I watched it once, and my main takeaway was that the material and gags made for a hilarious trailer (at least the first time I saw the trailer) but lost a lot of its edge when stretched out into a whole movie. It really started to get repetitive and uninteresting for me after a while. The vaporizing of congress was funny and unexpected in the trailer, but in the actual movie the aliens had already vaporized a number of people by that point so it definitely didn’t have the same effect. (Not to mention that most of the best gags were already shown in the trailers.)
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My friends and I all loved it.
This may make a good litmus test for possible friends: Do you like Mars Attacks?
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Yeah I remember thinking “this premise would have made for a great offbeat episode of Tales from the Crypt” (if it had been possible to produce those kinds of effects on a TV budget back then).
By the time the Martians finally killed the President I felt nothing, because they’d already done the “let’s pretend to be moved by calls for peace and then murder everyone” thing several times already.
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I feel like Peewee’s Big Adventure also belongs in the underrated early Burton category.
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Still my favorite Sweeney:
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Tom Reimann at Collider offers some propers.
@garethb2 I’m intrigued. What is a ‘proper’ in this context?
(Some sort of usage I’ve not seen before. Or did you mean ‘pointers’, perhaps? I genuinely have no idea, here.)
Anyway, I’ve always rated Mars Attacks - a very good film, on more than one level.
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So, (in the excerpt) is explained why it’s an OK movie (I like Mars
Attacks!) but not so much as to WHY it is underrated.
What’s with that, huh?
I like Tim Burton as a director.
There are directors that I enjoy a lot more.
You’ve heard the word “props” on many occasions I’ll wager.
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I never knew why it didn’t get the props it deserved. Tom Reimann at Collider offers some propers.
He used the word ‘props’ in the previous sentence. It is apparently short for ‘proper respect’. Why not use it again if that is what he meant? I have never seen the usage ‘propers’ before.
But then I found this which references the 1980s and 1960s. So, somewhat archaic usage, then. 
Slang term for “accolades”, “proper respect”, or “just dues”. Popularized in the 1980s by rappers who shortened the term “propers” which was in turn being used as an abbreviated version of “proper respect” at least by the 1960s. The increase in this term’s usage during the late 1980s and early 1990s coincided with an increasing fascination with the mafia within rap circles. Both communities have traditionally placed great emphasis on the importance of earning and giving respect.
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Pee-wee’s Big Adventure is definitely a quirky gem but it was always more of Paul Reubens’ baby than Tim Burton’s. Except maybe for this part:
That’s why Burton didn’t do any other projects for two years after Pee-Wee. In his own words:
“I was being offered any bad comedy,” he recalls. “It was a case of, you do a bad comedy, you get offered all the bad comedies.”
So while Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure put him on the map Beetlejuice was the first feature film that really showcased Burton’s own (then) groundbreaking and unique storytelling aesthetic.
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You and I often disagree, but on Mad Sweeney, we’re violent agreement… He and Anasi are easily my favorite characters on the show. I think one of the best things they did was give them both more character development than they got in the book…
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Back in that small period of time when DVDs were still a “thing” and so we were able to have extras like director commentaries*, ISTR that this one had a commentary track from the Martians…
(I understand that some of the streaming services are trying to bring this particular feature back. Good for them.)
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The most obvious example I can think of is in Otis Redding’s Respect. I’m sure there are earlier examples, but nothing that springs immediately to mind.
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Same here. For me it is the only movie ever I walked out of. I was 22 when I first saw it, and that was 24 years ago, so maybe it’d be different seeing it now, but… I doubt it.
Did you ever try to watch Paris, Texas?
Maybe you have to be a fan of SF movies to love Mars Attacks!
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add me to the chorus of “where’s Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure??”
that being said, we loved Mars Attacks from the word go. what a hilarious romp of a spoof it is. we quote “ACK! ACK! ACK!” and “Do not run – we are your friends!” as a normal, persistent phrase, an inside joke of sorts. i’m surprised more people don’t like it. it’s such over the top fun – everything about it seems to be accompanied by a huge wink at the audience.
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Yup, agree. I wanted to like it more than I actually liked it because it’s goofy fun right in the middle of a venn diagram of things I enjoy but I remember thinking it just dragged too long.
But it makes me nostalgic for a time when blowing up congress was funny and not something people tried to do just last month.
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Same with me. In my circle of friends it would have been overrated if that would have been possible. But of course it’s impossible to overrate mars attacks!.
