ROLL M: Red Planet |
Red Planet (starring Val Kilmer, Benjamin Bratt, Carrie-Anne Moss, Simon Baker, Tom Sizemore; written by Chuck Pfarrer and Jonathan Lemkin; directed by Antony Hoffman; rated PG-13.)
Red Planet is a perfect sci-fi movie. Oh wait, it’s the year 2000. Okay, let me qualify that. Red Planet is a perfect 1958 sci-fi movie, the kind that would have found me spending hours at the movie theater seeing it over and over again when I was a kid. I loved the gee-whiz FX, the excitement and adventure of exploring a strange new world, the attention to detail that gives the viewer the general feeling of really being in space and on another planet.
But since we’re not living in the ’50s any longer, we’ve come to expect so much more from our SF films. We’re oh, so sophisticated, and we’ve forgotten how to be kids at a Saturday matinee, scarfing popcorn while taking a two-hour ride with our imaginations soaring.
Sorry, Mensans. You’re probably not going to agree with me, but I LIKED this movie (as opposed to most critics who dissed it with gusto). I liked the fact that the Martian sky looked just like those authentic Viking photos we’ve seen, with the rock-strewn landscape matching to the last pebble. I found this just the right mix of science and science fiction, light years beyond this year’s earlier Marsfest, Mission to Mars. Yes, there’s the robot run amok, and yes, there’s the dying guy who says “Go on without me, I’ll just slow ya down,” and yes, there are tons of cliches – they run out of air a lot, they’re eaten by bugs, the spaceship has only seconds to achieve orbit, etc. etc.
Corny? You betcha. Pop-corny and just plain fun, an e-ticket rocket ride. Find your inner child. Take her or him to the movies, buy some raisonettes. Sit back and enjoy the ride!
FOUR OWLS OUT OF FIVE