Mars Attacks!

4.00
    Mars Attacks!
    1996

    Synopsis

    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

    • Jack NicholsonPresident Dale / Art Land
    • Glenn CloseMarsha Dale
    • Annette BeningBarbara Land
    • Pierce BrosnanDonald Kessler
    • Danny DeVitoRude Gambler
    • Martin ShortJerry Ross
    • Sarah Jessica ParkerNathalie Lake
    • Michael J. FoxJason Stone
    • Rod SteigerGeneral Decker
    • Tom JonesTom Jones

    Recommendations

    • 90

      Dallas Observer

      Part homage and part demolition job, Mars Attacks! is perhaps the funniest piece of giddy schlock heartlessness ever committed to film.
    • 83

      Entertainment Weekly

      In its nothing's-quite-at-stake way, Mars Attacks! has Tim Burton's flaked-out spirit -- it makes you feel like a very knowing 8-year-old, seeing through the artifice yet believing in it at the same time.
    • 80

      Chicago Reader

      I'm not sure what it all means, but, as in Ed Wood, Burton's visual flair and affection for the characters make it fun.
    • 78

      Austin Chronicle

      A holiday film with no conscience whatsoever, Mars Attacks! will make you laugh, it will make you cry, and it definitely will make you wonder about Earth's ability to defend itself in the face of higher life forms.
    • 70

      Time

      Perhaps they don't create quite enough deeply funny earthlings to go around, but a thoroughly meanspirited big-budget movie is always a treasurable rarity. And those little guys from far away are a hoot. [30 Dec 1996]
    • 60

      Variety

      The picture is lacking in the uproarious humor that might well have ensued from the material, which instead inspires occasional laughs but, much more often, bemused fascination and wonderment at the bizarre imaginations and impressive skill of the filmmakers.
    • 60

      Newsweek

      What makes you giggle your way through much of the movie isn't the jokes--Jonathan Gems's script is surprisingly feeble, and Burton's comic timing is often flat-- but the sheer, oddball chutzpah of it all. [23 Dec 1996]
    • 50

      San Francisco Examiner

      Nicholson squeezes every wretched drop of buffoonery from this character, and it's distressing to watch him play an easy role for easy laughs.

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