MARS ATTACKS!
A film review by Paul W. Cashman
Copyright 1996 Paul W. Cashman
Summary: see it at a matinee price; it might not be for everyone.
I'd only seen one quick ad for this film before seeing a sneak preview on December 1st, so I had few preconceptions about it. I knew that Tim Burton was involved and that it looked like a send-up of B-movies, a genre with which I'm passingly familiar, but that's about it.
For me, this film didn't -quite- work. There were some really funny moments, but many of the stereotype portrayals were a bit over the top, at least for me. Jack Nicholson turns in a truly scary performance as the President -- I'd be scared if he were in office! -- and the lampooning of various other institutions, groups and cultures continues, to the point where underneath its veneer the movie seems to be lecturing us.......
--Which would be fine if it weren't trying to be uproariously campy at the same time, and it was trying. Maybe TOO campy; some of the effects were intentionally cheesy but distracted from the flow because of that. Some scenes were so over-the-top campy that the audience could do nothing else but groan. Unfortunately, the average movie-goer won't get all the gags -- some will get fewer than half -- and so we doubted afterwards the movie would "fly."
MARS ATTACKS! includes cameo performances from a number of actors including Danny DeVito (fine if somewhat predictable, in-character as a Vegas shark) and crooner Tom Jones (also part of the Vegas scenes). No major complaints about the acting, but we wondered afterwards what some of these 'big guns' were doing in this particular film.
Overall, I thought the movie was so-so. It didn't quite work for me but for other genre fans, especially those more familiar with the lurid pulps and B-films, it might appeal more. The score, by Danny Elfman, is almost worth a matinee admission price in itself. Elfman and Burton received applause during the opening credits.
It's hard to give a best scene without revealing a spoiler, but the scene where the Easter Island statues are bowled over -- literally -- by the Martians is pretty funny. Many of the best scenes already appear in the previews, anyway.
Conclusion: see it with genre-loving friends at a matinee price. You could wait for it to come to video, but some of the effects -are- worth seeing on the large screen, and Elfman's score is worth it, too.
Rating: 6 out of 10 (but I expect a wide range here:))
-- Paul W. Cashman www.crl.com/~vanyel
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