Mars 2056

There is a lot of terribly negative reviews of this movie. I can certainly see why. There are parts of this movie which seem incoherent, unnecessary and silly; I will not lie. The Plot is thin, but the Protagonist, Caution Templar, (Olivier Gruner) gives a performance that is on par with the likes of Chuck Norris or Steven Segal. That may not be your forte, and that is fine. If it isn't, then you may wish to watch something else, if however you like seeing the protagonist kick butt all the way through and not even get touched, this might be for you. Caution Templar is a member of a Mining Company's police force. His brother was as well. Caution is there to investigate his brother's disappearance and death. He kick-boxes his way through henchmen and finds out why his brother is killed. On his way he meets Doc Halliday (Shari Bellfonte) and they work together. He also meets an irritating sidekick and I was thankful to see he didn't have much in the movie. This is a C+ movie. It is not ground breaking stuff by far, but given the facts in the trivia, that this movie was shot in an old shopping mall on 1 million dollars budget and a short time, it is not terrible. It will not compete with Total Recall or other A list Mars movies, but it is like your first car, rough around the edges, but gets you there. It is worth your time if you can see past a few faults.

This has to be one of the worst movies I have seen. I generally like science fiction and was interested in it because it was a Mars based movie. It was hard to completely watch it though. The acting was poor and the editing was horrible. Scenes would cut to other scenes or jump around making it hard to follow the movie. The story line is really pretty weak with transparent characters and very little plot. It is pretty easy to predict what is going to happen by the end of the movie. There are some interesting fight scenes but that is about the only positive aspect of the movie. This is obviously a lower budget made for video movie. But all in all do not waste your time. There are much better science fiction movies out there.

Do you know what this movie reminded me of, Chuck Norris on steriods and trapped on Mars. That's all. The plot did not make any sense what-so-ever. The movie started right away with no explaination of what the story was about, only a guy running through a tunnel. It sounded like this guy was having sex by all of the panting that was going on. Then his brother shows up, this Caution fellow, never smiles (not once), and then starts the Chuck Norris on steriods bit. This movie had nothing to do with Sci-Fi. It should have been listed under Action not Drama/Sci-Fi. Usually in Drama's you can figure out what the movie is somewhat about. One other thing upset me, was that Caution had this sidekick, who reminded me of the mouse in those cartoons that would circle the bigger/stronger mouse again and again and say stuff like, "what are we going to do boss?, are we going to hurt..." stuff like that.

My advice, save your coins. Go buy a soda, it'll feel better in the end.

OK, so it's been a few years since I watched this movie, and I'll have to dig it out of my collection and rewatch it one of these days, however I have to say that while this movie didn't thrill me, it's no where near the worst movies out there.

Just in case you're at a bargain bin and you see, say, this movie and "King of the Ants", or "King Kong Lives", or maybe "Ghost Rock", then by all means take home Mars. It's the classic line you get from the second worse team in a league: "We don't suck the worst". I've definitely seen worse. A cop gets a message from his brother that sends him to Mars where he finds his brother is dead. With the help of a local babe he has to biatch-slap his way around to find out what's going on. So, it's pretty much a Hollywood plot retread, but as I mentioned it's sure not the worst you can do in a pinch.

The budget for Mars was about $1 million US. That wasn't much money, and almost all of it went to the film's paltry CGI effects, and one explosion scene.

The film was shot by a first time director in an abandoned shopping mall. Most of the places you see in the film are converted retail stores like Gap or Foot Locker. The surface of mars is a truckload of sand that someone dumped in the food court and died red. If you look closely at the costumes, you can see that the futuristic breathing equipment is made from pool toys that were spray-painted black. You just can't make this stuff up.

Sharon Belafonte tries to make a comeback in this film... and fails. She looks good for her age though. Grunier does a good Terminator impression, as in, shows little or no emotion for the whole film.