Mars Attacks!

Mars Attacks! is a wonderful sci-fi parody whose flimsy story drowns in a wealth of hilariously funny and visually fantastic individual scenes. It is the B-movies of the fifties and, not least, the media-hyped "Independence Day" that are in the firing line; a film that, more unwittingly than wittingly, became a parody of itself.

When UFOs surround the Earth, there is heated debate in President Dale's circle over whether the aliens are friendly or not. Professor Kessler convinces the president that the Martians should be received as if it were a state visit. The ugly little Martians with their big brains, childish manners and a language that sounds like the barking of a rabid dog do not come with good intentions, however – quite the opposite. Earth's civilisation is under heavy attack when young Richie and his senile grandmother discover that the dreadful songs of her favourite crooner make the Martians' brains splatter.

The stereotyped, caricatured characters and the film's blaze of colour make it resemble a comic strip, but small digs lie hidden behind all the superficial colouring-book imagery. It is very telling that the Martians clear out the power-hungry Washington types and the money-hungry Vegas businessmen, while it is mainly the children, the young and the old who come through in one piece.