Mars Attacks! (1996)

Mars Attacks! rating: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic

IMDb6.4/10· 255K votes

Rotten Tomatoes57%

Metacritic52%

TMDb6.421/10· 6K votes

With 57% on Rotten Tomatoes, backed by 6.4/10 on IMDb and 52/100 on Metacritic, critical reception of this film has been mixed.

About Mars Attacks!

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 receives assurance from science professor Donald Kessler 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.

Cast of Mars Attacks!

• 

  Jack Nicholson

  as President Dale / Art Land

• 

  Glenn Close

  as Marsha Dale

• 

  Annette Bening

  as Barbara Land

• 

  Pierce Brosnan

  as Donald Kessler

• 

  Danny DeVito

  as Rude Gambler

• 

  Martin Short

  as Jerry Ross

• 

  Sarah Jessica Parker

  as Nathalie Lake

• 

  Michael J. Fox

  as Jason Stone

• 

  Rod Steiger

  as General Decker

• 

  Tom Jones

  as Tom Jones

• 

  Lukas Haas

  as Richie Norris

• 

  Natalie Portman

  as Taffy Dale

Mars Attacks! facts

Budget

$70M

Box office

$101.4M

Our take on Mars Attacks!

Tim Burton turns the alien-invasion movie into a gleeful comedy of manners in this 1996 blend of science fiction and fantasy. When a fleet of Martian saucers surrounds Earth's great cities, President James Dale trusts a professor's assurance that the visitors come in peace, only for a supposedly friendly exchange to end in the wholesale destruction of Congress and calls for nuclear retaliation. Burton stages the chaos with deadpan glee, skewering political vanity and human self-importance rather than aiming for suspense. It rewards viewers who enjoy campy, satirical spectacle and a large ensemble played for absurdity, and it will frustrate anyone expecting a straight-faced invasion thriller.