Stars: Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan, Danny De Vito, Joe Don Baker, Michael J. Fox, Lukas Haas, Sarah Jessica Parker, Martin Short, Christina Applegate, Tom Jones, Natalie Portman, Martin Short, Michael J. Fox, Sarah Jessica Parker, Lisa Marie

Director: Tim Burton

Summary: Three creatures from another planet visit Earth and cause chaos.

Director Tim Burton unleashes MARS ATTACKS!, a vicious, affectionate, brightly-colored homage to 1950s alien invasion movies. When a shiny silver flying saucer lands in the Nevada desert, a group of skull-faced Martians exit the gleaming craft. Although they claim to be peaceful, they promptly "vaporize" a gathering of unfortunate Earthlings, kicking off a bizarre high-tech war with wild special effects. This studiously campy sci-fi spoof, based on a series of Topps bubble-gum cards, gleefully parodies not only schlock B-horror movies, but also overblown blockbusters such as INDEPENDENCE DAY. This subversive film is helped along by an all-star cast including Jack Nicholson in dual roles as both a clueless U.S. President (with First Lady Glenn Close) and a Las Vegas sleazebag. The film follows the wacky WAR OF THE WORLD--like proceedings from the points of view of numerous colorful characters, from the inane U.S. Press Secretary (Martin Short) to a trailer-park family (Lukas Haas and Sylvia Sidney), singer Tom Jones (as himself).

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Reviewed by: mcdermot7@aol.com
Posted on May 9, 2006 4:19 PM

This is a film that grows on you. You really have to watch it a few times to get the whole feel of the film. There is just so much packed into it. The visual jokes are absolutely side-splitting. The Earth is invaded by Martians with irresistible weapons and a cruel sense of humour and you would have to have a cruel sense of humour not to enjoy this.

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It's enlightening to view Tim Burton's Mars Attacks!as his twisted satire of the blockbuster film Independence Day, which was released earlier the same year, although the movies were in production simultaneously. Burton's eye-popping, schlock tribute to 1950s UFO movies actually plays better on video than it did in cinemas. The idea of invading aliens ray-gunning the big-name movie stars in the cast is a cleverly subversive one, and the bulb-headed, funny-sounding animated Martians are pretty nifty, but it all seemed to be spread thin on the big screen. On video, however, the movie's kooky humour seems a bit more concentrated. The Earth actors (most of whom get zapped or kidnapped for alien science experiments) include Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan, Danny DeVito, Martin Short, Sarah Jessica Parker, Rod Steiger, Michael J Fox, Lukas Haas, Jim Brown, Tom Jones and Pam Grier. --Jim Emerson

Aspect Ratio:	Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Interactive Menu, Production Notes, Scene Access
Subtitles:	Arabic, Croatian, Czech, English, Greek, Hungarian, Icelandic, Polish, Turkish
Year:	1996
Release Date:	May 11, 1998
Runtime:	102 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	D 014480
Keywords:	Comedy, General, Mars, Attacks
Genre:	Comedy