Starring: Gary Sinise, Tim Robbins, Don Cheadle, Connie Nielsen, Jerry O'Connell Directed By: Brian De Palma Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) Binding: DVD Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Special Edition, Widescreen, NTSC Label: Walt Disney Video Number of Items: 1 Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen Region Code: 1 Release Date: June 04, 2002 Running Time: 113 minutes Theatrical Release Date: 2000
Description: From the director of MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE comes the thrilling, eye-popping science fiction adventure MISSION TO MARS, starring Gary Sinise (SNAKE EYES) and Tim Robbins (HIGH FIDELITY). The year is 2020, and the first manned mission to Mars, commanded by Luke Graham (Don Cheadle, OCEANS 11), lands safely on the red planet. But the Martian landscape harbors a bizarre and shocking secret that leads to a mysterious disaster so catastrophic, it decimates the crew. Haunted by a cryptic last message from Graham, NASA launches the Mars Recovery Mission to investigate and bring back survivors -- if there are any. Confronted with nearly insurmountable dangers, but propelled by deep friendship, the team finally lands on Mars and makes a discovery so amazing, it takes your breath away. MISSION TO MARS is an action-packed rocket ride that will enthrall you with its stunning special effects and keep you on the edge of your seat.
Amazon.com: If Brian De Palma directed Mission to Mars for 10-year-olds who've never seen a science fiction film, he can be credited for crafting a marginally successful adventure. Isolated moments in this film serve the highest purpose of its genre, inspiring a sense of wonder and awe in the context of a fascinating future (specifically, the year 2020). But because most of us have seen a lot of science fiction films, it's impossible to ignore this one's derivative plot, cardboard characters, and drearily dumb dialogue. Despite an awesome and painstakingly authentic display of cool technology and dazzling special effects, Mission to Mars is light years away from 2001: A Space Odyssey on the scale of human intelligence.
After dispensing with a few space-jockey clichés, the movie focuses on a Mars-bound rescue mission commanded by Jim McConnell (Gary Sinise), whose team (Tim Robbins, Connie Nielsen, Jerry O'Connell) has been sent to retrieve the sole survivor (Don Cheadle) of a tragic Mars landing. During the sequence en route to Mars, De Palma's in his element with two suspenseful scenes (including a dramatic--albeit somewhat silly--space walk) that are technically impressive. But when this Mission gets to Mars, the movie grows increasingly unconvincing, finally arriving at an alien encounter that more closely resembles an astronomical CGI video game. But this is a $75 million Hollywood movie, and no amount of technical wizardry can lift the burden of a juvenile screenplay. Kudos to Sinise, his costars, and the special effects wizards for making the most of hoary material; shame on just about everyone else involved. --Jeff Shannon
the folks that dubbed this 1 star are.........uh, stupid! Short and to the point: Great movie for the athiest/sci-fi crowd. I absolutely loved the movie. I would give my left testicle to be Gary Sinise in that movie. The one star people are more than likely hard core Christian morons.
"We're millions of miles from Earth in a giant white face...what's impossible?" The Good Things *The DVD is of good video/sound quality. *Includes a number of good special features; featurettes, commentary, production art gallery, DVD-ROM stuff, and the trailer. *Quite a few excellent special effects. *Good cameramanship. *I thought that the story was great. It presented an intriguing mystery (the Cydonian sphinx, which has been actually sighted on Mars' surface) and a clever solution to it. *Characters are not bad. *Music was not bad.
The Bad Things *It is slowly-paced and has no real conflict. It looks like most people find it too boring. *Not for kids. Even though it is rated PG, it does include one scene at the beginning that has some brief gnarly violence.
The Questionable Things *Some people may find the film's final answer unbelievable, or perhaps even blasphemous (I thought it was interesting, though). Could also be considered predictable. *I swear, sometimes, it feels like this movie rips off "2001: A Space Odyssey" so much. Style and production design are very similar. *I didn't mind the writing or the acting, but lots of other people seem to find them disagreeable.
Despite the slow-pacing, I've always enjoyed this space opera for its neat special effects and its intriguing story. Granted that "2001" is better in many ways, I think this film is more accessable and easier to follow. I think it's great, and would reccomend it to anybody who is interested in space-opera type sci-fi.
Low (brow), Slow (moving); sadly disappointing I stumbled onto this movie tonight, knew nothing about it in advance, and decided to watch because of the great cast. All I can say is "WOW." Hard to believe this was ever really shown in a movie theater.
REALLY slow pacing (which actually gets SLOWER as the movie goes on); really poorly written dialogue (full of cliches and "captain obvious" descriptions of what is going on); very erratic quality of special effects; pretentious/overblown/self-important attitude tacked onto a storyline that could have been written by an 8 year old. And the music. Oh the music. Really bizarre, often inappropriate to the situation.
Poor Tim Robbins and Gary Sinise. They are great actors who probably cringe when they see this come on late night t.v..
Mission To Mars,I Loved It! I just watched my library's copy of this last night. My first time seeing it,and I think it's a great Sci-Fi movie.Very original,interesting, and 'surprising' story.
I enjoyed everything about it,except the music is really lame.
It is well worth the time to watch.
Uggh! Ughh! I feel sorry for all of the amazing talent involved in this film. Every one of the actors, the director & composer are capable of solid work and it does not show one bit. It painful to watch as cliche after cliche is SLOWLY marched before you to wonder over. There are so many holes in this story's logic. The main violation is the script, but I feel the direction for this was just off as well. Disney's rediculous RocketMan about a trip to Mars is a much better film (and that's as silly as a film can get).
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