Rating: 
Summary: Campiness at its best!
Review: Hollywood has made movies from books, TV shows, even other movies. However, "Mars Attacks" may be the first time a movie was made from a trading card.Back in the late 1960s, Topps Cards created a line of Mars Attacks trading cards. However, these cards were pulled off the shelves after only a few months because the aliens depicted on them were considered to be too gruesome. My, how times have changed. Director Tim Burton has taken those old trading cards and recreated them into this Sci-Fi B-movie throwback. In the process, he has created a movie that is pure, guiltless fun. "Mars Attacks" also benefits from an all-star cast, including Jack Nicholson (in a dual-role), Michael J. Fox, Sarah Jessica Parker, Pierce Brosnan, Martin Short, Danny Devito, Glenn Close, Natalie Portman, Tom Jones, Annette Bening, Lukas Haas, Jim Brown, and many others. The fact that you get to watch the aliens disentegrate (and otherwise kill) many of these stars only adds to the fun. Unfortunately, Tom Jones wasn't one of those unlucky stars. Maybe someday a sequel will be made that will rectify that. :) Oh yeah........ did I happen to mention that Congress gets vaporized? This proves that the Martians aren't all bad! The DVD comes with many extras, including quite a few production notes that helps you to understand how the movie came to be. This is one movie that you will want to see over and over again (especially anytime that Congress is getting on your nerves).
Rating: 
Summary: WICKEDLY WACKY...
Review: Tim Burton outdoes himself with this silly, but funny, spoof of 1950s flying saucer/alien invasion movies. It is absolutely zany and quite funny. There is also nothing politically correct about it, as there are no sacred cows. The film is totally irreverent of American culture and icons. Everything and everyone is fair game. Martians have come to Earth, and they do not come in peace. Diabolical and deadly, they are bent on wreaking havoc wherever they go with their death ray guns, which serve to incinerate living beings. These bulbous headed martians with their own brand of deadly humour are hell bent on destroying Earth, while laughing and cackling maniacally. The special effects are meant to to be reminiscent of those found in 1950s UFO flicks and in this it certainly succeeds. The cast is stellar with Jack Nicholson playing dual roles, that of President James Dale and that of entrepreneur Art Dale. Glenn Close, Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan, Danny DeVito, Martin Short, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michael J. Fox, Rod Steiger, Jim Brown, Natalie Portman, Sylvia Sydney, Paul Winfield, Pam Grier, Lisa Marie, Christine Applegate, Lukas Haas, and Tom Jones round out the star studded cast. With tongue in cheek performances, the viewer is bound to get a good laugh out of this film.
Rating: 
Summary: It Sucks!
Review: When this Movie was released on Videocassette I was more than anxious to see it.The casting alone was enough to get my couriosity and expectations up.The hype about it was also pretty encouraging so I purchased theTape... ...Boy was I apauled at this film!When I realized that I had wasted my money on this "Bomb" I wove out a tapestry of obscenities that as far as we know still hangs in space over the Rocky Mountain region!
Rating:
Summary: Burton Attacks!
Review: Well it works on some levels. Yes we do 'get' the satire, that doesn't mean to say that it's good satire or that it hit it's targets on many occasions. I suppose it takes a foreigner to highlight the inequities of American culture. Screenwriter Jonathan Gems is from London, used to be a punk and took great joy in overturning American icons. Throughout the movie stock stereotypes of American life are incinerated by the Martians. The smug president, the stern first lady, military puppets, scheming presidential aides, tabloid T.V. journalists, barking dogs, trailer trash, science experts, lawyers (Danny DeVito) and even the hippie dove of peace! The survivors include 2 ex-blaxploitation actors, a pair of lonely kids, a wheelchair bound granny and the non-American Tom Jones. Burton also seemed to have fun in choosing which major stars to get rid of first. The template for the movie comes from those star-studded 70's disaster movies when you were guessing which stars would survive and which ones would be burned to a cinder. Burton originally wanted to create the aliens using his favourite form of animation, stop-motion. It'd be wonderful to see how that movie would have turned out. Spare a thought for the poor stop-motion animation guys, who had been working on pre-production for 8 months before being told that the studio were going to use computer animation instead. Dropped with no severance pay after all that work - Bummer!
Rating:
Summary: a fantastic send-up
Review: A wonderful pastiche on the campy and cheesy B-grade sci-fi movies of the 50's and 60's, MARS ATTACKS! features a pin-sharp script and a star-studded cast. Heading the lineup are Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Annette Bening and Pierce Brosnan, but there is also the game support of Danny DeVito, Sarah Jessica Parker, Lukas Haas, Natalie Portman, Rod Steiger, Martin Short, Michael J. Fox, Lisa Marie, Tom Jones and the veteran Sylvia Sidney. The whole plot is, of course, Mars attacking Earth after a seemingly bungled translation job. The President and First Lady (played by Nicholson and Close with aplomb) and their young daughter Taffy (Natalie Portman) are taken seige in the White House when the aliens nuke the entire House of Congress. The key to the alien's downfall belongs to the senile yet lovable old Grandma Norris (Sylvia Sidney). I won't spoil the surprise for those who have yet to see this hilarious film. A fantastic DVD transfer is given here, with a fair few extra features.
Rating: 
Summary: Independence Day meets Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
Review: Ack, Ack! Ack, Ack! Ack, Ack! Ok, you've read the other reviews, you know who's in it, and that it's based on trading cards, etc. It's a funny movie, one of those so stupid it's funny kind of movies. Some people like them, some hate them, you know who you are, that should give you a clue as to whether you'll like this movie or not. There are elements from Independence Day and War of the Worlds, the movie that Independence day was based on, as well as others. The final solution comes straight from Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. You'll never think about Slim Whitman the same way again. 74s181...
Rating: 
Summary: Everything Was There....
Review: ...but it doesn't work. And I WANTED it to work, especially after seeing INDEPENDENCE DAY the summer before. Will Smith's cigar-smoking bravado and Bill Pullam's uninspiring president made me want to see a wild and irreverent sci-fi send-up. But there's a lot of dead air in this movie. I loved ED WOOD (and still think it's Burton's best film), but I also have a theory: Tim Burton's films are always 20 minutes too long. Every single one of them (except maybe the first Pee Wee Herman film, which is still hilarious). There are moments of greatness here, but they come way too late. My two favorite moments were (1) how the aliens are ultimately defeated and (2), no matter what was asked of singer Tom Jones, he could do it. I loved that! But those scenes came way late in the movie and, before that, this movie was all over the place.
(Other scenes worth mentioning: the Martians' response to the dove of goodwill and what they say when they learn English). They needed either the Zucker Brothers (with Jim Abrams) or even the Coen Brothers take a shot at the script--then it might have had some more laughs and momentum.
Great special effects though.
Rating:
Summary: A little too inane for me.
Review: Yes, I know this was supposed to be one of those "funny in a stupid way" films, but this one was just a little too much. My main problem was the way the humans react to the martians in this movie. First of all, it takes two attacks by the alien invaders to make us realize these guys want us dead. That should have become crystal clear after the first attack in the desert. About the only person who seems to realize how dangerous they are is Robert Duval's character, General Decker, although he seems to know this right when the aliens first appear. How he knows right away the aliens have come to kill, I'm not sure. Anyway, then there's the way people act after it becomes official we're at war. People still go to casinos, attend music concerts, and go on tour of the White House. In short, people continue on as if everything's just fine. If aliens were attacking earth and directly threatening everybody, I'd think that everybody would stop with their recreational activities and everyday concerns and worry solely about fighting or escaping from the martians. Finally, there's earth's (or, more specifically, the U.S.) military, which is potrayed as both incompetent and inactive. During the first battle in the desert, for instance, a whole battalion of soldiers return fire on the martians, who are standing completly still right there in the open. Logic dictates that all the martians should be cut down in less than a minute, yet only one is killed. And then there's the almost total lack of air defense. Where the hell are the jet fighters? Or the attack helicopters? We see exactly one fighter plane fly up to meet the martians, which gets zapped before it can really do anything. Even watching this in the theater back in 1996, years before 9/11, I found this an insultingly ludicrous way to potray our armed forces. In fact, with the exception of THE CREEPING TERROR, I don't think I've ever seen America's military potrayed in a more stupid manor on film. Still and all, it's supposed to be a dumb film. I guess if you can just laugh at all the absurdities, it's alot of fun.
Rating:
Summary: Two Stars For Special Effects
Review: I've watched "Mars Attacks" several times and each time I watch it, I like it less and less. It's like Tim Burton had a party, invited Jack Nicholson, Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan, Glen Close and Martin Short and said, Wouldn't it be funny if we made a camp movie together, something in the sprit of those great Science Fiction films form the 50's and 60's? We'll patch in a few other stars, oh, say Sarah Jessica Parker, Joe Don Baker, and Jack Black and take a stab at it...what do you say? Well, I'm sure it sounded like a good idea at the time. Put a bunch of likable Hollywood veterans together in a goofy Sci-Fi spoof and people will come. But the script never got beyond the napkin upon which it was probably outlined. The film makes an attempt at dark comedy and fails miserably. Are the aliens supposed to be funny? Brutal? Both? They turn out to be less than humorous. Then there's the actors. You really don't care about any of them. Sure, they're played out as mean-spirited and selfish themselves...but who cares? I wound up not caring if any of them lived or died. I think the point was to have these Martians blast each of these miserable SOBs, as we viewers cheered them on, but it didn't seem to matter one way or the other. On the other hand, the Martians are done up really well. The expressions, the eye movements, the flappy little cheek appendages were all done well. But like the recent Star Wars movies, CGI will only carry a film so far. Ultimately, this one fails. On a grading scale from "A" to "F," this is a solid "D."
Rating:
Summary: WE COME IN PEACE.....
Review: or not. This is one of the best Burton films ever, and even maybe is the best Burton movie. It has alot of big stars in it like, Jack Nicholson, Peirce Brosnan, Glenn Close, Michael J. Fox, Danny DeVito, and Jack Black. Althou, this film may be a little graphic, it is still a movie for the family. I have one question, it says Danny DeVito has a big part in this movie, but he's only in it for about 10-15 min, and maybe even less. People with big BIG parts are rare in this film, cause all the main charcters die, which I think is stupid. At least let Jack or Peirce live. Anyway, ok when it comes to features. The trailer I thought was pretty good, and the picture was perfect with the odd flaw. The sound was EXELLENT. To me, nothing seemed wrong with the sound. On the disk of this, it says it is rated R, but on the back, it says PG-13. I must say I disagree with both of those. I think it should be rated PG. One of my favortite parts in this film is when the aliens come to earth for the first time. The ending is hilarious...You'll have to watch and find out. So, this is a great and hilarious film and is one of Burtons best. I highly recommend you ordering or picking up your copy of Mars Attacks, right this instant.
9/10
Rated PG-13 for sci-fi fantasy, violence and brief sexuality.
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