There's a lot of hubbub about Snakes on a Plane lately, how it is reviving the b-movie and ushering in a new era of moviemaking. Whatever. I may have just made that up. But last night I saw a movie that I had known about but never watched before. It was made by Tim Burton in 1996 and in my opinion is the prototypical b-movie: Mars Attacks!
I was stunned by many things about this movie. First thing, the cast. It's the ultimate six degrees film. Marcia asked me who was in it and I said, "Everybody. Everybody's in it." And that's not far off. Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Natalie Portman, Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan, Martin Short, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jack Black, Pam Grier, Jim Brown, Tom Jones, Danny DeVito, Michael J. Fox, just to name a few. The acting is superb. And by that, I don't mean good, I mean hilariously over-the-top. Such nuance and dedication, it's amazing to me that these good actors are so good that they pull off being bad actors so perfectly. Especially Pierce Brosnan. Wow.
The special effects are heralded on the back of the DVD as being state-of-the-art but they just look fake by today's standards. And this totally works. It makes the movie even more convincing. I just loved the fake aliens, the fake irridescent skeletons, all that. It was great. The plot is nearly non-existant. In keeping with b-movies, the title sums it up: Mars attacks. There are so many comedic scenes, it's hard to keep up. When the aliens show up at a Tom Jones concert and start blasting everyone, I laughed so hard I almost woke up Marcia.
I can't say enough good about this movie. Rent it, buy it, enjoy every cheesy second of it. I know I'm going to.
1 comment:
have you seen snakes on a plane?!? oh my gosh, seriously funniest movie i've seen this year. i don't know if i really think that b-movies should make a come back, but this one was worth seeing. totally awesome.
oh, and i think i saw gretchen gustafson at the state fair in a marching band. seriously.
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