Mars Attacks DVD Review


Title: Mars Attacks!
Director: Tim Burton
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan,
Danny DeVito, Martin Short, Sarah Jessica Parker, Rod Steiger, Tom Jones
Released: 20th September 2010
Certificate: 12
Duration: 106 minutes

If you’ve never seen this classic piece of sci-fi comedy cinema before then you’re in for as treat on blu-ray.

Mars Attacks! is Tim Burton’s homage to the B-movies of the 50s. The humour is dark at times and at others totally absurd but it’s always entertaining. Danny Elfman (who else?) provides the wacky musical score and the cast is a fantastic ensemble.

Jack Nicholson, is the President (and also plays a second, less important, but still humour role). He is simply brilliant as always. Michael J. Fox is the self-absorbed journalist. Sarah Jessica Parker is his talk-show host girlfriend who is more interested in her guests (Pierce Brosnan) than her husband. Glenn Close is the First Lady and a young Natalie Portman is the President’s daughter. Martin Short is the sleazy, prostitute-loving Press Secretary, while Danny DeVito and Tom Jones make up the numbers. Oh, I mustn’t forget Rod Steiger who plays the war-mongering General Decker ever keen to ‘nuke the bastards’. Of course, he’s not wrong.

Mars Attacks! is full of fun. The special effects are suitably corny and the cast are all self-aware enough to realise that the film is a bit of a spoof and that they can just have fun with the roles. Tim Burton’s direction is solid throughout and the script is perfect for this sort of sci-fi comedy romp.

This Blu-ray picture quality is certainly better than what I have seen on TV and is no doubt a decent improvement upon the DVD. The colours are good and the image is sharp and clear. So here we have a really great looking version of Mars Attacks. The only problem with this blu-ray package is that there are no special features, which is a shame, although as the film is 15 years old I suppose it’s fairly reasonable as they wouldn’t have shot any extras before the advent of DVD.

Just sit back and enjoy this film. There are too few decent films of this genre. Mars Attacks! stands out as one of the best.

Author : Kevin Stanley