From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sat Nov 11 16:00:11 2000 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!newspump.monmouth.com!newspeer.monmouth.com!cyclone.bc.net!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: Christopher Null ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews ~Subject: Review: Red Planet (2000) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies ~Date: 10 Nov 2000 20:41:48 GMT Organization: filmcritic.com ~Lines: 91 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <8uhmic$q08s$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer35.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 973888908 852252 (None) 140.142.17.38 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #26782 Keywords: author=null X-Questions-to: graham@jetcity.com X-Submissions-to: graham@ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer35.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:25355 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2794 RED PLANET A film review by Christopher Null Copyright 2000 filmcritic.com filmcritic.com One approaches the release of Red Planet with a singular, desperate thought: There is no way... it is not possible... it is inconceivable... that Red Planet could be worse than Mission to Mars. Indeed, Red Planet makes for a far better film than Mission to Mars. While that's not saying a whole lot (since Mission currently ranks as the worst movie I've seen all year) Red Planet is at least competently constructed and mildly engaging, so long as you put aside the sappy melodramatics. Of course, this isn't that easy to do. A narrated prologue by Carrie-Anne Moss's Commander Kate Bowman clues us in to some of what's ahead through its drippy introductions of the setting and the cast. By 2025 we've apparently destroyed the earth, so we're getting ready to move to Mars thanks to a terraforming project that has oxygenated the atmosphere. Unfortunately, something seems amiss: the sensors have vanished, and the algae they put up there seems to have gone away. To find out what gives, our last best hope -- a human crew -- is sent to the planet to discover what went wrong. And, while 2025 is not an eco-friendly era, it is an equal-opportunity one, and the buxom Bowman is in charge. Along for the ride are a rogues gallery of characters -- notably Val Kilmer (surprisingly tame here) as the ship's mechanic and Tom Sizemore (surprisingly lacking dialogue) as the chief scientific officer onboard. And then there's AMEE, a robotic CGI dog (very well-done, I must add) ostensibly with some kind of navigation job... despite its legacy of military programming that fundamentally makes it a deadly weapon. (A better recipe for trouble I can't imagine.) The discovery mission is soon underway, but, well, do movie space missions ever turn out very well? Before you know it, we're in MacGyver-esque search-and-rescue mode after a fire hits the ship, and most of the crew is stranded on the surface with the now-crazed robot dog. At this point the film unfortunately degenerates into any number of recent space cinema entries -- take your pick from Lost in Space, Mission to Mars, Apollo 13, or Pitch Black (though some of these are better movies than others). All the while we are meant to wonder, what happened to the algae on Mars? (Now there's something that'll get a PG-13 audience on the edge of its seat!) Once we've made it this far, the movie really starts to bog down. Red Planet's plot holes come at you at a dizzying pace, and they can be rather extreme. To wit: Why isn't the off-screen murder of one character simply heard over the other characters' headset radios? How does a homemade solar radio work in the dark? How do you get sparks in space from smashing metal? The answers to these questions and more are not forthcoming. On top of this, the weird cosmo-metaphysics espoused by Terence Stamp's grandpa-like character ("the soul of the ship") don't make the movie any better. Instead, it comes across as an attempt to be like 2001: A Space Odyssey, somehow implying a greater force beyond mankind imploring us to care for the world we have. It comes as no small irony that Stamp's is the first character that is gotten rid of. But putting the silly-talk aside, in its quest to show off its obviously-not-really-Martian landscapes, Red Planet unfortunately misses a big lesson that 2001 proved so very well: Getting there can be all the fun. Next time Hollywood decides to take a trip in space, let's hope they take it slow. RATING: **1/2 |------------------------------| \ ***** Perfection \ \ **** Good, memorable film \ \ *** Average, hits and misses \ \ ** Sub-par on many levels \ \ * Unquestionably awful \ |------------------------------| MPAA Rating: PG-13 Director: Antony Hoffman Producer: Bruce Berman, Mark Canton, Jorge Saralegui Writer: Jonathan Lemkin, Channing Gibson Starring: Val Kilmer, Tom Sizemore, Carrie-Anne Moss, Benjamin Bratt, Simon Baker, Terence Stamp http://www.redplanetmovie.com/cmp/redplanet.html http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=filmcriticcom&path=subst/video/sellers/amazon-top-100-dvd.html Movie Fiends: Check out Amazon.com's Top 100 Hot DVDs! -- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sat Nov 11 16:00:11 2000 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!feed2.onemain.com!feed1.onemain.com!europa.netcrusader.net!207.172.3.44!feed2.news.rcn.net!rcn!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: Jon Popick ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews ~Subject: Review: Red Planet (2000) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies ~Date: 10 Nov 2000 20:59:40 GMT Organization: Planet Sick-Boy ~Lines: 85 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <8uhnjs$m3s6$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer09.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 973889980 724870 (None) 140.142.17.39 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #26783 Keywords: author=popick X-Questions-to: graham@jetcity.com X-Submissions-to: graham@ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer09.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:25365 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2795 PLANET SICK-BOY: http://www.sick-boy.com "We Put the SIN in Cinema" When 2000 dawned, it looked like we’d have dueling Mars films, kind of similar to the two films about computer-generated ants we had back in 1998, or the battling volcano pictures from 1997. Like those other movies, the Mars films were originally scheduled to hit the theatres within a month of each other. Ultimately, Mission to Mars opted for a March release and Red Planet picked a pre-holiday opening in November. At the time, it seemed as though Planet changed its date to distance itself from the similarly themed Mission, but it turns out that wasn’t the case. Planet sucks, and its studio is hoping the film gets lost in the dust that will be created by the freight train known as Adam Sandler’s Little Nicky. It’s a sacrificial lamb with knocking knees and dingleberries stuck to its ass fur. Planet is set halfway through the 21st century, where our race has apparently sapped the Earth of its resources, leading to an extensive period of the development of Mars for human use. They’ve grown algae and built a station that is supposed to support a crew of scientists for over two years. Everything seems to be going well, and then the oxygen levels suddenly bottom out. With no time to figure out why, humanity blasts six people off to Mars. Here’s the rundown on the crew: · Commander Kate Bowman (Carrie-Anne Moss, The Crew) is in charge of the mission and acts as the Mars-1 pilot. She’s a tough, no-nonsense girl with a great rack. · Ted Santen (Benjamin Bratt, The Next Best Thing) is the mission’s co-pilot. He’s well-built, cocky and doesn’t mind letting everybody else know how great he is. · Dr. Bud Chantillas (Terence Stamp, The Limey) is the Chief Science Officer. He’s an old codger (the only crew member who has seen frogs in his lifetime) who has recently shifted his allegiance from science to God. · Robby Gallagher (Val Kilmer, Joe the King) is the mechanic. Despite his intelligence, is often looked down on by the other crewmembers. · Dr. Quinn Burchenal (Tom Sizemore, Play It to the Bone) is a civilian bioengineer sent to solve the mystery of the missing oxygen. If you’re familiar with Sizemore, you’ll know that him playing a doctor is a little more than a stretch. · Chip Pettengill (Simon Baker, Ride With the Devil) is another civilian, but this guy is an expert in terraforming. Which means he knows a lot about dirt and rocks. Yawn. · AMEE is a robotic elimination machine that looks like one of those Poo-Chi dogs. She’s a cold-blooded killer when set in “military mode” but is just as sweet as can be otherwise. As you would expect in a sci-fi/action film, Mars-1 experiences problems minutes before the crew is set to leave for the rocky terrain of Mars. In a spectacularly silly scene, the crew hurtles toward terra firma in a pod that is covered with airbags that make it look like an oversized bunch of grapes. The crew is banged up, their pied-à-terre has been trashed by some unknown enemy, and AMEE is on the loose and out for blood. Oh, yeah, and they’re out of oxygen, too. There are some plot holes wide enough to drive a space shuttle through in Planet. The Mars-1 crew is supposed to be making the first manned mission to the fourth planet from the sun, so who built the place they were supposed to live in? How does Gallagher get a solar-powered radio to work after the sun has gone down? At one point, the remaining members of the expedition walk over 100 kilometers in 19 hours … including a stop to sleep for the night. The best part may have been when Gallagher uses parts from the ’97 Mars Rover to build a radio. At least he knows where to find it. Planet is the directorial debut of Antony Hoffman and, with any luck, somebody will confiscate his license to make any more films (he can’t even spell his name right, for Christ’s sake). The hackneyed script was penned by the Lethal Weapon 4 team of Jonathan Lemkin and Channing Gibson. Even the cinematography from David Cronenberg regular Peter Suschitzky is underwhelming. 1:50 – PG-13 for adult language, brief nudity and violence -- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sat Nov 11 16:00:11 2000 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!news.tele.dk!171.64.14.106!newsfeed.stanford.edu!arclight.uoregon.edu!hammer.uoregon.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: Scott Renshaw ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews ~Subject: Review: Red Planet (2000) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies ~Date: 10 Nov 2000 21:00:08 GMT Organization: None ~Lines: 95 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <8uhnko$m3sm$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer30.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 973890008 724886 (None) 140.142.17.39 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #26786 Keywords: author=renshaw X-Questions-to: graham@jetcity.com X-Submissions-to: graham@ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer30.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:25369 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2796 RED PLANET (Warner Bros.) Starring: Val Kilmer, Carrie-Anne Moss, Tom Sizemore, Benjamin Bratt, Simon Baker, Terence Stamp. Screenplay: Chuck Pfarrer and Jonathan Lemkin. Producers: Mark Canton, Bruce Berman and Jorge Saralegui. Director: Antony Hoffman. MPAA Rating: PG-13 (violence, adult themes, brief nudity, profanity) Running Time: 106 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw. Some genre films tease you with the prospect that they can be something more substantial before degenerating into stupidity and cliche. RED PLANET at least does viewers the courtesy of not wasting their time with such futile hopes. In the opening minutes, Mars Mission Commander Bowman (Carrie-Anne Moss) provides a voice-over neatly summarizing the premise before launching into capsule characterizations of her crewmates. That co-pilot Santen (Benjamin Bratt), he sure is a hot-head, which undoubtedly will play a significant role in his ultimate fate. And that scientist Burchenal (Tom Sizemore), he sure has an ego, which undoubtedly will create some sort of character tension down the road. Dim-wittedness in Hollywood action films is only to be expected at this point in cinema history. Vaguely pretentious dim-wittedness is pretty inexcusable. RED PLANET sends a six-person crew to Mars in 2057 to find out what has happened to oxygen-producing algae sent by earth scientists as part of a colonization plan. You see, earth has become nearly uninhabitable due to environmental degradation, and our only hope of survival is creating a survivable atmosphere elsewhere, but something has gone screwy because oxygen readings have suddenly dropped. The mission team is ready to investigate when a freak radiation burst damages their vessel, forcing an emergency evacuation of all personnel but Bowman. The landing vehicle is damaged on impact, leaving the surviving crew members -- including dashing chief engineer Gallagher (Val Kilmer) -- to figure out a way to get back home. At certain points in RED PLANET, you can't help but wonder why anyone wasted time on a back story at all. Though the very survival of the human race is theoretically at stake, the film seems interested in that point only to the extent that it can be included in press notes, in absurd declarations like, "It's a smart movie that posits the question, what if man fails to do the things necessary to live on earth?" In fact, RED PLANET resolutely refuses to deal with anything beyond the basic goals of its characters to find a way back to earth. Why does no one in the stranded party refer to being thirsty or hungry after going without food and water for more than a day? How would the people on earth be responding to the apparent failure of this crucial mission? What exactly was the reason that no one could detect any oxygen, when it turns out there's a whole lot of it around? And why flirt with the notion that there's some intelligence bent on thwarting the terraforming effort, only to make the real villain of the piece the crew's resident malfunctioning evil robot? Silly questions, of course, since RED PLANET is kind enough to alert you so quickly to its minimalist intentions. The characters spout dialogue that alternates between inane exposition and pointless self-characterization. "I'm a scientist, but I'm really interested in philosophy," says philosophically-interested scientist Chantilas (Terence Stamp), though not in so many words. "We're sexually attracted to one another, so I hope neither one of us dies," say Bowman and Gallagher, though not in so many words. "I sure wish it didn't take 40 minutes for you to answer," says Bowman after sending a radio message to earth, actually in so many words, just to let us know the writers knew at least one science fact. It's a wonderful irony in RED PLANET that it places so much weight on the fate of these six characters, only to make them utterly weightless as actual characters. At odd intervals, something happens to slap the film out of its oxygen-deprived stupor. Most of them involve Moss, whose strong presence occasionally tricks you into thinking the film is better than it is. One involves a great shot of the Mars lander taking a tumble for which it certainly wasn't designed. And, sadly, many others involve the pleasure of watching one or another of the annoying characters meet an untimely demise. As directed by rookie feature director Antony Hoffman, this is a lame special effects-driven action film that can't even be bothered to provide a handful of visceral thrills. Lacking big-time action excitement, competent story-telling or any desire to prevent you from walking out scratching deep trenches into your head, RED PLANET is simply a planet-sized waste of time. But at least it only wastes a few minutes of your time before making that obvious. On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 dead planets: 3. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit Scott Renshaw's Screening Room http://www.inconnect.com/~renshaw/ *** Subscribe to receive new reviews directly by email! See the Screening Room for details, or reply to this message with subject "Subscribe". -------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Nov 16 14:56:31 2000 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!newspump.monmouth.com!newspeer.monmouth.com!news-out.uswest.net!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: Scott Renshaw ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews ~Subject: Review: Red Planet (2000) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies ~Date: 14 Nov 2000 01:49:41 GMT Organization: None ~Lines: 95 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <8uq5nl$bp6u$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer03.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 974166581 386270 (None) 140.142.17.40 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #26794 Keywords: author=renshaw X-Questions-to: graham@jetcity.com X-Submissions-to: graham@ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer03.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:25380 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2797 RED PLANET (Warner Bros.) Starring: Val Kilmer, Carrie-Anne Moss, Tom Sizemore, Benjamin Bratt, Simon Baker, Terence Stamp. Screenplay: Chuck Pfarrer and Jonathan Lemkin. Producers: Mark Canton, Bruce Berman and Jorge Saralegui. Director: Antony Hoffman. MPAA Rating: PG-13 (violence, adult themes, brief nudity, profanity) Running Time: 106 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw. Some genre films tease you with the prospect that they can be something more substantial before degenerating into stupidity and cliche. RED PLANET at least does viewers the courtesy of not wasting their time with such futile hopes. In the opening minutes, Mars Mission Commander Bowman (Carrie-Anne Moss) provides a voice-over neatly summarizing the premise before launching into capsule characterizations of her crewmates. That co-pilot Santen (Benjamin Bratt), he sure is a hot-head, which undoubtedly will play a significant role in his ultimate fate. And that scientist Burchenal (Tom Sizemore), he sure has an ego, which undoubtedly will create some sort of character tension down the road. Dim-wittedness in Hollywood action films is only to be expected at this point in cinema history. Vaguely pretentious dim-wittedness is pretty inexcusable. RED PLANET sends a six-person crew to Mars in 2057 to find out what has happened to oxygen-producing algae sent by earth scientists as part of a colonization plan. You see, earth has become nearly uninhabitable due to environmental degradation, and our only hope of survival is creating a survivable atmosphere elsewhere, but something has gone screwy because oxygen readings have suddenly dropped. The mission team is ready to investigate when a freak radiation burst damages their vessel, forcing an emergency evacuation of all personnel but Bowman. The landing vehicle is damaged on impact, leaving the surviving crew members -- including dashing chief engineer Gallagher (Val Kilmer) -- to figure out a way to get back home. At certain points in RED PLANET, you can't help but wonder why anyone wasted time on a back story at all. Though the very survival of the human race is theoretically at stake, the film seems interested in that point only to the extent that it can be included in press notes, in absurd declarations like, "It's a smart movie that posits the question, what if man fails to do the things necessary to live on earth?" In fact, RED PLANET resolutely refuses to deal with anything beyond the basic goals of its characters to find a way back to earth. Why does no one in the stranded party refer to being thirsty or hungry after going without food and water for more than a day? How would the people on earth be responding to the apparent failure of this crucial mission? What exactly was the reason that no one could detect any oxygen, when it turns out there's a whole lot of it around? And why flirt with the notion that there's some intelligence bent on thwarting the terraforming effort, only to make the real villain of the piece the crew's resident malfunctioning evil robot? Silly questions, of course, since RED PLANET is kind enough to alert you so quickly to its minimalist intentions. The characters spout dialogue that alternates between inane exposition and pointless self-characterization. "I'm a scientist, but I'm really interested in philosophy," says philosophically-interested scientist Chantilas (Terence Stamp), though not in so many words. "We're sexually attracted to one another, so I hope neither one of us dies," say Bowman and Gallagher, though not in so many words. "I sure wish it didn't take 40 minutes for you to answer," says Bowman after sending a radio message to earth, actually in so many words, just to let us know the writers knew at least one science fact. It's a wonderful irony in RED PLANET that it places so much weight on the fate of these six characters, only to make them utterly weightless as actual characters. At odd intervals, something happens to slap the film out of its oxygen-deprived stupor. Most of them involve Moss, whose strong presence occasionally tricks you into thinking the film is better than it is. One involves a great shot of the Mars lander taking a tumble for which it certainly wasn't designed. And, sadly, many others involve the pleasure of watching one or another of the annoying characters meet an untimely demise. As directed by rookie feature director Antony Hoffman, this is a lame special effects-driven action film that can't even be bothered to provide a handful of visceral thrills. Lacking big-time action excitement, competent story-telling or any desire to prevent you from walking out scratching deep trenches into your head, RED PLANET is simply a planet-sized waste of time. But at least it only wastes a few minutes of your time before making that obvious. On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 dead planets: 3. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit Scott Renshaw's Screening Room http://www.inconnect.com/~renshaw/ *** Subscribe to receive new reviews directly by email! See the Screening Room for details, or reply to this message with subject "Subscribe". -------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Nov 16 14:56:32 2000 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.ida.liu.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!news-peer-europe.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!xfer13.netnews.com!netnews.com!europa.netcrusader.net!210.147.7.1!newsfeed.mesh.ad.jp!sjc-peer.news.verio.net!sea-feed.news.verio.net!news.verio.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: "Robin Clifford" ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews ~Subject: Review: Red Planet (2000) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies ~Date: 14 Nov 2000 01:50:05 GMT Organization: None ~Lines: 83 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <8uq5od$n1n8$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer21.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 974166605 755432 (None) 140.142.17.40 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #26796 Keywords: author=clifford X-Questions-to: graham@jetcity.com X-Submissions-to: graham@ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer21.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:25393 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2801 "Red Planet" Well, mankind finally did it. It's 2057 and planet Earth is on the brink of ecological extinction. There is one choice and one choice only for survival - colonize Mars. The Mars Terraforming Project laid the groundwork to prepare the red planet for its human inhabitants. Now, a manned space mission is sent to begin the colony, but disaster soon strikes, stranding the landing party on the inhospitable planet and leaving mission commander, Kate Bowman, alone on their failing spaceship. It's a race against time as Bowman must save her ship and crew in the science fiction actioner, "Red Planet." "Red Planet" is by the numbers and derivative, but it is well done by the numbers and derivative. It tries to do a lot of things with several plot lines happening concurrently. It's a survival flick a la the 1964 sci-fi movie "Robinson Crusoe on Mars" as the marooned crew discovers that there is air on the planet, extending their endangered lives. The introduction of a sinister robot, called AMEE, portends problems that are reminiscent of both "Alien" and "Terminator." There is even a passing nod to the classic "War of the Worlds" thrown into the mix, as well as "2001." This is a typical Hollywood action/disaster film that moves along at a brisk, energetic pace under the control of first-time helmer Antony Hoffman. The director has a good team behind the camera, so there is quality built in to the sets, costumes (although all the uniforms have the players names emblazoned in several places in large letters as if the crew of six suffers from a learning disorder that prohibits their remembering each other's names) and flashy special F/X. Veteran lenser Peter Suschitzky gives the film the benefit of his years of craft experience. Owen Paterson helps things look otherworldly with art direction that makes the red planet an inhospitable place indeed. Costuming, by Kym Barrett, has a suitable pseudo military air about it, though Carrie-Anne Moss's threads consist mainly of skin tight t-shirts without a bra - not that I'm complaining, mind you. The small but well-versed cast breathes some life into their mostly two-dimensional characters, though there is little in the way of character development. Carrie-Anne Moss has proven she has the physical ability to be an action hero, but, to date, has not had the chance to show any acting chops. If she can get more meaty roles, she may prove herself to be the new Sigourney Weaver. It's too soon to tell, though, with her current track record. She plays the stalwart, smart Captain Bowman well enough but doesn't get beyond the essentials of the character. Val Kilmer and Tom Sizemore get to do the macho guy thing and get to deliver the funny, smart-ass lines that provide the film's comic relief. The rest of the cast is little more than background characters. Terrence Stamp plays a scientist turned philosopher, but is killed off early on, getting little to do except to tell the others "you can do it!" Benjamin Bratt is given even less to do and his demise makes little sense in the context of the story. Simon Baker plays a quasi-sinister character, but the motivations and actions of the guy make little sense except to introduce a "bad guy" to the story. Special mention is needed to praise the robot character AMEE. While she doesn't speak, she is a major character in the monster movie part of the tale and consists of some cool F/X. Some of the details of the Red Planet are not handled quite as well as others. In one part, there are clouds in the sky - on a planet supposedly devoid of an atmosphere. This is one glaring inconsistency. In another, when the stranded, would be colonists locate their emergency habitat, they find it utterly destroyed. The comment is made that even the worst storm on Earth could not harm the refuge, but no reason is given why their almost home was wrecked. You also have to take the sci-fi mumbo jumbo explanations given with a grain of salt. Comparison will be made with the other Mars flick that hit the screens earlier this year, "Mission to Mars." Where the latter film approached the awful category, "Red Planet" plays more like a space western that tells its tale of survival in a hostile land. There is no deep philosophy to muddy the action waters, here. Instead, we have an old-fashion story that uses up-to-date F/X and computer-generated technology to keep us entertained for a couple of hours. Even if it ain't rocket science, it did that for me and I give it a B-. For more Reeling reviews visit www.reelingreviews.com robin@reelingreviews.com laura@reelingreviews.com -- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Nov 16 14:56:32 2000 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.ida.liu.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: FilmFan16@aol.com (Dustin Putman) ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews ~Subject: Review: Red Planet (2000) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies ~Date: 14 Nov 2000 01:50:59 GMT Organization: None ~Lines: 90 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <8uq5q3$bp1o$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer29.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 974166659 386104 (None) 140.142.17.38 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #26801 Keywords: author=putman X-Questions-to: graham@jetcity.com X-Submissions-to: graham@ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer29.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:25397 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2802 Red Planet * * * (out of * * * * ) Directed by Antony Hoffman. Cast: Val Kilmer, Carrie-Anne Moss, Tom Sizemore, Simon Baker, Terence Stamp, Benjamin Bratt. 2000 - 110 minutes Rated PG-13 (for violence, profanity, and partial nudity). Reviewed by Dustin Putman, November 11, 2000. Since space movies have grown more than a little tiresome over the years, and with another film about Mars released this past March, there was more than a few reservations at the onset of "Red Planet." After all, what fresh material could director Antony Hoffman and screenwriters Chuck Pfarrer and Jonathan Lemkin possibly muster out of such a worn-out premise? Quite surprisingly, the answer turns out to be a lot, as "Red Planet" is not only infinitely superior to last spring's "Mission to Mars," but also one of the most involving and well-made space-set thrillers since Ridley Scott's 1979 opus, "Alien." Set in 2050, when the Earth's polluted atmosphere has quickly made the planet nearly unlivable, a six-person crew set off on a six-month voyage to Mars to reconfirm that colonization may, in fact, be possible for humans. With Lt. Cmdr. Kate Bowman (Carrie-Anne Moss) staying behind with the ship after a malfunctioning problem, the other five members--"hotshot" second-in-command Ted Santen (Benjamin Bratt), veteran Chief Science Officer Bud Chantilas (Terence Stamp), medical systems engineer Gallagher (Val Kilmer), Dr. Quinn Burchenal (Tom Sizemore), and Dr. Chip Pettengill (Simon Baker)--make their way to the red planet to reach a previously-built station equipped with enough oxygen, food, and water to last 26 months. Oddly enough, the algae that had been heavily spray upon Mars' surface twenty years before has mysteriously disappeared. And what they don't expect is that the station has been completely destroyed, leaving them with only seven hours until the oxygen in their helmets runs out. Making matters worse is AMEE (Autonomous Mapping Evaluation and Evasion), a robot that Kate sends to Mars to aid in finding the crew, but whose military instincts go haywire on the rough landing, leaving it a murderous force hell-bent on destroying the entire group. Sumptuously photographed by Peter Suschitzky, with the desolate landscapes of Wadi Rum, Jordan, and Coober Pedy, Australia standing in for Mars, "Red Planet" is a suspense-filled, surprisingly thoughtful drama that plausibly tells what could happen if the Earth ever did grow too polluted to live on. Deliberately paced, yet never stalling for a minute, the film draws you into its setup as we meet and grow to understand the dynamics of the six characters, and then lets loose into an unpredictable thrill ride once they are unleashed upon the largely unexplored terrain of the foreign planet. Despite including an excessive, unnecessary narration by Kate Bowman that bookends the main attraction, the film rarely steps wrong. One of the major pleasures is the way that, despite revealing its main plotline, it is always difficult to decipher where the film is going, and what the outcome will be. Furthermore, instead of turning into a monster-on-the-loose horror movie, director Hoffman wisely aims higher, and makes the dangerous AMEE only a subplot to a much larger story about a crew that find themselves fighting to survive the perilous planet itself, and using their brains and the expertise they hold in their profession to do so. The actors fit snugly in their roles, with the standouts being lead Val Kilmer, who is so charismatic as a performer that he deserves more roles; Carrie-Anne Moss, who brings a tough poignancy to her character of Kate; and Terence Stamp, who, in the picture's most thought-provoking line, says, "I realized science couldn't answer the really interesting questions, so I turned to philosophy. I've been searching for God ever since." The dignity that Stamp brings to his supporting appearance as aging scientist Bud Chantilas is quite extraordinary, and even when he goes AWOL in the second hour, his lasting impression has long-since been made. Rounding out the cast is the bland Benjamin Bratt, rising Australian actor Simon Baker, and Tom Sizemore. Ultimately, "Red Planet" is such a convincing motion picture because the talented actors and the mostly tightly-written script make you believe everything that is happening to them. With Mars giving off alternately reddish and bluish tints, with its rocky, mountainous vistas, and a violent ice storm the size of Montana sweeping through the area at one point, the visual effects are also startlingly believable. There is no reason why "Red Planet" should be such a successfully entertaining thriller, but almost everything falls into place and seems to effortlessly work. Maybe there's life yet in the gradually wearisome space genre. Movies like "Red Planet" can only help. - Copyright 2000 by Dustin Putman Reviews by Dustin Putman - http://us.imdb.com/ReviewsBy?Dustin+Putman -- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Nov 16 14:56:32 2000 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!arclight.uoregon.edu!hammer.uoregon.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: Ross Anthony ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews ~Subject: Review: Red Planet (2000) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies ~Date: 14 Nov 2000 01:52:09 GMT Organization: www.RossAnthony.com ~Lines: 75 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <8uq5s9$djag$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer27.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 974166729 445776 (None) 140.142.17.35 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #26909 Keywords: author=anthony X-Questions-to: graham@jetcity.com X-Submissions-to: graham@ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer27.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:25392 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2800 Mars-upials Red Planet By Ross Anthony It's big, it's round, it's red ... Mars. It's big, it's exciting, it's got thunderous seat-shaking bass, a frisky dangerous robot, some dazzling special effects and a script freakishly devoid of life ... "Red Planet." But then there's Kilmer. He's wonderful, "I really hate this planet." And the rest of the crew working overtime to make this arid, barren screenplay livable for humans. The year 2050, the Earth has been poisoned, polluted and populated nearly to death. In hopes of carving a new home, Earthlings have been sending algae to Mars for twenty-five years in order to build up an O2 atmosphere there. A good idea, however, something's wrong ... all the O2 has disappeared. "Red Planet" details the exploits of the first manned spacecraft sent to Mars. The mission - find out what's going on up there. Actually, If you like science and astronomy, you might find that premise pretty tantalizing - that and all the cool tech stuff like the fully active computer maps. However, apparently, the filmmakers were quite aware of the mysteriously missing human drama in the script; that's why they injected several attempts to simulate emotion. And simulated emotion they achieved. No one will be fooled. Amee, the cyberdog, is a fantastic cg accomplishment. She's detailed and complex in movement and design. You'll love her! But she's such an obviously contrived antagonist, that it's not easy to take her seriously, except as something way cool to watch. The other bone thrown grows from a blow atop a stone. I had to groan. This is the scene in which one member gets mad and pops the other member in the helmet sending him plummeting down a hill. Such an event has great potential for drama, but the anger is so isolated and pointless that instead of a swell of emotion, the viewer is left confused and insulted. An earlier scene establishing the attacker as a hothead would have really helped. Or an argument in the capsule over just how to handle the landing maneuvers would have backed the bite needed to support a skirmish. As is, it's just a quick fix to accomplish a story progression. That goes for Amee as well. Why that dog didn't chew everyone to bits ... I'll never know. Anyway, though not very deep in deep space, I thought "Red Planet" was pretty good fun. And while the dialogue offers little to jettison home over; the very likable cast still manages to spout a few zingers to give the crowd a chuckle or two. Oh, and I loved the little astronaut icon on the Russian computer. Red Planet. Copyright © 2000. Rated PG-13. * Starring Val Kilmer, Carrie-Anne Moss, Tom Sizemore, Benjamin Bratt, Simon Baker, Terrance Stamp. * Directed by Antony Hoffman. * Written by Chuck Pfarrer, Jonathan Lemkin. * Produced by Mark Canton, Bruce Berman, Jorge Saralegui. Grade..........................B -- Copyright © 2000. Ross Anthony, currently based in Los Angeles, has scripted and shot documentaries, music videos, and shorts in 35 countries across North America, Europe, Africa and Asia. For more reviews visit: http://www.RossAnthony.com -- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Nov 20 14:40:42 2000 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!xfer13.netnews.com!netnews.com!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: Michael Dequina Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Red Planet (2000) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 17 Nov 2000 01:52:54 GMT Organization: None Lines: 77 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <8v231m$93ug$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer03.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 974425974 298960 (None) 140.142.17.37 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #26856 Keywords: author=dequina X-Questions-to: graham@jetcity.com X-Submissions-to: graham@ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer03.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:25436 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2804 _Red_Planet_ (PG-13) * (out of ****) From Christopher Columbus to Wyatt Earp to Steve Prefontaine to the lambada (!), the track record for dueling Hollywood projects on the same subject has been less than stellar. With Warner Bros.' release of the second--and worst--of the year's Mars movies, _Red_Planet_, Tinseltown has once again completed a tandem non-event. The latter half of _Mission_to Mars_, directed by Brian DePalma and released by Disney earlier this year, justifiably left viewers with a bad taste with its high-minded but lame-brained artistic pretensions. But an unfortunate side effect was that the decent first half of the film, capped by a suspenseful domino-effect disaster sequence, was completely forgotten. In the case of _Red_Planet_, however, there's nothing of merit to forget--or, at least, the film's only redeeming quality, its perfectly solid visual effects, show up onscreen constantly enough to remind us of the wasted effort turned in by the FX crews. The year is 2050, and we are told through voiceover by one Commander Kate Bowman (Carrie-Anne Moss) that the earth has become so polluted that it will soon no longer be able to sustain life. All sights have been set on Mars, where algae has been planted by unmanned probes to generate oxygen. But something has gone wrong, and a crew led by Bowman has been sent to the red planet to figure out what. After a shuttle landing mishap strands Gallagher (Val Kilmer), Burchenal (Tom Sizemore), Pettengill (Simon Baker), Santen (Benjamin Bratt), and Chantilas (Terence Stamp) on the Mars surface and leaves Bowman aboard the main orbiting spacecraft, the crew is given even more problems to solve. Their problems, however, are none compared to the ones faced by director Antony Hoffman, who is given the arduous task of making Chuck Pfarrer and Jonathan Lemkin's script into a watchable film. Simply put, nothing really happens, and the whole "earth in danger" framework becomes moot as Gallagher and company simply search for a way to get back aboard the mothership and go home. The only real conflict in the script are the weak attempts the writers make at creating "villains": a crew member who accidentally causes a problem early-on, then is retroactively made out to have evil intent later in the film; and, more prominently, AMEE, a scouting robot who turns from gentle to killer with the flip of a switch. Guess which setting she ends up on when the shuttle crashes? Hoffman, a commercial director making his feature debut, simply throws his hands in the air and instead focuses on what he knows best: the look. As mentioned before, the visual effects are impressive, particularly the completely CGI AMEE; and the ship sets and desert locations convince. But looks can't count for everything, and Hoffman appears to completely bank on the attractive appearances of stars Moss and Kilmer to make the romance between their characters work for the audience. Needless to say, it takes more than Ultra-Brite smiles to conceal the fact that this undercooked subplot was sloppily grafted on to give the film more appeal to females--who are instead likely to be insulted by the love story's completely arbitrary nature (as will all other demographics). As ludicrous as _Red_Planet_ is, the copy writers at the WB publicity department actually one-up the makers of the film by pasting on a loud disclaimer at the top of the press notes that urges the media to not reveal the film's ending. This blurb would lead one to believe there's some big surprise in store, but perhaps the only shock up the film's sleeve is how closely it hews to everyone's formulaic expectations. ©2000 Michael Dequina Michael Dequina twotrey@juno.com | jordan_host@sportsmail.com | mrbrown@iname.com Mr. Brown's Movie Site: http://www.mrbrownmovies.com CinemaReview Magazine: http://www.CinemaReview.com on ICQ: #25289934 | on AOL Instant Messenger: MrBrown23 ________________________________________________________________ YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH FOR THE INTERNET! Juno now offers FREE Internet Access! Try it today - there's no risk! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj. -- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Nov 20 14:41:34 2000 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!nntp.primenet.com!nntp.gblx.net!newsfeed.mesh.ad.jp!sjc-peer.news.verio.net!sea-feed.news.verio.net!news.verio.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: "Rose 'Bams' Cooper" Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Red Planet (2000) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 17 Nov 2000 02:12:34 GMT Organization: None Lines: 129 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <8v246i$3ck$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer37.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 974427154 3476 (None) 140.142.17.35 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #26871 Keywords: author=cooper X-Questions-to: graham@jetcity.com X-Submissions-to: graham@ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer37.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:25457 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2805 '3BlackChicks Review...' RED PLANET (2000) Rated R; running time 110 minutes Genre: Science Fiction Seen at: Celebration Cinema (Lansing, Michigan) Official site: http://www.redplanetmovie.com/ IMDB site: http://us.imdb.com/Details?0199753 Written by: Jonathan Lemkin, Channing Gibson (based upon a story by Chuck Pfarrer) Directed by: Anthony Hoffman Cast: Val Kilmer, Carrie-Anne Moss, Tom Sizemore, Benjamin Bratt, Simon Baker, Terrence Stamp Review Copyright Rose Cooper, 2000 Review URL: http://www.3blackchicks.com/bamsredplanet.html The five-second Bammer review: YAWN. Those needing a wee bit more substance in their reviews, are invited to read on. The Story (WARNING: **spoilers contained below**): The year: 2057. Twelve billion people living on Earth. Something's gotta give - and increasingly, it's Earth's natural resources. For 20 years, Earth scientists sent unmanned probes to Mars, hoping to stimulate life there, to one day allow some of Earth's citizenry to colonize Mars. When the oxygen levels on Mars start dropping, "Houston" sends a crack team of their top people to Mars to investigate. The team includes: tough-as-nails [but Soft inside!] Mission Commander Kate Bowman (Carrie-Anne Moss); techie Robby Gallagher (Val Kilmer), who the team teasingly calls their "Space Janitor"; Dr. Quinn Burchenal (Tom Sizemore), a Geneticist with Science constantly on the brain; Lt. Ted Santen (Benjamin Bratt), mission co-pilot and resident Stud; Terraforming Specialist Chip Pettengill (Simon Baker), picked for the mission as a last-minute replacement; and Dr. Bud Chantillas (Terrence Stamp), former scientist and current Seeker-Of-Light. And let's not forget AMEE, the robot WonderDog; prepped for exploration as well as military mode, AMEE is one terminator that you do *not* wanna tick off. The Upshot: I'm firmly convinced that at this point in human existence, movies about missions to Mars, are doomed to be bad (contrary to what I wrote in my review of MISSION TO MARS, which I, admittedly, overrated because of its Tender Love Story. Hooboy, did I take a wrong turn there. But I digress.) RED PLANET was, in a word, boring. And in a few more words, it had plot holes wide enough to drive a truck through, uninteresting characters that you were glad to watch die one at a time, a storyline that was laughingly thin with weak feints toward having Big Philosophical Discussions, multiple Deus Ex Machinas (one in particular that had the Geek in me up in arms; anyone with working knowledge of How Modems Work, will see what I mean), and the dumbest, most unintentionally funny excuse for an Evil Monster that I've seen in a long time. Oh, but the movie *did* have irrelevant-to-the-scene Sting songs constantly playing in the background, and - proving that it was Modern! And! Hip! - lots of references to The Web. Oooh. I'm impressed. I give "Planet" credit for almost coming to life near the end [ironic that the more characters died off, the more interesting the movie got], and for avoiding the easy "Matrix" way out by not making Carrie-Anne Moss' character Melt around all the flying testosterone [at least, not completely]. The movie certainly *looked* Pretty enough, though the strange etch-a-sketch (without the surrounding plastic) directional thingies the characters were so fond of using, made me long for Mr. Spock's Tricorder. And I gotta admit that that Braless Space Commander closeup even got *my* attention (must be cold up there, eh Commander?). But considering that RED PLANET was held back for months to keep it out of direct competition with MISSION TO MARS, you might think that they'd spend a little time adding some...oh, I dunno...*entertainment* to it or something. And what a waste of Tom Sizemore; hell, of Moss (who at least had a few sparky moments) and Terrence Stamp, too (Val Kilmer, though, was his usual wooden self). Director Anthony Hoffman oughta be pimp-slapped for having all that powerful acting ability at his fingertips, and leaving it lost in space like that. The "Black Factor" [ObDisclaimer: We Are Not A Monolith]: The good news: there were no Black astronauts in this "futuristic" space flick to test out Diva's "Brotha Rule Of Science Fiction" (in which the Black astronaut/scientist/comic-relief is usually the first to die). The bad news: there were no Black astronauts in this "futuristic" space flick. The better news: there were no Black actors wasted in this stunningly boring space flick. Bammer's Bottom Line: It might be that Mars exploration is too far ahead of our time to allow filmmakers to create a good, realistic, adventurous Mars space flick just yet. Or it might be that with all the Modern Technology gizmos that we humans have, it's NASA that's behind the ball, not keeping up with *us*; who knows. One thing's for sure: until Classics like "The Jetsons" come to fruition, none of these "To Mars...And Beyond!" pretenders to the throne have a real prayer of impressing an increasingly techno-aware American Public. Unless, of course, they have "Star Wars" somewhere in the title. RED PLANET (rating: yellowlight): Crash-landing at a theater near you... Rose "Bams" Cooper Webchick and Editor, 3BlackChicks Review Movie Reviews With Flava! Copyright Rose Cooper, 2000 EMAIL: bams@3blackchicks.com http://www.3blackchicks.com/ -- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Nov 28 12:37:14 2000 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!news.tele.dk!128.230.129.106!news.maxwell.syr.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: Dennis Schwartz Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Red Planet (2000) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 24 Nov 2000 22:28:13 GMT Organization: None Lines: 135 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <8vmq1t$4inq$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer31.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 975104893 150266 (None) 140.142.17.39 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #26896 Keywords: author=schwartz X-Questions-to: graham@jetcity.com X-Submissions-to: graham@ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer31.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:25477 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2806 RED PLANET (director: Antony Hoffman; screenwriters: Chuck Pfarrer/Jonathan Lemkin, from a story by Pfarrer; cinematographer: Peter Suschitzky; editors: Robert K. Lambert/Dallas S. Puett; cast: Val Kilmer (Gallagher), Carrie-Anne Moss (Bowman), Tom Sizemore (Burchenal), Benjamin Bratt (Santen), Simon Baker (Pettingil), Terence Stamp (Chantilas); Runtime: 106; Warner Bros.; 2000) Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz The third dull Hollywood film about Mars in a little over a year, after Tim Burton's "Mars Attacks!" and "Mission to Mars." I would think that three strikes and you're out should apply to any more of these space bombs cast into theaters by producers with big budgets and small stories. This one's a nuts-and- bolts sci-fier that looks good but its dialogue is just terrible, with the capable cast unable to overcome the poorly plotted story and saying things like Val Kilmer is forced to say about Mars, "Things happen on Mars that are extreme and otherworldly." The story is a formula one, where the mission is to save the world and find missing algae needed to supply the world with oxygen. The characters are either undeveloped or predictable stock characters. The film itself is unconvincing, making the Mars-mission astronauts into a disharmonious team (which is hardly likely of ever happening, especially when this is known before the orbit, and the fact that it takes six months to reach their destination), and the unreality of the film is furthered by making one of them into a real villain, which seem far-fetched for an astronaut. South African director Anthony Hoffman directs without imagination, as the film seems to drag on at a lethargic pace. The "Red Planet" was also void of humor and the obstacles encountered by the astronauts seemed arbitrarily thrown into the film to purposefully give the film an excuse for the special effects to be the star. I think Hollywood should reevaluate its plans to make these special effect only films about Mars and see if they can go back to the drawing board and put some life into these stories about the Earth's last frontier. Those B-movies made in the 1950s on a shoestring budget were more entertaining to me than this large-scale leaden sci-fi adventure story. The film opens on the listless note it will maintain, unfortunately, throughout, as the serious Commander Bowman (Carrie-Anne Moss) will relate via her voiceover the purpose of the mission and introduce the crew, as she takes the viewer on a tour of the sleek aircraft. In 2050, the Earth is about to become unlivable from pollution. The most telling sign of this danger, is that all the frogs have died. The only way the human race can save itself is the Mars Terraforming Project, an attempt by scientists to create a habitable atmosphere based on the obtaining of oxygen- producing blue-green algae, which calls for colonizing Mars. An unmanned Mars project that was working has mysteriously malfunctioned, so an emergency mission commanded by Bowman is sent to get things straightened out. The introduction of the crew is done in the same tired formula style seen in countless films, as each member is labelled and doesn't move from that tag, except for the film's designated hero Gallagher (Val Kilmer), the ship's mechanical engineer, considered the least important person on the mission, a 'space janitor,' someone who has designs on Bowman, especially after seeing her beautiful tits when she comes out of the shower. Predictably, he becomes the most important member of the crew, saves the world and gets the only girl aboard the ship who isn't a mechanical robot. The other crew members are so boring and one-dimensional, that when they started getting picked off one by one, for one reason or another, I was rooting for a more efficient way of getting rid of them, maybe picking up the pace at two at a time killings. Burchenal (Tom Sizemore) is the head scientist, he writes code for genetics and doesn't believe in God and jokes about becoming Mars's new "king" and having Bowman be the "queen" to propagate the species. His counterpart, wouldn't you know it, is a believer in God, the resident scientist-philosopher, Chantilas (Terence Stamp). He is an arrogant preacher of the truth, who's only purpose in the film, is to rant on about the limitations of science, seemingly impressed by the sound of his own voice. Thankfully we got rid of him in the first wave of deaths. The two most repulsive crew members are the co-pilot, Santen (Benjamin Bratt), who is a tormentor of the others and an egomaniac, and the other is the agricultural specialist, Pettingill (Simon Baker), the villain, who is both a liar and a coward. This was some crew, lacking in credibility, wit and likability! The voyage runs into trouble from a gamma ray storm, disabling some of its equipment. The Mars lander descends to the surface with Gallagher, Burchenal, Santen, Pettengil and Chantilas. We then get into the special effects part of the film, the only thing the film can brag about, as there's a well-photographed crash landing scene. The five men become the first humans on Mars when their landing capsule roughly bounces upon the desert surface until finally rolling to a stop, as they are surrounded by airbag-like balloons. The barren red desert of Mars is breathtakingly beautiful, as the men trudge through it unable to find the algae that had been growing there. When they reach the spot that was created to house them safely for a two year period, they find it in ruins. The source of that destruction is a mystery, which the film never tries to explain. Did God do it? Maybe, an alien? It's an interesting theme, but this film was only able to grab onto its spectacular special effects (showing the Mars earth mysteriously moving) and by proving that there is life on Mars, and was not able to follow through on any ideas invested in the far-reaches of the story. There is one other passenger on their voyage, an all-utility tracking robot, AMEE, who is maintained by Gallagher. When AMEE goes mustang and can't be repaired, she starts attacking the men, aiming to destroy all of the them by going into a war mode, which gives the story another contrived plot. When ideas are quickly jettisoned, the film comes down to being a formula film, one of a rush against the clock to leave Mars in one piece, with Bowman, aboard the craft that is damaged by a solar flare, making emergency repairs and with the crew, now reduced to only the space janitor, trying to get back to the main craft and return to Earth with the knowledge to save humanity before it is too late. I thought the film lacked suspense, and the acting was only bearable, not giving this film too much of a chance to overcome its overall dullness. If you are the kind of viewer who goes bananas for technology, this film might seem better to you than what I thought of it, as that part of the film was stunning, indeed. But if you are interested in a lively story, then I'm afraid you wouldn't get that on this mission. REVIEWED ON 11/18/2000 GRADE: C Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews" http://www.sover.net/~ozus ozus@sover.net © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DENNIS SCHWARTZ -- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Dec 4 15:39:41 2000 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.ida.liu.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!surfnet.nl!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.direct.ca!look.ca!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: Steve Kong Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Red Planet (2000) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 30 Nov 2000 01:31:11 GMT Organization: None Lines: 64 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <904akv$ohm0$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer34.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 975547871 804544 (None) 140.142.17.39 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #26954 Keywords: author=kong X-Questions-to: graham@jetcity.com X-Submissions-to: graham@ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer34.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:25571 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2810 Red Planet (2000) Review by Steve Kong The Hard Boiled Movie Guide http://boiledmovies.sbay.com/ I love how Hollywood works. When a film about a particular subject or thing comes out there always seems to be another one about just that same thing on the heels of it. For example look at Speed and Blown Away (mad bombers), Antz and A Bug's Life (bugs), Matrix and eXistenZ (alternate reality). These types of films are always released a few months away from each other and I don't know why because invariably one is far superior to the next usually by a large margin. This year the thing that is being covered twice in theatres is a trip to Mars. The first out of the gates was Brian DePalma's terrible Mission to Mars. The second is Red Planet and Red Planet is what Mission to Mars should have been. Humans have finally polluted the Earth to the point where habitation on this planet is no longer viable. What is a species supposed to do? Go find another planet to ruin of course. And this is how Red Planet starts. The opening of the film sets up the story quickly via a voice-over by Command Kate Bowman (Carrie-Anne Moss). We meet the rest of the crew quickly, co-pilot Ted Santen (Benjamin Bratt), scientist Dr. Quinn Burchenal (Tom Sizemore), Chip Penttengill (Simon Baker), a religious scientist Chantias (Terence Stamp), and the space handyman Gallagher (Val Kilmer). Unlike Mission to Mars where a lot of time is spent watching the crew as they go to Mars, Red Planet makes the trip quick and easy. Much of Red Planet actually takes place on the planet Mars. What is interesting and also what drew me into the film was writer Chuck Pfarrer's (Darkman) notion of how we were going to make Mars inhabitable. Humans, seeing the demise of Earth, sent probes to Mars with algae. This algae worked to make an atmosphere on Mars and eventually the atmosphere would turn habitable and breathable. But, to the surprise of the humans somehow all the algae just disappeared one day. Gone. And it is this disappearance of the algae that the crew, headed by Bowman, is sent to investigate on Mars. The movie has a good and plausible explanation for the disappearance of the algae and it keeps you guessing throughout the film. Did I like Red Planet? Yes. I enjoyed the film thoroughly. Some might say that it's a bit long or a bit slow, but I thought it was a good solid piece of sci-fi moviemaking. Kudos to director Antony Hoffman and writer Chuck Pfarrer for putting together a believable and enjoyable film. The actors all do well. Carrie-Anne Moss again shows that she's up to par as an actress and that her first time out in The Matrix was not a fluke. (It's interesting to note that her character's name is a tip of the hat to the movie 2001's main character Bowman.) Val Kilmer is excellent as Gallagher. Kilmer has that exact smugness and immature that the Gallagher character calls for and Kilmer shines in the part. Of the other actors Terence Stamp puts out a good performance and so does Tom Sizemore (who is always a good and reliable supporting actor). The special effects in Red Planet were sufficiently good. The one that I loved the most was AMEE the robot that is supposed to navigate Mars for the ground crew. AMEE is frightening and though the robot is not always onscreen the frightening presence of "her" is always there. Red Planet is a good sci-fi flick. Catch it in theatres if you have a chance or catch it on video. Skip Mission to Mars, Catch Red Planet. -- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Dec 4 15:40:12 2000 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!skynet.be!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: "Berge Garabedian" Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Red Planet (2000) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 2 Dec 2000 02:04:47 GMT Organization: None Lines: 79 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <909lbv$8ldu$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer09.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 975722687 284094 (None) 140.142.17.40 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #27010 Keywords: author=garabedian X-Questions-to: graham@jetcity.com X-Submissions-to: graham@ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer09.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:25612 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2811 RED PLANET RATING: 5.5/10 --> Not good enough to recommend For more reviews and movie trailers, visit http://www.joblo.com/ The Mars jinx continues. First, Tim Burton fired off an empty shell with MARS ATTACKS, a film that managed to have a little fun with itself via the goofy-looking alien creatures, but very little else. Earlier this year, many of us experienced the stillborn child that was MISSION TO MARS, another film which also managed to give us one very cool special effect (the sandstorm, people...not the CGI alien!), but no real meat in its "story" department. And now six months later comes yet another sci-fi flick hoping to achieve at least one level of competency above the former films, but alas, once again, we are all left holding our ding-dongs. I guess it's up to director John Carpenter to bust out for the last hoorah. Expect GHOST OF MARS in theatres sometime next year. PLOT: This movie takes place in the year 2025. A crew of astronauts is stranded on the planet Mars with little hope of survival. Their situation is endangered further by the presence of a guerilla robot out for blood. Will their orbiting captain be able to help them get off the planet alive? Does anybody care? Let's find out. CRITIQUE: Blah. This movie felt a lot like a big-budget episode of TV's "Star Trek". Zero tension, a few cheap thrills (including a side shot of Carrie-Anne Moss exiting the showers, thank you very much), a tiny bit of action and a hardly noticeable story. They should have just called it STRANDED, since that was basically all that this movie was about. It just so happened to take place on the planet Mars, but they may as well have been stranded anywhere else with cavernous mountains and orange filters, cause this planet seemed to have no relevance to the actual story. What story, you may ask? Hmmmm, not sure. Other than the fact that these folks are deserted on this planet and looking for a way out, the film had very little else to offer. And is it me, or does the plot sound a lot like what is turning out to be the best sci-fi flick of the year, the low-budgeted PITCH BLACK? Who knew?! Fortunately for us, that film actually had a bad guy, a charismatic lead and some nasty alien muthas. This movie has got a "robot" who is supposed to be scary, running around making some buzzing noises, plenty of shots of crew members switching and clicking buttons in the cockpit and some nasty bugs, who looked almost as CGI as the pathetic "alien" at the end of MISSION TO MARS. The actors were all decent, but a couple, like Tom Sizemore and Terence Stamp, seemed to be there simply to cash a paycheck. Kilmer was good, but I believe he already played that very same character in THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU. But I suppose much of my disappointment with the film could've been resolved if they had actually spent some time building an interesting story or developing their characters, but neither aspect materializes here. The film was actually never boring for me, but neither was it ever exciting. And I'm not sure if this was just the theatre that I was in but damn, how about lowering the decibel level on some of those "crash" and "explosion" sequences? Jeez-Louise, my eardrums were about to bust out! A renter maybe, but nothing worth seeing in the theatres. This movie is yet another missed opportunity to build a great story around all of the mystery and unknown elements surrounding the red planet. This film had very little to do with Mars, even less to do with entertainment and contained yet another disposable sci-fi "romance". I certainly wouldn't qualify it as a horrible flick, watchable to be sure, but one which will undoubtedly be forgotten by most as they walk out of the theater. Review Date: November 10, 2000 Director: Antony Hoffman Writers: Chuck Pfarrer and Jonathan Lemkin Producers: Bruce Berman, Mark Canton and Jorge Saralegui Actors: Val Kilmer as Gallagher Tom Sizemore as Burchenal Carrie-Anne Moss as Bowman Genre: Science-Fiction Year of Release: 2000 ------------------------------------ JoBlo's Movie Emporium http://www.joblo.com/ ------------------------------------ (c) 2000 Berge Garabedian -- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Aug 8 16:02:17 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!luth.se!out.nntp.be!propagator-dallas!news-in-dallas.newsfeeds.com!feed.textport.net!sn-xit-04!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: Ram Samudrala Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Red Planet (2000) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Mon, 06 Aug 2001 20:41:15 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 29110 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 242679 X-RT-TitleID: 1101399 X-RT-SourceID: 302 X-RT-AuthorID: 29 Summary: r.a.m.r. #29110 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 51 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:27282 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2919 Red Planet http://www.ram.org/ramblings/movies/red_planet.html /Red Planet/ is a lot better than its counterpart, /Mission to Mars/, since it doesn't delve into some new-age theory of human origin to sustain a level of suspense and action. In the year 2025, Earth is on the verge of collapse, thanks to human abuse. Colonising Mars is the way to save the human species. Before that can be done, Mars has to be provided with a breathable atmosphere for humans. To do this, the planet is bombarded with algae spores that will grow and convert the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to oxygen. It's a nice idea in theory. Even though everything seems to work out fine initially, the algae starts to disappear. A team of scientists, along with their robotic pet navigator, is sent out to investigate. As the space ship is about to send a landing party to the surface, they experience a solar storm and have to make an emergency landing while their captain Bowman (Carrie-Anne Moss) stays behind. What happens next is a series of incidents that takes away the life of each of the crew members until only one is left standing. The first to go is Chantilas (Terrance Stamp) who has turned to philosophy since science can't explain everything (the irony here is that all the events in the movie are explained by science). Soon the astronauts start running out of oxygen, but as they are about to suffocate, they take off their helmets and find that the air is breathable! They decide to investigate, but have to deal with various conditions, deadlines, and the robot pet which is malfunctioning and is out to kill them. As they slowly die, they also uncover the secret of the missing algae and the oxygen atmosphere. The acting by the two leads, Val Kilmer and Carrie Anne Moss, is adequate. It's low key, but that's what makes the whole story work. /Red Planet/ is definitely a good time killer (I saw it on the plane). I recommend checking it out. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- email@urls || http://www.ram.org || http://www.twisted-helices.com/th Movie ram-blings: http://www.ram.org/ramblings/movies.html ========== X-RAMR-ID: 29110 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 242679 X-RT-TitleID: 1101399 X-RT-SourceID: 302 X-RT-AuthorID: 29