Review of Mars Attacks! (1996) by Jeff S — 24 Apr 2013

While most people claim this movie DOES capture the mood of the cards/comics faithfully, that is unfortunately not true, which for me is the film's biggest downfall. I enjoy the movie, it's cute, it's pretty funny, it's loaded with tons of actors all turning out very funny performances (especially Jack Nicholson in two roles and Lisa Marie giving an incredible and incredibly creepy physical performance as the Martian Girl), but the card/comic series could have made an incredible legitimate science fiction movie without cheesing it up so much and making fun of the genre.

Yeah, it works as a spoof of 50s style sci-fi movies, but the movie could have been way more than that because the art and storyline of everything Mars Attacks related that came BEFORE the movie took itself seriously and was better because of it.