| Mars Attacks | | Cast : | Jack Nicholson, Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan, Sarah Jessica Parker | | Director : | Tim Burton | | Studio : | Warner Studios | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Dolby, Widescreen | | Released Date : | December 13, 1996 | | DVD Released Date : | June 01, 2004 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), French (Subtitled), English (Original Language), French (Original Language), Spanish (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 03, 2005 | | Summary | A Tim Burton Sci-Fi! The best combination! | Content
 | I have three all time favorite directors and Tim Burton is the first. I LOVED all the movies he has made and I have seen. From one of his oldest, Nightmare Before Christmas, and his newest, Charlie and the Chocolate Factoery, they are all five stars for me! I saw this movie once on television but couldn't really remember it much. Then I saw it in Target for five dollars and I learned it was directed by Tim Burton! I immediatley bought it and watched it. It was great! Funny and action-y, it was perfect especially with Danny Elfman's music! |
| Rating | | | Date | July 16, 2005 | | Summary | I Still Don't Know Why I Like This Movie So Much | Content
| Nine years after it came out, and I'm still wandering why I like this movie so much. A person like me shouldn't really like "Mars Attacks!". In fact, I should despise. However, for some reason, I like this movie. As a matter of facy, I love this movie. It's pretty much your typical Burton vehicle, and while it's not his best movie ("Batman" and "Batman Returns" can fight for that title), this film is definitely one of my favorites from him.
"Mars Attacks!" features the standard Burton formula, a movie with a thin plot and loads of top notch special effects. It once again works here in this over the top tribute to 1950s' sci fi B - movies. However, the film's strongest asset without a doubt its cast. Burton made the right move by filling the cast with a variety of well known faces. If he had just put in one or two well known actors and surrounded them with second rate character actors, I don't think this film would have worked. But this film has a gaggle of famous faces, which should give you enough reason to watch this film.
The Joker himself, Jack Nicholson, reunites with Burton to once again work the magic they created seven years earlier in "Batman". This time, Jack plays a dual role: the snotty President of the United States and a wealthy, sleazy casino owner. Add to that Glenn Close, Danny DeVito, Pierce Brosnan, Annette Bening, Michael J. Fox, Rod Steiger, Pam Grier, Paul Winfield, Martin Short, Sarah Jessica Parker, Lukas Haas, Natalie Portman, Joe Don Baker, Jack Black, Jim Brown, Sylvia Sidney and Tom Jones, and you have just about enough stars to light up the night sky. Plus, you've got cool looking green martians obliterating most of them with cool ray guns, plus a really cool space language ("gak, gak gak). And best of all, they blow up Congress! Yippee.
If you're in for an intelligent, deep and profound masterpiece of a film, then you should skip "Mars Attacks". But if you just want to see mindless eye candy overloaded with campiness and filled to the brim with famous people, then go and buy this movie. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 29, 2005 | | Summary | Some good fun. | Content
| Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan, Danny DeVito, Martin Short, Sarah Jessica Parker and Michael J. Fox star in this funny movie. This is the kind of funny and whacky stuff that you can expect from director Tim Burton.
The movie's pot is simple. Aliens are invading the earth.
This is executed very well with the hilarious looking aliens.
When the aliens arrive, a translating machine reads that what the leader said was "we come in peace". So, one lady releases a dove in the air which gets vaporised by the beam of one alien. The movie develops very nicely with a resistance by the humans. The movie is just really neat and cool and is also really funny. And for $5.49, this is a gimme. You can buy for 2 dollars more than a rent. This is a movie that I enjoy watching and that's a good addition to my collection. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 29, 2005 | | Summary | A Guilty Pleasure w/o The Guilt | Content
| First off, I understand that a movie review is subjective. This is just my opinion. If you disagree, more power to you. Roger Ebert called Gene Siskel a no talent hack on several occasions when their opinions were at odds. For heavens sake! It's just a movie. Tastes vary.
So anyway, I love this movie. It's technically very well done from the computer generated Martians to the battle scenes. It has a ton of big name stars and the performances are pretty good. It takes a quirky, satirical shot at those awful alien invasion movies of the 50s. And it gores a lot of sacred cows, like liberals who expect an alien race to share their belief system ... The military mind who's solution is nuke first and ask questions later ... A president who's decisions are based on how they'll play on TV ... The lawyer who thinks even Martians can be bought ... The trailer trash family who see their humanitarian son as a failure ... The TV news reporter who's hair style is the most important part of any story ... and, well, I could go on but you get the picture.
And to top it off, the Martians are defeated in a more believable way that those of Independence Day: A software virus written by one man in a few days to infect a computer of alien technology?!! Give me a break! Earth was pretty lucky that aliens program in C and port to RS-232.
Mars Attacks is a guilty pleasure I'm not even guilty about.
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| Rating | | | Date | May 28, 2005 | | Summary | I almost root for the Martians | Content
| There is nothing serious about this film. It is satire all the way and it is very good satire which takes potshots at all sorts of institutions.
The story is as simple as an old B/W science fiction movie. Earth is being invaded by Martians with superior techology and little reguard for eathlings. Instead of being an "end of the world" type picture, however, it is comedy. It is comdedic because there is a grain of truth in the elements used for the comedy:
The President is worried more about poll numbers on reactions to the Martians than about invasion.
The first lady is worried more about interior decorating than advancing ray guns.
The egghead professor manages to be wrong about just about everything he speaks of.
Reporters are shallow and vain.
The military just wants to play with its toys.
Bad music can be a deadly influence.
New Age people haven't a clue as to the real world.
Teenagers often have a better handle on things than the grownups.
It's enough to make you root for the Martians. This one is fun, irreverant and a feast of oddball ideas. What else could be expected from Tim Burton? |
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