Mars Attacks!

Mars Attacks! is an example that even a master carpenter sometimes cuts himself. It's hard to say what the poet - sorry, Tim Burton - actually wanted to convey with this unsuccessful genre mishmash. As a parody of old B-movies, it feels desperately unfunny; whenever I expect a punchline from a promising scene, Burton simply kills it. It's uneven and scripturally unfinished. On the other hand, I'm certainly not objective; if it weren't for Burton, from whom I expect a good film, I would add a second star... Overall impression 30%. (18/01/2008)

I'm not at all surprised that this nonsense is the work of Tim Burton, he strikes me as a very peculiar person, which was only confirmed here. Initially full of dull and boring dialogue, the film gradually turns into a mix of insane action scenes starring such crazy looking aliens that it's simply indescribable. Unfortunately, it's not nearly as funny as it might seem at first glance, and if it weren't for Jack Nicholson, who plays the role of the American president perfectly, who knows how this madness would have turned out. This way it's solely because of him at 3*. (03/06/2012)

After the Ed Wood biopic, Tim Burton couldn't seem to break out of his infamous films and decided to make his own "Wood movie". Mars Attacks! is a very bizarre film, but not in the "Burtonian" sense, but in the "Woodian" sense. I understand, or try to understand, the director's intention to make the film just as it was made, but whatever way I look at it, this is (for me personally) his weakest work. The destruction sequences were good, though Independence Day from the same year was somewhere else, and I was intrigued by Lisa Marie's role, who won me over much like she did in Sleepy Hollow without actually speaking. Overall, I was surprised at how many familiar faces were in the film, which makes it all the more disappointing that it didn't appeal to me, either as comedy or as science fiction. (04/01/2022)

One of those iconic 90s movies by Tim Burton, which I completely missed back in the golden era of VHS tapes and video rental stores. Looking back, it's obviously fun, but it's still just an adaptation of trading cards from the Topps company that never quite stepped out of its shadow. Some ideas and casting choices are indeed genius, but the whole thing drags. The micro stories of Lisa Marie, Danny DeVito, and Sarah Jessica Parker are excellent, but the best of all is the grandma played by the famous Hitchcockian actress Sylvia Sidney. (14/05/2024)

Authentic imitation of those ambitious films that break down into a billion unrelated episodes without any sense during their course, because someone took an unnecessarily large piece. From this point of view, the most entertaining are the detached episodes in which an aging musician, a professional athlete past his prime, a fading alcoholic, a prominent supporting actor, and some completely random woman with boobs wander around in random glowing backdrops, because one of them has a plaaane, and another one... hmm does he know how to fly it? In terms of creatures, looking back, it is clear that it should have stayed with animatronics, because bluedabadeedabadaj. (18/02/2024)