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| A beam of light strikes down in what looks to be the very orange planet of Mars on this poster for Brian De Palma's Mission to Mars |
The first manned mission to Mars is launched, out searching for alien life.
Mission to Mars is written by Jim Thomas (Executive Decision (1996)), John Thomas (Predator (1987)) and Graham Yost (Justified (2010-15)), with Lowell Cannon contributing story elements, and directed by great New Jerseyite filmmaker Brian De Palma (Murder à la Mod (1968)).
Mostly good effects and typically ambitious De Palma-style camerawork cannot save this stinker, which grows completely intolerable after the first half hour or so: The script and dialog are the main crooks: SPOILER When sand monsters attack and kill one astronaut, the spaceship-bound colleagues are still giddily romantic, led on by the crew's women, who seem to mentally be around the age of fourteen.
This goes on with pointless, exhausting scientific mumbo-jumbo, and one soon has had enough of Tim Robbins (Arlington Road (1999)) and Gary Sinise (Open Season (2006)) also, while the film's scientific part also fails to convince, as for instance the US flag flaps in the Martian wind...
SPOILER Mission to Mars ends with typically designed aliens and a spaced-out ending. It is an awful film. Ennio Morricone's (Money (1991)) score remedies parts of it.
Related posts:
Brian De Palma: Carlito's Way (1993) - De Palma's best gangster movie
The Fury (1978) - De Palma's telekinetic powers run amuck!
Carrie (1976) or, Don't Bully the Strange Girl!
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: 100 mil. $
Box office: 110.9 mil. $
= Big flop (returned 1.1 times its cost)
[Mission to Mars premiered 6 March (USA) and runs 114 minutes. De Palma boarded the already written and cast film at a late stage, when the originally hired director bowed out. Shooting took place from July - October 1999 in California, Vancouver, British Colombia and in Jordan. The film opened #1 to a 22.8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed in the top 5 for another two weekends (#2-#4) and grossed 60.8 mil. $ (54.8 % of the total gross). Roger Ebert gave it a 2.5/4 star review, translating to two notches higher than this one. De Palma returned in Femme Fatale (2006). Sinise returned in Bruno (2000); Robbins in High Fidelity (2000). Mission to Mars is rotten at 24 % with a 4.20/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Mission to Mars?
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