Mars Attacks is a send up of alien invasion movies directed
by Tim Burton and based on a series of trading cards from the early 60s. Short,
green, big brained aliens land on Earth and start wrecking havoc. They seem to
do this because they love killing people and breaking things, like entire
cities. They have a cruel sense of humor.
There’s one scene of the alien ships blowing bowls with the statues of
Easter Island. They also love to take group photos of themselves in front of
monuments that they are in the process of blowing up. They are finally defeated
by a device that is even more bizarre than anything that ever defeated an alien
horde before.
Jack Nicholson leads an all star cast as both the clueless
President of the United States
and a smarmy wheeler and dealer in Los Vegas. Glenn Close plays his Hillary-clone
first lady and Natalie Portman plays his Chelsea-clone daughter. Pierce Brosnan is the scientist character.
There’s a kindly General Powell clone and a demented General Jack D. Ripper
clone with different approaches to dealing with the aliens. Jim Brown, Annette
Bening, Michael J. Fox, Danny DeVito, Sarah Jessica Parker, Martin Short, Pam
Grier, and Tom Jones round out the cast.
The reactions, including the grisly deaths, of the humans are as
priceless as the demented fun the aliens are having.