Escape from Mars

OK, I'm only about 30 minutes into watching this on SciFi even as I type, and Tom Kenny is all over this thing! He has tons of screen time and lines up the wazoo, but he isn't credited! Watch for him on the quaint little launch control set as the "countdown guy". I guess he's supposed to be the capcom, but the launch director does most of the talking to the crew.

OK, I'd better get back to watching this delightfully high-cholesterol space-soap-opera.

For a low budget movie I didn't think this one was all that bad. I've seen worse, in fact I used this film to try to wash the horrible taste of Star Trek Insurrection out of my mouth. Compared to that, this is Dickens stacked against Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.

However I am willing to admit that Escape from Mars has a few flaws. First and foremost the budget for special effects was about $6.50 plus what they could find in the change slot of local phone booths. This is probably what led most science fiction fans against this film. We're used to fantastic specials which create a real visual treat. To have that missing really hurts the film.

The second flaw is that the story, however realistic, is now standard for anyone who has read anything from the hard science genre. Whoever wrote this has obviously read Robinson and Bova as well as checked the NASA site every now and then. So I guess my complaint is that there were few surprises or new stuff.

Third is that the whole thing is shot on video which makes everything look cheap, like a news room set. There is little which looks realistic and one can feel a bit ripped off by the sets they have although I did notice a few nice touches in the background.

What saved this film in my opinion was the acting. Every actor in this film did a sterling job despite the problems. Many of us are used to some atrocious over-acting which is enough to make Jack Palance proud and me nauseous. Ironically it is the faults of this film which allow viewers to see what a hard job acting is. With limited special effects and poor sets you can see what normal actors see when they work. The large temptation is to over act but the entire cast bring out believable, human performances which is why I gave the film a 7.

When you compare this movie with Mission to Mars, in which Peter Outerbridge also appears, one sees that this product isn't that bad. First of all special effects, there arent' really any and I didn't miss them, but then I don't watch movies for special effects, I watch for human interactions and story. One effect plot device did bother me, on the way to Mars the ship (an oversize space shuttle)has these gyro appendages which spin, on the way back we don't see them being deployed (the originals were jettisoned when the reached mars) and I wondered why out and not back.

The acting was better than I expected, the actors just didn't have a of story to work with and the video made for a cheap look. Despite the flaws, I liked the people (although the Russian Casanova scene was very gratuitous and it certainly was more watchable than Dr. Who. It was nice that someone gave the concept a better budget and "remade" it as Mission to Mars, but in the end this one had as much story and was a better movie because it wasn't as pretentious. Of course the latter had more special effects than a Britney spears concert . . .

International group goes to mars and gets hit by a meteor shower while there. That's about the whole plot as the story focuses mainly on how the characters interact. Some people may like that but that's not why i watch a sci-fi film. The star is christine elise who plays lia, one of the two commanders. Two commanders sounds like an oxymoron to me but that's what they do. She's a cute little thing and very watchable. There's a Russian guy adropov, who sounds just like chekhov in the old star trek TV show but unfortunately doesn't have chekhov's charm. A really nauseating joe cool clown who flirts with the girls all the time. The rest of the cast is strictly cardboard. A low budget movie that i rate as C-.

The first manned mission to Mars is launched in 2015 (on my birthday, of all days!) and troublesome issues, both technical and personal, plague the crew.

While the scientific/technical problems reach their conclusions, you never really get the feeling the personal issues are there or sufficiently dealt with. "Escape from Mars" kept reminding me of the book "Mars Underground" by William K. Hartmann - scientifically strong, but lacking in good character development.

Don't expect to deeply care for the characters no matter how tender-hearted you are; you're just not given anything substantial (though the movie tries) to get emotional over.

It seems that there simply was too much too tell and too little movie to tell it all completely. Perhaps another hour would have permitted an adequate exploration of the inner-conflicts of each crew member. For those who mainly like sci-fi stories "Escape from Mars" rates well. At least, worth viewing once.