MARS ATTACKS!

The Martian Ambassador

MARS ATTACKS! (1996). Director: Tim Burton. 

"They 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! 

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. 

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. 

LES MISERABLES (1952)

LES MISERABLES (1952). Director: Lewis Milestone.

Victor Hugo's famous novel had already been filmed with Fredric March and Charles Laughton in 1935 when this remake appeared 17 years later. In this version Michael Rennie stars as Jean Valjean, convicted of stealing a loaf of bread, and later coming afoul of policeman Javert (Robert Newton). This version shows us much more of how ex-convict Valjean transformed himself into the eminently respectable Mssr. Madeleine, but it completely cuts out the innkeepers, as well as the business with Javert getting suspicious when he sees Madeleine lift a carriage off of a man, The chase sequence from the first picture has also been eliminated. What this version substitutes is much more of a romance between Marius (Cameron Mitchell) and Cosette (Debra Paget), and unfortunately it's dull; it also intimates that Valjean might be in love with Cosette. The scene in the sewers has been expanded and is rather well-done. Rennie is just as perfunctory in the opening courtroom scenes as March was, but in general he's competent if unexciting. Edmund Gwenn and Sylvia Sidney both make positive impressions as, respectively, Bishop Courbet and Fantine; Elsa Lanchester and James Robertson Justice are also in the cast and are fine. As Javert, Newton is much more low-key than Laughton was, and about one fifth as memorable. Well-directed by Milestone, and with a memorable theme by Alex North.

Verdict: Interesting, but a cut below the 1935 version. **1/2.

DAMIEN: OMEN 2

Elizabeth Shepherd and a malevolent raven

DAMIEN: OMEN 2 (1978). Director: Don Taylor.

In the first sequel to The Omen, the devilish little boy is now 13 and living with his "father's" brother Richard Thorn (William Holden), Thorn's second wife, Ann (Lee Grant), and his son by a first marriage, Marc (Lucas Donat), in the suburbs of Chicago. Damien (Jonathan Scott-Taylor) is surrounded by Satanists who are anxious to reveal to him his identity and his destiny. At first Damien is rather horrified by these revelations, but he seems to grow into the role with relative ease. The movie doesn't tackle any of this on an intellectual level (which might be impossible in any case) but functions primarily as a slick thriller with some exciting and gruesome set pieces as the devil, represented by a black crow or raven, disposes of anyone who might be a threat to Damien (although it seems like definite overkill if not paranoia in certain cases.) A snoopy reporter (Elizabeth Shepherd) is attacked by the raven and blinded, then hit by a semi in one well-handled if brutal sequence. A doctor (Meshach Taylor) is cut in two during a horrific elevator "accident." But possibly the most disturbing and effective death scene has Thorn's colleague Bill Atheron (Lew Ayres) disappearing under the ice during a hocky game on the Thorn's frozen lake; this is a particularly powerful sequence. The performances from the entire cast are on the money, which certainly helps the audience to suspend disbelief in the absurd goings-on, and it all moves fast so there's no time to wonder what these Satanists expect to get when Damien, the trickster, takes over. Scott-Taylor is excellent as Damien; Lucas Donat, great-nephew of Robert Donat, is quite good but apparently only made this one movie. Other well-known names in the cast include Robert Foxworth (Falcon Crest) as one of Thorn's ambitious employees and Lance Henriksen [Alien vs. Predator] as an instructor at Damian's military academy. Nicholas Pryor makes an impression as the terrified curator Charles, as does Sylvia Sidney as Thorn's disapproving (of Damien) sister, Marion. The movie benefits greatly from a terrific score by Jerry Goldsmith, who recognized that while The Omen was a chiller, the sequel is a thriller, and scored it appropriately. Followed by The Final Conflict. Director Taylor was originally an actor in such films as The Girls of Pleasure Island and I'll Cry Tomorrow. Most of his directorial assignments were for television.

Verdict: Well-produced, entertaining, and energetic hokum. ***.

MERRILY WE GO TO HELL

MERRILY WE GO TO HELL (1932). Director: Dorothy Arzner.

Heavy drinking reporter Jerry Corbett (Fredric March) falls for the lovely and unspoiled heiress Joan Prentice (Sylvia Sidney) and the two are married, despite her father's (George Irving) concerns. Jerry had been carrying a torch for an actress named Claire (Adrianne Allen) and when she gets the lead in a play he's written, Jerry becomes her lover and the two have drinking parties nearly every night. [Of course later on Jerry blames Claire for all of this.] Joan decides to be sophisticated and have an "open" marriage, but it just isn't in her. Can this marriage be saved? By the end of this creaky movie -- despite the endless parties and supposed free love philosophy -- you may not care. Most of the characters are unpleasant, and you wish Joan had a little more gumption. March, Irving and especially Sidney give fine performances, but this now-dated pre-code movie is not that memorable.

Verdict: Hell might be more interesting than this. **.

SUMMER WISHES, WINTER DREAMS

SUMMER WISHES, WINTER DREAMS (1973). Director: Gilbert Cates.

Joanne Woodward is superb as Rita Walden, a middle-aged woman suffering a mid-life crisis. Her mother (Sylvia Sidney) dies of a heart attack while attending the cinema with her daughter, and the family is squabbling over what to do with her farm. Her son doesn't want anything to do with her since her negative reaction to discovering he was gay. She feels emotions for her loved ones deeply but has difficulty showing them. Martin Balsam is also excellent as her husband, who has an affecting scene describing how he killed some boys during the war while at the very same spot where it happened in Europe. Stewart Stern's screenplay may be low-key but it has a quiet power and some very moving moments. His dialogue is also splendid, such as when Woodward yells at her daughter "I may love you but I don't like you at all!" and when Balsam tells his wife that "you know you have your whole life ahead of you." To which Rita replies "It'll go by like a weekend." The film was somewhat ahead of its time in that Rita's husband suggests that their gay son Bob "was gay the day he was born." Imperfect perhaps, but full of good performances and well-directed by Cates.

Verdict: Absorbing, intelligent, sensitively-played drama for adults. ***1/2.