Mars Attacks!
With its high-octane cast reduced to playing roles so paper thin that if you throw water on them they would dissolve, Tim Burtonâs 1996 opus (released the same year as the superior Independence Day) gives us the rather demented premise of, what if aliens came to our planet and spurned the hopes of those thinking they would be peaceful and advanced and instead of assimilating with our culture, decided they were going to kill us all off in the most sadistically gleeful ways possible? Taking its cue from the Topps trading card series that inspired it, Burton shows the aliens setting a cattle herd on fire and laying waste to an all-star cast, while eschewing the epic dramatics of ID4 to give us some biting satire at how us humans would respond, particularly in the Clinton-esque President (Jack Nicholson) who puts off using deadly force seemingly forever in the dimming hope that he and the Martians can work out an âunderstandingâ. The fact that Nicholson gets double duty in the acting department (also playing a sleazy Vegas huckster tycoon who continues on with his plan of building a hotel / casino while outside Sin City burns) shows that the legendary Jack can really do it all, making both characters distinctive in their own way. Backing him up is one of the best ensemble lineups of the 90s (most of whom come to bad ends): Glenn Close, Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan, Danny DeVito, Martin Short (hilariously dripping with sleaze as the WH Press Secretary), Sarah Jessica Parker, Michael J. Fox, Rod Steiger (ranting and raving during his screen time), Tom Jones (as himself), Jim Brown (best thing about the movie), Natalie Portman (showing no interest whatsoever when asking a male character if he has a girlfriend), Lukas Haas (the kid from Witness!), Pam Grier, Sylvia Sidney, Jack Black (very young in an early role), Paul Winfield (in the Colin Powell role), Christina Applegate (wasted in a nothing part, even for this movie), and Joe Don Baker, along with Burtonâs ex and fashion model Lisa Marie in a hilariously bizarre turn as an undercover Martian assassin. Indeed, the movie never bores or causes loss of interest even in the most campy, corny scenes, although the true bits of greatness seem to be few and far between (like when an impaled character has the Martian flag rise from his corpse). When one ponders it, the true stars of the film are the CGI Martians themselves, whether theyâre mocking the President for being chicken, inhaling a nuclear blast to make their voice more high-pitched, or disintegrating the United States Congress into dust and bones, the gleeful way they stomp upon all that us as humans hold dear really comes across as anarchic fun. The fact that the ultimate way of defeating the Martians turns out to be a gimmick borrowed from, of all films, Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes (an obvious homage), is like the icing on the cake. In the end, if youâre not expecting the epic scope of ID4, and black humor is your cup of tea, this is required viewingâŚ
8/10