Review of Mars Attacks! (1996) by Dawdlingpoet — 20 Nov 2021

Well, what can I say about this movie? other than that its kinda crazy lol and clearly spoofing 1950s/1960s b-movies. The special effects are somewhat dated but then its meant to appear dated. This movie has it all, from floating transplated heads to alien boxing(!). There are the really greedy characters, the gung ho military officer and the overly optimistic president (played by Jack Nicholson) but at the end of the day, this movie isn't about the story as much as its to be watched for the visuals, the sheer absurdity of whats going on, given that I don't think everything was really explained in the movie but yeah, its not really about that I suppose.

The cast of this movie is quite impressive, from, as previously mentioned, Jack Nicholson to Glenn Close, Annette Benning, Pierce Brosnan, Danny Devito and Michael J Fox and not to mention a rather random yet quirky and kinda amusing cameo appearance from Tom Jones who's rudely interrupted by the aliens during a rendition of his song 'Its Not Unusual' while on stage in Vegas. Like I say the special effects are kind of dated now, though the movie is 15 years old so thats to be expected but the way the aliens appear is quite humorous with their large portruding, colourful brains and their strange language which is more like a repetitive long noise than a language as such... the movie is quite like a comic strip turned to life, its kind of camp in a way, especially with the Tom Jones scenes - the aliens aren't at all scary, at least not to me but the whole thing is so amusing because of its absurdity, it works quite well.

This is a somewhat feelgood movie that doesn't set out to do anything other than entertain and make you laugh and as far as thats concerned, it does it quite well, though, as with most every other movie, it'll depend on your own tastes as to whether you'll really like or enjoy this. As an example, I'd say that another movie (or set of movies) thats a similar parody and that has the same sort of humour is the Austin Powers movies - their also over the top and camp with some ridiculous characters, although their not aliens, well not all of them anyway!.

Personally I enjoyed this movie, it made me laugh - I found it fun watching the well known cast appear in a movie as this being that its based on b-movies of the past, although I would say that its perhaps a bit too silly for some - the ending came rather quick and I felt I missed a bit of the story but it certainly didn't ruin the movie at all. Its a good bit of fun, not to be taken seriously.