Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
A fleet of Martian spacecraft surrounds the world's major cities and all of humanity waits to see if the extraterrestrial visitors have, as they claim, "come in peace." U.S. President James Dale receives assurance from science professor Donald Kessler that the Martians' mission is a friendly one. But when a peaceful exchange ends in the total annihilation of the U.S. Congress, military men call for a full-scale nuclear retaliation.
Mars Attacks! is a gleefully anarchic parody of 1950s sci-fi invasion films, based on the controversial Topps trading card series. Tim Burton assembles a staggering all-star ensemble (Nicholson, Bening, Close, Lange, Devito, Brosnan, Pitt, etc.) who all commit fully to the absurdist tone, though the deliberately campy performances are more stylistic choices than showcases of acting depth. Cinematographically it's competent studio work with some inventive visual gags. Its Novelty is genuinely high — no other film quite replicates this specific flavor of mean-spirited, deadpan annihilation comedy crossed with celebrity satire and retro kitsch. The plot and especially the ending, however, are deliberately thin and episodic by design, with the famously anticlimactic resolution (yodeling kills Martians) feeling more like a shaggy-dog punchline than a satisfying conclusion.