jetan

I liked it. Old-fashioned, hokey derring-do. Whore with heart of gold? Check. Impossibly fast gunfighters? Check. Unbelievably bloody climactic gunfight at the end with bodies strewn everywhere? Check, check, check. What's not to like? In the good old days, Audie Murphy would have played the hero who is so straight arrow that one is surprised that he doesn't order a glass of milk in the saloon scenes. Furthermore, I could watch the actress who plays Cassie May for a long time without complaining. I admit that this one is in no way original, but that really isn't the point. If you ever hear yourself complain that they don't make 'em like they used to, then you really ought to give this one some love.

I watch all movies that are based on ERB novels. All of 'em. I think I even watched that Bo Derek nightmare. But I could not go the distance on this dog. As has been mentioned, the martians are quite grotesque and this makes one wonder why they cast Ms. Lords. The effects, I concede, are surprisingly credible given the low budget. The problem lies in the atrocious script. It is as dull as an old knife. A Burroughs flick can be a lot of things, but boring should not be one of them. Even on a skimpy budget, I could have done a better adaptation than this. So could your eight year old child or perhaps your Border Collie. If you loved the book as I did, you simply must stay away from this. It will actually hurt you.

I quite like this film, and I suspect that it will become better regarded as time goes on. The long tracking shot that begins the movie as the credits roll is so artfully and subtly done that one almost misses what a very long tracking shot it is....And I say that as someone who does not like DePalma's work and generally regards him as the most unsubtle and derivative of directors. This one take earns him big-time director's chops.

It is difficult to see how a hard SF fan could be disappointed by Mission To Mars. The effort at technological verisimilitude is really commendable and is largely persuasive. There aren't very many really hard SF movies out there and,at it's best, this one conjures up memories of Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars novels. The film only misses fire at the end due to the gooey, sentimental and thoroughly anthropomorphic alien (Tear ducts? Gimme a break.) Not an action flick in the least, but lots of points for intelligence. No 2001, but coming off second-best to Kubrick isn't so bad.