Mars Attacks!

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Mars Attacks!

PG-13

1996

1h 43m

Comedy

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

56%

Tomatometer

91 Reviews

53%

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250,000+ Ratings

A fleet of Martian spacecraft surrounds the world's major cities and all of humanity waits to see if the extraterrestrial visitors have, as they claim, "come in peace." U.S. President James Dale (Jack Nicholson) receives assurance from science professor Donald Kessler (Pierce Brosnan) that the Martians' mission is a friendly one. But when a peaceful exchange ends in the total annihilation of the U.S. Congress, military men call for a full-scale nuclear retaliation.

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Critics Consensus

Tim Burton's Mars Attacks! faithfully recreates the wooden characters and schlocky story of cheesy '50s sci-fi and Ed Wood movies -- perhaps a little too faithfully for audiences.

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Marc Lee

Daily Telegraph (UK)

Jul 16

Too often we are served silliness rather than wit.

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Bernard Zuel

Sydney Morning Herald

Apr 29

You watch this understanding that the ready irony and lampooning of American mores here is exactly what the makers of Independence Day forgot.

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Mark Salisbury

Empire Magazine

12/07/2018

4/5

A giddily madcap, surreal, sardonic satire that sets out to be deliberately cheesy.

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Dan DiNicola

The Daily Gazette (Schenectady, NY)

Apr 10

B-

It's a novelty, an outlandish succession of scenes, some funny, a few memorable and as the movie drags on, more than a few, tiresome.

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John Beifuss

Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)

Feb 9

3.5/4

Mars Attacks is a candy-colored comic book come to life.

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Justin Brown

Medium Popcorn

07/02/2025

3/5

This was a wild movie with enough fun moments to keep me surprisingly entertained throughout.

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Bucky R

@Bucky3085 1d

Still funny after all these year. Ridiculous start to finish!

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Mila V

@RT49866762 Jul 18

Absolutely ridiculous and wonderful. Excellent cast.

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Justin L

@leejustin268 Jun 26

Yeah what they think of films and movies out then and the ones to come. Moooortal kooombat Oh forgot . Have fun with movies like this The giant klaw.

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Anthony S.

@SpraAnt Jun 14

Tim Burton generally brings a quirky and creative flare to any project he works on. However a creative vision does not always equal a good movie... Mars Attacks seeks to get your attention a thousand different ways. Using a mix of Guest Stars, Special Effects, and Darkly Humorus Situations to draw us in. This means however that the movie struggles to keep us focused on any one plot thread... We follow a vast assortment of characters all of which experience personal tragedies to some degree. Yet because there are so many guest stars, few get much characterization. The most interesting thing about this movie to me, is watching so many actors trying to make the best of what little time they have in the movie. If anything, I wish we could have seen the martians do more wacky crazy antics. I mean, we see them do insane things on their ship. Things, I'd argue, that are alot more terrifying than simply vaporizing the public. But I digress, overall... it's just an ok movie.

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James H

@Pythion Jun 6

Not even a star studded cast could rescue this movie. I found myself skipping ahead often to lessen the torture. Maybe if it had been one of those "It's so bad it's good" kind of bad movies I could have endured, but instead it was one of those "It's just bad" movies.

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Canned T.

@RT40847707 May 16

It's funny, ironic, yet thrilling all at the same time, its definitely not one of the best alien/Si Fi movies out there, but a fun watch nonetheless.

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Tim Burton

Director

Jack Nicholson

President James Dale

Glenn Close

First Lady Marsha Dale

Annette Bening

Barbara Land

Pierce Brosnan

Professor Donald Kessler

Danny DeVito

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Synopsis

A fleet of Martian spacecraft surrounds the world's major cities and all of humanity waits to see if the extraterrestrial visitors have, as they claim, "come in peace." U.S. President James Dale (Jack Nicholson) receives assurance from science professor Donald Kessler (Pierce Brosnan) that the Martians' mission is a friendly one. But when a peaceful exchange ends in the total annihilation of the U.S. Congress, military men call for a full-scale nuclear retaliation.

Director: Tim Burton
Producer: Tim Burton, Larry J. Franco, Laurie Parker
Screenwriter: Woody Gelman, Bob Powell, Norman Saunders
Production Co: Warner Brothers
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Comedy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Dec 12, 1996, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Aug 15, 2008
Box Office (Gross USA): $37.8M
Runtime: 1h 43m
Sound Mix: Surround