Subject: Review: Mission to Mars (2000)

From: John Beachem <[email-masked]>
Date: 25 Mar 2000 17:41:24 GMT

MISSION TO MARS

Review by John Beachem

* *

Directed by: Brian DePalma
Written by: Lowell Cannon (story), Jim Thomas

As I was walking out of "Mission to Mars", the first thing that flashed
through my mind was: "I think I just watched a really cheesy version of "The
Abyss". This isn't surprising, as director Brian DePalma has a history of
bad movies. While he may have experienced a brief moment of brilliance with
"The Untouchables", back in 1987, the majority of his career has consisted
of films such as "Bonfire of the Vanities" and "Snake Eyes". "Mission to
Mars" is no exception. While it may have an occasional moment of humor,
mainly due to the presence of Tim Robbins and Jerry O'Connell ("Scream 2",
"Jerry Maguire"), the majority of the film is packed with horrifyingly bad
dialogue and some amazingly cheesy special effects.

The year is 2020, and mankind is finally going to send astronauts to the
surface of Mars. The mission will consist of four astronauts, led by Luc
Goddard (Don Cheadle). While things appear to be going well at first, the
group is suddenly attacked by a massive hurricane on the surface. A rescue
attempt is immediately planned by Jim McConnell (Gary Sinise), who was
originally supposed to lead the first mission, but suffered from something
of a nervous breakdown when his wife died. Going with McConnell are Phil
Ohlmyer (Jerry O'Connell), Woody Blake (Tim Robbins), and Woody's wife Terri
(Connie Nielsen). This group's mission is to discover what went wrong on the
surface and bring back any possible survivors.

With a great cast like the one here, you have to ask yourself how even Brian
DePalma could go wrong. Perhaps the biggest problem is that most of the
characters have no personality. Robbins and O'Connell may be humorous, but
we couldn't care less about their characters. Gary Sinise, normally a great
actor, looks half asleep throughout the entire film, and Connie Nielsen
("Rushmore", "Soldier") is given absolutely nothing to do. Only Don Cheadle
("Out of Sight", "Bulworth") manages to spark some life into his role. I
think "Mission to Mars" was supposed to be something of a disaster movie,
but it's hard for a disaster movie to work if the audience isn't attached to
the characters.

Another thing I noticed, as I was slowly being put to sleep, is that
everything in this film moves very languidly. The movie is filled with
boring scenes such as the camera panning sluggishly over the horrible
looking Mars sets; or a trio of astronauts descending towards the planet for
several minutes without the camera moving or even any music playing. I was
actually, at times, reminded of "2001: A Space Odyssey", but without the
wonderful music. On the rare occasions  the music is present in "Mission to
Mars", it's corny and melodramatic, even during scenes which aren't remotely
emotional. To go along with this trite, stale music, we're usually given
cheesy and overly dramatic dialogue in even more overemotional scenes.

I will admit that "Mission to Mars" starts to pick up near the last thirty
minutes or so, only to fall flat on its face in the last ten minutes. The
one remarkable thing about this film is the amazing cyclone used near the
middle of the story. However, after the extraordinary effect created here,
we're then given some of the worst effects seen in the past five years near
the end of the film. I found it surprising that while "The Abyss" changed
from disaster movie to emotional alien encounter movie flawlessly, this same
transistion in "Mission to Mars" feels incredibly out of place. Actually,
I'd suggest that everyone go back and rent "The Abyss" rather than see this
film. "Mission to Mars" runs an amazingly long 113 minutes, and I can't
honestly recommend it to anyone. I give the film two out of five stars.

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* * * * * - One of the greatest movies ever made, see it now.
* * * * - Great flick, try and catch this one.
* * * - Okay movie, hits and misses.
* * - Pretty bad, see it only if you have nothing better to do.
* - One of the worst movies ever made. See it only if you enjoy pain.