Mars Attacks! (1996)

Directed by

Tim Burton

Genre

comedy film, science fiction film, parody film, retrofuturism

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 46m

Rated

PG-13

Rating

6.4 of 10 from 5,920 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

Martians invade Earth with ray guns and a nasty attitude. A huge cast of famous actors gets blasted by the aliens or tries to fight back in silly ways.

campychaoticdarkly comiczanyover-the-topsillyabsurdretro

What happens

Mars Attacks! is a 1996 American science fiction black comedy film directed by Tim Burton, who also co-produced it with Larry J. Franco. The screenplay by Jonathan Gems was based on the Topps trading card series of the same name. The film features an ensemble cast consisting of Jack Nicholson (in a dual role), Glenn Close, Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan, Danny Devito, Lukas Haas, Sarah Jessica Parker, Martin Short, Michael J. Fox, Rod Steiger, Tom Jones, Natalie Portman, Jim Brown, Lisa Marie, and Sylvia Sidney in her final film role. Alex Cox had tried to make a Mars Attacks film in the 1980s before Burton and Gems began development in 1993. When Gems turned in his first draft in 1994, Warner Bros. Pictures commissioned rewrites from Gems, Burton, and Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski in an attempt to lower the budget to $60 million. The final production budget came to $80 million, while Warner Bros. spent another $20 million on the Mars Attacks! marketing campaign. Filming took place from February to June 1996. The film was shot in California, Nevada, Kansas, Arizona, and Argentina. The filmmakers hired Industrial Light & Magic to create the Martians using computer animation after their previous plan to use stop motion supervised by Barry Purves fell through because of budget and time limitations. Mars Attacks! was released theatrically by Warner Bros. Pictures in the United States on December 13, 1996, to mixed reviews from critics, with praise for its comedic satire of 1950s sci-fi B movies, but criticisms for its dark humor. The film grossed approximately $101.4 million in box-office totals, which was seen as a flop. Mars Attacks! was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation and earned multiple nominations at the Saturn Awards. It has achieved cult classic status over the years. Due to his advancing Parkinson's and except for brief cameos and appearances in documentary films, this would be the final live action film for Fox as he would focus mainly on voice over work. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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