MARS
ATTACKS!
  
STARRING: Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Annette
Bening, Pierce Brosnan, Danny De Vito, Martin Short, Sarah Jessica Parker,
Michael J. Fox, Rod Steiger, Tom Jones, Lukas Haas, Natalie Portman, Jim
Brown, Lisa Marie, Sylvia Sidney, Christina Applegate, Joe Don Baker,
Pam Grier, Paul Winfield, Jack Black, O-Lan Jones, Barbet Schroeder
1996, 105 Minutes, Directed by: Tim Burton
 While Mars
Attacks! may not have been as good as it could have been, it
is definitely one of the better sci-fi flicks to have headed our
way in quite a while.
It is particularly disappointing when one
considers that it is, after all, made by Tim Burton (who made
such off-beat and original movies such as Beetlejuice, the
original Batman and Edward
Scissorhands).
Still, this affectionate spoof/homage of/to1950s alien invasion
films is a welcome antidote to the nauseating feel good
sentiments of Independence
Day.
What Independence
Day took seriously, Burton's film simply blasts away straight
into orbit! No wonder the film bombed in the States - it asks us
the pertinent question that if Martians cannot survive American
culture, then how are we mere humans supposed to fare? (How the
Earthlings get rid of the Martians is a pure comic gem of
Burton's feverish imagination - and worth the price of admission
alone! No, I won't spoil it all by telling . . . )
However,
the problem with Mars Attacks! is that the scenes with the humans are
boring and dull. They seem to be taken from a different movie - a
straight-forward dramatic account of an alien invasion - while one is left
waiting for the Martians to wreak havoc. These scenes could have done with some
spicing up and better editing - no wonder some people complained that the film
was too long!
Fortunately things come alive
when the Martians tries to squash some boy scouts, burns down an old age home,
nukes Danny De Vito and toasts a peace dove amongst others.
Black-humoured
stuff indeed - and not everybody's cup of tea I suppose. Yet
these scenes are deliciously funny. Besides, any film that
features a herd of flaming cattle, Tom Jones (yes!) and large
dosages of Slim Whitman simply has to be seen!
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