Mars Attacks! (1996)
Extraterrestrials claim peace, but chaos ensues; perfect for fans of sci-fi comedies with dark twists, not for serious drama lovers.
Genres: Comedy, Fantasy, Science Fiction
Cast
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Mars Attacks!(1996)
Overview
A fleet of Martian spacecraft surrounds the world's major cities and all of humanity waits to see if the extraterrestrial visitors have, as they claim, "come in peace." U.S. President James Dale receives assurance from science professor Donald Kessler that the Martians' mission is a friendly one. But when a peaceful exchange ends in the total annihilation of the U.S. Congress, military men call for a full-scale nuclear retaliation.
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Cast
Full Cast & Crew
Jack Nicholson
President Dale / Art Land
Glenn Close
Marsha Dale
Annette Bening
Barbara Land
Pierce Brosnan
Donald Kessler
Danny DeVito
Rude Gambler
Martin Short
Jerry Ross
Sarah Jessica Parker
Nathalie Lake
Michael J. Fox
Jason Stone
Rod Steiger
General Decker
Tom Jones
Tom Jones
Lukas Haas
Richie Norris
Natalie Portman
Taffy Dale
Jim Brown
Byron Williams
Lisa Marie
Martian Girl
Sylvia Sidney
Grandma Norris
Paul Winfield
General Casey
Pam Grier
Louise Williams
Jack Black
Billy Glenn Norris
Janice Rivera
Cindy
Ray J
Cedric
Featured Comments/Tips
Bastante divertida
Not as awesome as I remembered as a child
Has a huge cast that all are pretty much there to get zapped to death. While the heroes are people you would least expect out of the cast. I like the Jim Brown character though who is a former boxer who takes on the aliens with his fists. While Lukas Haas and his Grandma have an odd but effective way to take on the aliens. Nicholson'#39;s President is funny but one note. No matter what he just wants to make peace with the aliens even after they showed many times they don'#39;t want peace. Mars Attacks is hated by many but I always enjoyed it. Since it conveniently came out the same year as ID4; it sort of feels like a spoof to it. However ID4 wasn'#39;t as wasteful to it'#39;s impressive ensemble.
Based on the Topps trading card property, the world gets visited - and invaded - by Martians. The cast is VERY impressive with Jack Nicholson playing dual roles along with Glenn Close, Tom Jones, Jim Brown, Martin Short, Danny DeVito, Michael J. Fox, Annette Bening, Sarah Jessica Parker, Pierce Brosnan, Rod Steiger and many many more. Plenty of action and comedy, along with a cheer out loud moment when the aliens blow up Congress. It gets an 8 out of 10.
Campy and silly… the only saving grace is the all star cast.
Personal note: Referenced on reddit
They blew up the CONGRESS
A mind-blowing invasion of Martians.
Tim Burton gets thoroughly self-indulgent, with two or three dozen mixed celebrities along for the ride. Mars Attacks! is wacky, carefree and impulsive, with a pitch-black sense of humor and a penchant for cutting off primary characters'#39; heads (or turning them into glowing skeletons, as it were) well before their stories have climaxed. The CGI effects are glaringly bad, even by mid-90s standards, but that may have been the point. Burton, fresh off his Ed Wood biopic, clearly wasn'#39;t ready to wave goodbye to the sub-genre of the chintzy '#39;50s sci-fi meatball, and so he composed this tidy, self-aware little love letter to further scratch that itch. It'#39;s still appropriately satirical and funny, in the director'#39;s typical far-off-the-beaten-path style, though the gags and puns don'#39;t benefit from multiple viewings... even if they'#39;re spread out over the course of several years. Everyone involved, both on-screen and off, radiates with an authentic sense of self-amusement, and that'#39;s enough to make things work when they really, honestly, have no business doing so.
love this movie my childhoods. hilarious :joy::ok_hand:
A film that Tim Burton made without starring Johnny Depp unless he was hiding. It’s definitely different from his other work. It’s one of them films like Armageddon and deep impact and ants and bugs life etc so obviously Independence Day and it came out the same year I was surprised on the casting with all the big names probably because the last time I seen this film was in the 90s. Jack Nicholson playing two characters that’s different but they all worked well together and it was all for the money level of acting, definitely didn’t come in peace but it’s one of them so bad it’s entertaining kinda films and without its casting i’m sure I’d definitely look twice even thought I’ve seen it before.
What the Independence Day sequel SHOULD'#39;VE been
Haven'#39;t seen this since I was a kid.. It'#39;s so fun to watch.
I love Tim Burton'#39;s movie and this one is utterly hilarious! So sarcastic and ironic, it is exhilarating! Such a brilliant black comedy!
Who would have thought that Tim Burton would direct the live-action adaptation of a trading card series? You would expect either a disaster or a masterpiece, but “Mars Attacks!” is actually right in the middle. It’s mediocre to say the least, but at the same time is packed with so much cult movie potential that it almost feels a pity not to recommend it. The cartoony design of the aliens, their fucked up experiments, and the cheap CGI are alone worth the fun. The problem is that the film is crammed with famous actors without any of them having a tangible impact on the plot. They just say a couple of one-liners or make funny faces before being killed off. The rest is made of cathartic sequences of aliens decimating cities and their inhabitants. A delight for a few minutes, but grows old pretty fast.
Level '#34;Entertaining'#34; • 6 :heart: • You may or may not enjoy this.
almost runs like a series of sketches instead of something with a singular, cohesive plot. sick but lighthearted; bizarre
Horrible, but some what entertaining. It is just as bad as I remember. The aliens are funnier than I remember, but the rest is just as bad as the B-movies it is making fun of.
This film is an unending buffet of wry, satirical black humor with pitch perfect performances and line deliveries. It'#39;s also got a heart underneath all the exploding heads, nice legs, and unreservedly stinging satire. The casting is inspired and lend a humane genuineness where the script intends, even as it sits in the spectacle of misanthropic delight that is this film. I hadn'#39;t laughed this much all year.
Featured User Reviews
Fleets of stainless steel flying saucers deliver a race of comically short, hideous alien killjoys to Earth, where they promote peace and brotherhood but then immediately set to disintegrating anything that moves. That includes most of the absurdly star-studded cast, including Jack Nicholson (in two unrelated roles), Pierce Brosnan, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michael J. Fox, Martin Short, Natalie Portman, Glenn Close, Danny DeVito, Jim Brown, Tom Jones and a very young, crew-cutted Jack Black. It’s camp with a side of chaos, the kind of silly, slapstick sci-fi throwback that could’ve only come from the mind (and, most likely, childhood toybox) of director Tim Burton. Converting a semi-serious 1960s trading card series into a tacky, darkly comedic motion picture, Burton maintains and expands the original spirit and aesthetic. There’s a sense of aggressive play to these Martians, who delight in exploiting their galactic neighbors’ efforts to appease and negotiate in the face of a brazen onslaught. They’re heavily armed court jesters, one-dimensional beings who exist solely to eradicate and have a laugh while doing so. That their armaments look so thoroughly ridiculous only adds to the irony of their utter domination. They slaughter us with the same gizmos we once hawked for five cents in the _Fantastic Four_ ad pages. _Mars Attacks!_ is a wacky ride, but an extremely thin one. The cast knows this, embraces and emphasizes it. They’re caricatures of archetypes, narrow roles that are juiced for every last drop of satire and then, often literally, thrown into the fire. Easy to see how much fun everybody had with the project - it’s painted on their faces - but, despite my love for the offbeat and unusual, I felt a little restless by the end. An expert mishmash of kitsch and big-screen bombast can only carry this single-note premise so far.
Good watch, could watch again, but it's hard to honestly recommend. This is one of those movies that is good because it is bad, whether or not that is done on purpose, for the purposes of parody. Otherwise it's just a good old jump in "The Way Back Machine" to see a litany of cameos or cheap parts by almost anyone who was famous in the mid-1990s. Though I do feel like most of the actors I liked were essentially wasted, but it is possible that was by design so the Martians could keep the focus for the majority of the movie. Rethinking on the movie almost makes me want a modernization, it has so many little quirks and nuances that really brings it to a special experience. Even if you think it looks terrible, throw this on your queque and slot it in for a Bad Movie Night.
**A film full of black humor, and for that very reason difficult to digest for many people.** Black humor is doomed to be understood by very few, and this film, which is drenched in black humor from beginning to end, paid the price, becoming a minor failure. I believe that, even today, it is one of the less well-appreciated films of director Tim Burton's career, who made films considerably worse than this one. The action takes place in the 90s and portrays a hostile Martian invasion of our planet. The US government (obviously, the other countries have virtually disappeared from the map and only France is mentioned lightly to show the total destruction of the country) is understandably tense: there are military personnel sexually aroused by the idea of using nuclear weapons against the invaders, there are scientists absolutely convinced that Martian technological superiority is reason enough to believe strongly in the good intentions of the visitors, there are politicians worried about the elections. Of course, when it comes time to showdown, the visitors get the upper hand. Perhaps the best thing about this film is the strength and talent of its cast, filled with good actors who wanted to work under Burton's guidance. Jack Nicholson stands out naturally in the role of the president and does an interesting job, being well assisted by a discreet Glenn Close and a young Natalie Portman. Lisa Marie plays an unforgettable role where she doesn't have to say a single word, while Danny DeVito seems to revisit some previous characters to do his job here, which is little (but it's also true that he wasn't given much to do) . Tom Jones makes an interesting appearance. Pierce Brosnan looks like he's having fun while parodying himself. We also have good contributions from Sarah Jessica Parker, Annette Bening, Martin Short, Michael J. Fox, Rod Steiger and Jack Black. Besides, the film is a gigantic satire on the sci-fi B cinema of the 50s and 60s, where it was common to see martian invaders and visitors. The cinematography is colorful, light, and the environment is light, funny. You can feel that the film doesn't take itself too seriously and doesn't want to be taken too seriously. So it works reasonably well, at least for those who accept dark humor well.
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