Mars Attacks! on DVD

• Cat.no: D 014480
• Cert: 12
• Running time: 102 minutes
• Year: 1996
• Pressing: 1998
• Region(s): 2, PAL
• Chapters: 38 plus extras
• Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, Music-only audio track
• Languages: English
• Subtitles: English, Arabic, Polish, Greek, Czech, Turkish, Hungarian, Icelandic, Croatian, English for the hearing-impaired.
• Widescreen: 2.35:1
• 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
• Macrovision: Yes
• Price: £15.99
• Extras : Scene Index, Original Theatrical Trailer, Production Notes, Filmographies, Biographies, Music-only audio track to DVD).

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Director:

Tim Burton

(Batman (1989), Batman Returns, Beetlejuice, Ed Wood, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure)

Producers:

Screenplay:

Jonathan Gems (based upon “Mars Attacks” by Topps)

Music:

(Batman, Batman Returns)

Cast:

President Dale / Art Land: Jack Nicholson (Batman (1989), Blood And Wine, Chinatown, The Crossing Guard, Easy Rider, A Few Good Men, Hoffa, Little Shop Of Horrors (1960), Man Trouble, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, The Shining, The Two Jakes, The Witches Of Eastwick, Wolf)
Marsha Gale: Glenn Close (101 Dalmations, Air Force One, Fatal Attraction, Hamlet (1991), Mars Attacks!, Meeting Venus, The Paper)
Barbara Land: Annette Bening (The American President, The Grifters, Guilty By Suspicion, Regarding Henry, Richard III)
Donald Kessler: Pierce Brosnan (Dante’s Peak, Death Train, Goldeneye, Live Wire, The Mirror Has Two Faces, Mister Johnson, Mrs Doubtfire, Tomorrow Never Dies, TV: “Remington Steele”)
Rude Gambler: Danny DeVito (Batman Returns, Get Shorty, Hoffa, Junior, Matilda, Other People’s Money, Twins, War Of The Roses)
Jerry Ross: Martin Short (Father Of The Bride, Father Of The Bride Part II, Innerspace, Jungle 2 Jungle, Pure Luck, A Simple Wish)
Nathalie Lake: Sarah Jessica Parker (Ed Wood, Extreme Measures, Flight Of The Navigator, Girls Just Want To Have Fun, Hocus Pocus, Honeymoon In Vegas, Striking Distance)
Jason Stone: Michael J. Fox (The American President, Back To The Future Trilogy, Bright Lights Big City, Doc Hollywood, The Frighteners, The Hard Way, The Secret Of My Success)
General Decker: Rod Steiger (Ballad Of Sad Cafe, Doctor Zhivago, The Illustrated Man, Incognito, The Longest Day, On The Waterfront, The Specialist)
Himself: Tom Jones
Richie Norris: Lukas Haas (Boys, Gettysburg, Leap Of Faith, The Ryan White Story, Witness)
Taffy Dale: Natalie Portman (Beautiful Girls, Leon)
Byron Williams: Jim Brown (Ice Station Zebra, One Down Two To Go, Original Gangstas)
Martian Girl: Lisa Marie (Ed Wood)
Grandma Norris: Sylvia Sidney (Beetlejuice, Damien: Omen II, Dead End, Sabotage)
General Casey: Paul Winfield (Death Before Dishonour, Dennis, Original Gangstas, Presumed Innocent, Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan, The Terminator, TV: “Babylon 5”)
Louise Williams: Pam Grier (The Big Doll House, Nico: Above The Law, Jackie Brown, Original Gangstas, TV: “Roots”)
Billy-Glenn Norris: Jack Black (Never Ending Story 3)
Glenn Norris: Joe Don Baker (Cape Fear, Citizen Cohn, Congo, Cool Hand Luke, Goldeneye, The Living Daylights, Reality Bites, Tomorrow Never Dies, TV: “Edge Of Darkness”)
Sue Ann Norris: O-Lan Jones
Sharona: Christina Applegate (Don’t Tell Mom The Babysitter’s Dead, Wild Bill, TV: “Married.. With Children”)

M ars Attacks began life as a series of trading cards in 1962 and director Tim Burton had been working on turning it into a film for a number of years before it reached the big screen.

Aliens are coming to Earth, but are they peaceful or will they attempt to take it over? It doesn’t really take Professor Donald Kessler to figure out something like that although he has his best stab at it.

Director Tim Burton claims his alien invasion movie comedy wasn’t a direct spoof of Independence Day but it was timed nicely to hit UK cinemas at the same time the other alien film reached video. For a change though, unlike Independence Day, the dog gets it ! The film also has a rather different way of defeating the aliens…

This very funny comedy brings together more stars than you can shake a stick at, many of whom have worked together as you’ll see from the lists of films above.

Top of the pile is the American President in a dual-role also as a drunken casino owner, namely Jack Nicholson and his screen wife Glenn Close as the first lady. His other first lady is the prime space-cadet candidate Annette Bening.

Pierce Brosnan is the President’s boffin who tries to work out why the aliens have arrived, what they want and also… what they want to do with him! He’s one part of a love triangle with TV presenters Sarah Jessica Parker and Michael J. Fox.

Out of the rest of the cast, those that stand out are Rod Steiger as the General who wants to greet the aliens with “Annihilate! Kill! Kill”, Martin Short who has a strange encounter with ‘Martian Girl’ Lisa Marie and there’s a cameo from the babelicious Christina Applegate.

The casting also reunites the trio who starred in the same year’s Original Gangstas, namely Jim Brown, Paul Winfield and Jackie Brown‘s Pam Grier.

The picture quality is excellent with with only a few small artifacts prevalent at times in black areas such as the opening credits, although not enough for most people to notice. The film is presented in its original widescreen ratio of 2.35:1, is enhanced for 16:9 widescreen televisions – thus allowing for higher resolution – and the average bitrate is a good 4.70 Mb/s, allowing the rich, colourful texture of Burton’s sets, including the White House replica, to come out very well.

The sound comes in one format: Dolby Digital 5.1 for those with suitable decoders. For those without, the sound will downmix to Dolby Surround. All the sound comes across very clearly and is well-used for Danny Elfman‘s spooky musical score, special FX – including several martian gun sounds, ambience and plenty of “Ack, Ack, Ack!”

Extras :

Chapters/Trailer : There are 39 chapters spread throughout the 102 mins of the film which is exactly what is required, plus the original theatrical trailer.

Languages/Subtitles :

There’s just the one language on this disc – English – plus subtitles in amreicanised English, Arabic, Polish, Greek, Czech, Turkish, Hungarian, Icelandic, Croatian and English for the hearing-impaired. The subtitles appear in the lower black border.

Production Notes :

Several pages provide an extensive insight into the origin of the Mars Attachs concept and Tim Burton’s fight to get it to the big screen.

Biographies and Filmographies :

Interesting notes and a large list of films are available for perusal encompassing most of the principal cast members.

Music-only audio track :

Something I’ve never seen before can be found on this particular DVD in the form of a music-only audio track which segregates Danny Elfman’s score from everything else and serves as a nice little extra. I’d like to see this happen more often.

Menu :

The interactive menu takes a bit of getting used to. Sometimes clicking on an icon will work, but usually you have to work out whether you need to click above or below it to move on. The icons are not highlighted either, making it rather difficult to do all this with the onscreen remote control on a DVD-ROM player. Music fans take note, the musical score also accompanies the main menu.

On starting the disc the film begins to play following the Warner Bros. logo. All the copyright notices follow the end of the film.

Overall, this is a superb comedy with a worthy picture and sound quality, plus a host of extras and a tricky menu system. All it could use is a running commentary track from director Tim Burton himself. At this price though, no self-respecting DVD- or Tim Burton-enthusiast can ignore this release.

FILM : ***** PICTURE QUALITY: ****½ SOUND QUALITY: ***** EXTRAS: **** ——————————- OVERALL: ****½

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1998.