Les marrrtiens !

I first saw this movie in 1990 when it first came out on video. I agree that it is total nonsense, but it is also one of the funniest movies that I have ever seen. The very idea that a group of "advanced aliens" would be running for thier lives from a bunch of country hicks is totally side-spliting. Why do all science fiction movies have to be about murderous beings? This group of Imperial Martian Atomic Navy misfits reminds me of some of the idiots that I knew in the army! No wonder they were left on asteroid patrol while the rest of the fleet went to war. Leave this movie alone. We need more like it.

I thought this would be another goofball ET ripoff (like the awful "Nookie"), but it is, instead is light-heartedly enthusiastic, with clever dialog, and a generally don't-take-ourselves-too-seriously attitude that makes this a great late-night (or late-saturday-afternoon) entertainment. Give it a watch! "That's it! Take me to a Government Lab, and cut me into wafer thin sections."

Or if you *are* kids. An earlier reviewer at this site called it one of the worst films he'd ever sat through, and I must admit that it's not great film-making. It's not SUPPOSED to be great film-making. Don't go into it expecting any great revelations, any high-tech effects. In fact, don't *expect* anything. Just take it on it's own terms and you'll probably like it. Light-hearted fun.

I understand many will think "Spaced Invaders" a lame farce about little green men trying to take over Earth; but believe me, compared to "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," which I have just finished watching with my family, "Spaced Invaders," along with "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" and "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids", makes me weep with nostalgia for how low Disney has fallen in quality. While "Spaced Invaders" is the film of least quality of the trio I mentioned, it nonetheless has a cheeky sense of humor, with a wonderful script and actors (er, voice-over artists for the Martians) who make this film highly watchable (and with no lame CGI effects of dragons or fireballs to ruin the fun!).

The Martians themselves make a great team. Their antics and delusions of grandeur are insanely fun to watch. One person compared the ostensible military commander of the Martians to Invader Zim, the protagonist from the eponymous Nickelodeon cult classic, and I think it is an apt comparison. Why does one Martian have a Jack Nicholson voice? I don't care, and I love it. Enjoy the futile attempts of the Martians to get their jalopy of a spacecraft to go airborne, and their desperate fight against the hicks and yokels of Big, Bean, Illinois. The human robot slave is one of the coolest sidekicks I've seen, and his creation, a robot made from tractors and other farm machinery, is one of the best special effects I've seen in a Disney movie. How can you hate his best line: "the smell of battery acid makes me thirsty!"? Answer: you can't.

This is one movie where you root for the alien invaders all the way. The human, denizens of a small Midwestern farming town, are made to be less than sympathetic characters, especially the wicked banker named Clembecker (or whatever his name was). One of the good humans is a brilliant example of character design, a crazy, wiry old farmer named Wrenchmuller who has a way with words and with nitroglycerin. The kid in the duck costume who also speaks with a lisp is also fun to watch, though he isn't in the film all that much.

Don't take "Spaced Invaders" too seriously as a film, nor look for any important theme or message. Sit back and enjoy Disney before CGI and Jerry Bruckheimer eliminated any camp value the company once had.

Stupid? Yes.

Laughable? Yes, again.

Fun? Definitely!

This movie accomplishes it's primary goal: entertain and have fun. That's all a good movie need do.

Worth a rent, at least one time.