Mars Attacks! (1996) – Film Review

Director: Tim Burton
Cast: Jack Nicholson, Pierce Brosnan, Sarah Jessica Parker
Certificate: 12

By Sarah Morgan

Every Saturday morning, nostalgia channel Talking Pictures TV dedicates its schedule to the kind of programmes and films its core viewers may have watched while growing up. Among them is usually a low-budget sci-fi movie from the 1950s or 1960s.

No doubt, if film-maker Tim Burton was over here, they’re exactly the kind of films he’d want to see; they’re also the type of production he gloriously lampoons and parodies in his 1996 offering Mars Attacks! It may have been directly inspired by a pack of trading cards, but the aesthetic comes directly from the big screen.

The star-studded production – Jack Nicholson (in two roles), Annette Bening, Danny DeVito, Glenn Close, Pierce Brosnan, Sarah Jessica Parker, Rod Steiger, Jim Brown, Jack Black, Natalie Portman, Pam Grier, Joe Don Baker, Lukas Haas, Michael J Fox and Tom Jones are just some of the famous faces who pop up – follows the fortunes of several characters after the Earth is invaded by rather aggressive Martian visitors.

“Sends himself up”

The bulbous-headed aliens infiltrate the White House and wreak havoc, mostly across the US. In The War of the Worlds, the invaders are eventually felled by germs; in Mars Attacks! it is, rather hilariously, the yodelling of singer Slim Whitman that does the deed. He died in 2013 at the age of 90; goodness only knows how he felt about his ‘role’ in the film!

Everyone seen on screen appears to be having the time of their lives. Some of them, including Nicholson and DeVito, had previously worked with Burton on his Batman movies; Nicholson signing up for his dual role enabled the director to get the project off the ground.

But my favourite performance comes from Tom Jones – he sends himself up throughout, and his cry of “Jesus Christ!” when a group of Martians join him on stage is hilariously funny.

“A little clunky”

Danny Elfman deserves a mention for his soundtrack. It borrows heavily from 1950s sci-fi, in particular The Day the Earth Stood Still, in which legendary composer Bernard Hermann pioneered the use of the theremin, something Elfman uses extensively here.

The special effects probably looked incredibly slick 30 years ago, and although some of them still stand up today, others do look a little clunky. Frankly, that hardly matters. In fact, it seems rather fitting – they appear as convincing, or otherwise, as the 1950s effects would have done to Burton when he was watching them while growing up.

Special features are a little thin on the ground, but the 4k restoration is impressive. Fans of Burton and the genre will love it.

Sarah Morgan( Writer )

Sarah Morgan studied film journalism at post-graduate level with the BFI and has been writing about TV and film for PA Media’s newspaper, magazine and new media customers since 1996. She’s also written for a wide range of other publications, both online and in print, including the book Offbeat and Intermission magazine, and is a regular contributor to the Talking Pictures TV podcast. When she isn’t watching movies, she’s collecting and reading vintage crime and horror paperback books or, for her sins, watching her beloved Sheffield Wednesday.

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