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| The Martian Ambassador |
MARS ATTACKS! (1996). Director: Tim Burton.
"
The blew up Congress, ha, ha, ha!" -- Grandma.
President Dale (Jack Nicholson of
The Fortune) and his military advisers, including hawkish General Decker (Rod Steiger) and General Casey (Paul Winfield), prepare to welcome Martian visitors, not certain if they are friend or foe. When the Martians open fire, initially it is all blamed on a miscommunication, but when the Martian ambassador and his envoys disintegrate all of Congress, it is clear they are up to no good!
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| Jack Nicholson as the president |
Mars Attacks! is based on a bunch of trading cards that were packaged with sheets of bubble gum, so with source material that looney you know you're not going to get anything that serious, especially not from Tim Burton. My opinion on this film has gone from liking it to hating it and back again -- it would be all too easy to tear it apart, as it
is monumentally silly, and I'm not certain that the black comedy approach is the best idea when you're dealing with an alien invasion that will leave thousands dead. But I have to say this is not an unmitigated disaster like Burton's
Dark Shadows, and good taste was never the filmmaker's strong point.
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| In the Kennedy Room: Martin Short and Lisa Marie |
There is a lot of funny stuff in the picture, especially the sexy, buxom alien visitor (Lisa Marie of
We Are Still Here) who winds up in the White House in the--get this! --
Kennedy Room for a supposed assignation with the press secretary (Martin Short). Most of the actors -- the cast includes everyone from Glenn Close to singer Tom Jones -- play this stuff just the way it was intended, with the cast stand-outs being Nicholson (who plays two roles) and Steiger. The cinematography and FX work are excellent -- including a homage to Ray Harryhausen's flying saucers in
Earth vs the Flying Saucers -- and there's an especially exciting sequence when a giant, Martian-controlled robot chases pell mell after Richie (Lukas Haas). It's nice that his elderly grandma (Sylvia Sidney) survives and even becomes a hero of sorts. There are occasional flashes of humanism, but mostly this is just weird fun.
Verdict: Unless you're in a peculiar mood, you might prefer to watch The War of the Worlds, either version. **3/4.
2 comments:
Funny, I just rewatched this one as well after several years, and I too went from liking it to hating it and now liking it again! I was SO disappointed in that Don't Look Up w Streep and DiCaprio - which has a different story but should have had a much sharper satirical bite - that I went looking for better end-of-the-world movies. This one ages well and made me laugh out loud.
-Chris
I think the way that we and everyone else change our opinions on certain movies may have to do with changing expectations. I admit when I looked at this picture a third time I went into it not expecting much, not even certain I'd finish it. But the darn thing, however absurd and tasteless, is entertaining, isn't it?
I haven't seen "Don't Look Up" and I'm not in a rush.
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