Mars Attacks!

1996 • 105 minutes

About this movie

Director TIM BURTON unleashes MARS ATTACKS!, a vicious, affectionate, brightly-colored homage to 1950s alien invasion movies. When a shiny silver flying saucer lands in the Nevada desert, a group of skull-faced Martians exit the gleaming craft. Although they claim to be peaceful, they promptly "vaporize" a gathering of unfortunate Earthlings, kicking off a bizarre high-tech war with wild special effects. This studiously campy sci-fi spoof, based on a series of Topps bubble-gum cards, gleefully parodies not only schlock B-horror movies, but also overblown blockbusters such as INDEPENDENCE DAY. This subversive film is helped along by an all-star cast including JACK NICHOLSON in dual roles as both a clueless U.S. President (with First Lady GLENN CLOSE) and a Las Vegas sleazebag. The film follows the wacky WAR OF THE WORLD--like proceedings from the points of view of numerous colorful characters, from the inane U.S. Press Secretary (MARTIN SHORT) to a trailer-park family (LUKAS HAAS and SYLVIA SIDNEY), singer TOM JONES (as himself).Copyright 1996 Warner Brothers. All rights reserved. MPAA Rating: PG-13 1996 Warner Bros. All Rights Reserved #Trailer #WB

Ratings and reviews

...and i loved Jack Nicholson as the president dealing with a war hungry general. The press briefing with Martin Short cracked me up. It was meant to look and feel like a b rated flick. So if you're looking for something like Alien or War of the Worlds, move on.

Hilarious movie that is full of chaos. Everyone seemed to have alot of fun making this movie. Wish there were more movies where people would just have fun instead of just doing a basic safe movie that the boring people seem to love.

This is one of the few movies that I find very humorous yet it has such a serious storyline I have watched it 5 or 6 times and to be honest with you I'm very happy with it.