several years ago and kept it on my TIVO for TWO YEARS until I had to switch to DirecTV and sorrowfully lost it.

Why do I love this reality TV sendup so much? (1) William Shatner is a sweetheart. I thought he'd be snarky but instead he (like all of us viewers) falls hard for the people of Riverside, Iowa. (2) Yes, the show manipulates situations for shock value but there's no cruelty or exploitation of the locals who are taken in by the premise (3) William Shatner is the first to laugh at himself and the comedy of his life as Kirk... which gives us license to do so, too and (4) The show is FREAKING HILARIOUS. I live in a multi-story home. My husband works in an office three stories above the TV room. While I watched this show, he had to come down and ask me why in hell I was laughing so hard.

Riverside, Iowa is purported to be the town where in the future, James T. Kirk will be born. It seemed inevitable that William Shatner would show up there sooner or later. But only Shatner could have pulled off this stunt. Pretending to be making a sci-fi film using locals, Shatner and his eccentric entourage (improvisational actors playing his dim-witted nephew, buxom ditzy costar, and new age guru) descend on Riverside and commence the wackiest production imaginable.

Spoilers:

Most of the townsfolk seem only too happy to work on the production and indulge Shatner's eccentricities, which include eating off other people's plates, plugging his own brand of berets, and covering for another star's kleptomania. A younger local suspects very early on that this is a Reality TV gimmick, and he promptly disappears from the production.

Shatner is game throughout, bonding with the people of Riverside and displaying none of the aloofness that some of his Trek costars have accused him of. He befriends an older man named Don at the local diner (even consenting to having his forehead "blessed" by Don's good luck charm which is made from a raccoon's...anatomy). When they go to visit Don's wife's grave, Shatner, a widower himself, seems genuinely moved. During the course of his visit, the entourage gets the local townsfolk to open up and discuss their hopes and dreams. And when the hoax is revealed, most of the locals are relieved that it's a Reality TV stunt, because the "movie" they're working on is obviously horrible. Shatner nearly breaks down in tears as he presents gifts to his new friends, especially the local cue-card holder who is trying to adopt her grandchild.

There are parts midway through the series that drag a bit. On the whole, however, it's worth sticking with Invasion Iowa for the payoff. The final episode shows the finished movie, which is so incredibly bad it's hilarious.

I found this to be extremely funny, especially being from Iowa. It is a little on the cheesy side, but for the most part, just good fun. It was even emotionally touching at times. It really exposes the kind hearts and hospitality of Iowans.

This video is a great buy. I have been unable to find it in most stores, other than the actual museum store in Riverside Iowa, and it was much higher priced.
If you are a fan of William Shatner,or reality TV, you should own this. It is hilarious and at times touching. I won't get into what it is about, since anyone can read that in the description section, but I do think this video is an important addition to your video collection.

William Shatner is one of the great actors of the past half century and has worked for me on numerous occassion's with the likes of Katharine Hepburn, Kirk Douglas, Michael Caine, John Hurt,etc. When he does something, he does it brilliantly. This DVD will endear him to you. The show is a rare gem in an age when television has gone straight to hell. I highly recommend this for everyone, not merely Bill's millions of fans.

This DVD is the TV version in that every 45 minutes you have a recap of the previous 45 minutes; they just cut out the TV ads.
Would have been better if it was the movie version like they had on the sci-fi channel.

5 people watched this tape and all 5 were really interested and pleased with it.

As with most other reviewers here, I think that INVASION IOWA is fun to watch, and is often warm and touching too. The 2 DVDs contain 10 episodes, each 30 minutes long. I first watched this with a group of people, and we agreed that the show went where none of us had gone before on TV, with me the one exception since I had seen The Joe Schmo Show - Season One Uncensored that was similar in setting up a fake film production. As you've probably read already, INVASION IOWA involves William Shatner and his cohorts from Hollywood "invading" the small town of Riverside, Iowa, supposedly to film a science fiction movie, yet the movie is actually fake and the whole purpose is to film a reality TV show ABOUT the townspeople thinking they are making a movie. It's interesting to see how the people of Riverside react to the situation, and most of them are very warm, welcoming, and excited to be the setting for a movie. Also, several people from the town are cast in the "movie." Shatner clearly drives the proceedings with his humor and his ability to bond with the townspeople.

There's a good deal of comedy in this, but as William Shatner pointed out in the commentary (which he does with 2 producers on 2 episodes) and in his book Up Till Now: The Autobiography, the original plan was to derive most of the humor from making the townspeople look foolish. But Shatner and others making the show decided that was too mean-spirited, so they decided instead to make THEMSELVES look foolish and thus make the show a spoof on Hollywood. The plan worked well, with one of the funniest running jokes being a guy repeatedly phoning in and impersonating Sean Connery, who supposedly was going to appear in the movie. This fake Connery was very difficult to please and foul-mouthed, but the townspeople were still excited at the thought of the great Sean Connery coming to Riverside. Another funny gag was Shatner's doofus body double who continually messed up the production. And since I mentioned THE JOE SCHMO SHOW earlier, I'll note that it and INVASION IOWA were made by the same production company. I think INVASION IOWA is the better of the two programs, partly because SCHMO was fooling only one guy, whereas IOWA is fooling a whole town, and also because SCHMO got into these drawn-out interpersonal conflicts that were not even real because everybody but Joe was a fake character, whereas IOWA keeps a lot more variety going.

INVASION IOWA drags a bit around the middle as the humor wanes, so a couple of episodes get rather tedious. Sometimes INVASION IOWA gets bogged down in showing the process of making their "movie." And I think the segments with the actress Desi Lydic describing her children's book to the townspeople don't work very well. Why didn't they just have her strut around more in her eye-popping alien outfit? Yum Yum!! However, toward the end INVASION IOWA picks up steam again, culminating in an episode where Shatner spills the beans to the townspeople that all this is just a fake. The tenth and final episode is the fake movie they had been making.

All in all, INVASION IOWA is a fun and interesting mini-series that I do recommend, not just to William Shatner fans, but to anyone who enjoys reality TV.

The show is essentially like Joe Schmo and Joe Schmo 2, but on a much larger scale, with excellent results. Putting an entire town through the practical joke of staging a movie is such a fun premise, and it was so well done.
I strongly recommend it.

I think they had a cute idea for a reality show but maybe William Shatner and co. are just too nice for it to be funny. They were very respectful of the real people involved and I found the conclusion very touching but Invasion Iowa didn't really make me laugh. On the other hand, if you want to see how nice a guy Mr. Shatner is, I recommend this video highly (and then follow it with his Comedy Central Roast for some laughs)