Warner Bros., 1996
starring: Jack Nicholson, Jim Brown, Lukas Haas, Pierce Brosnan
directed by: Tim Burton

the plot: The people of Earth discover that there is, in fact, life on Mars when a fleet of Martian flying saucers surrounds the earth. Pompous scientist Dr. Donald Kessler (Brosnan) believes that, given the Martians’ advanced technology and culture, they must be peaceful. President James Dale (Nicholson) urges everyone to stay calm and arranges for first contact to take place in Nevada. But calm and peace are in short supply when the Martians start zapping everything and everyone with green death rays. As Martians destroy humanity in a variety of darkly funny ways, some humans elect to fight back. Byron Williams (Brown), a former heavyweight boxer, ditches his job at a Las Vegas casino to punch Martians in their abnormally-large heads and fight his way back to his family in New York. Meanwhile, Kansas teen Richie Norris (Haas) unwittingly discovers a secret weapon that may send the Martians back to the red planet.

why it’s good: Moviegoers in 1996 were confronted with a stark choice: an alien invasion movie in which hope, patriotism, and Randy Quaid save the day, and another alien invasion flick in which Tom Jones packs a machine gun and Slim Whitman records can wipe out all Martians. Unsurprisingly, “Independence Day” was the hit of the year and Tim Burton’s “Mars Attacks!” was not. But, now that the Curiosity rover is up on Mars and Burton has begun re-making his own movies (a full-length version of “Frankenweenie” is due later this year), it’s time to revisit “Mars Attacks!”  The follow-up to Burton’s “Ed Wood,” the film was, depending on your tastes, either the last in a string of masterful dark fantasy/comedies from Burton, or the first in a string of uneven films too wrapped up in their own aesthetic. It’s remarkable that Burton managed to convince Warner Bros. to allow him to make a big-budget film with an incredible A-list cast (joining Nicholson are Danny DeVito, Glenn Close, Annette Benning, Rod Steiger, Natalie Portman, and Pam Grier, just to name a few), most of whom are dispatched via colorful disintegrator rays. A fanciful playground for the director, “Mars Attacks!” is Burton’s homage to the 1962 Topps trading card set that inspired the movie, a love letter to ’50s sci-fi and ’70s disaster films, and a counterpoint to the rah-rah patriotism of “Independence Day.” It’s not a great movie, nor is it Burton’s best work, but it has the sort of cheerful darkness and surreal humor that’s been lacking in his more recent films.

why you should own it: If you haven’t seen “Mars Attacks!” since it was released almost 20 years ago, it might be time for another viewing. The Warner Bros. DVD is relatively bare bones, with cheap copies easy to come by. Skip Burton’s tepid reboot of “Dark Shadows” and get a dose of Martian mayhem instead.