Mars Attacks! A Movie Review	MPAA Rated - PG-13 It's 1:43 Long A Review by Stu Gotz

Not wanting to take a chance on spending a lot of money on a bad movie, The Dude on the Right and I set out to see "Mars Attacks!" at a matinee showing the day it opened. Actually we're just cheap, we even go see the good movies at the matinee showings. So what's the verdict? "You're either gonna love this movie or hate it" said the Dude on the Right to me as we exited the theater. Well I loved the movie.

Remember all those bad Sci-Fi movies they used to show on the UHF (in an age of cable and satellite dishes does anyone know what UHF is anymore?) channels on Saturday afternoons when you were growing up? The shows were usually called something like "The Creature Feature" and showed all those classic Godzilla movies or movies about mad scientists. Remember how hoakie the dialogue was and the special effects were pretty bad too? "Mars Attacks!" is just like one of those old movies. It may be in color, it may be set in modern day, and it even has an award winning cast, but through bad dialogue, purposely tacky special effects (and some really great ones), and over-zealous acting, "Mars Attacks!" comes off as being just a cheesy as those old horrible classics of the 50's and 60's. This is all on purpose. That is the charm of this movie, and that's what makes this movie work.

So what's the movie about? "Mars Attacks!" - What more needs be said. To tell you any more would be like me telling you that the chick in "The Crying Game" is really a guy and thereby spoil the movie. Oops. I hope you've already seen "The Crying Game," but as for "Mars Attacks!," if you must know, let me put it to you this way. Did you see "Independence Day" this summer? Of course you did. Everyone did. That was a good special effects movie, and it had some great action. Right? But let's face it, it was corny. Ever see the Ed Wood cult classic "Plan 9 From Outer Space?" It was simply a terrible movie yet is revered by so many. "Mars Attacks!" is a little of both these movies. I without reservation recommend that you lay out your hard earned 8 bucks to go see "Mars Attacks!." I give "Mars Attacks!" 4.5 stars out of 5 and I'm Stu Gotz!

Dude on the Right here: Usually I'll just let Stu Gotz speak his peace and leave it at that, but this time I've got to throw in some thoughts and suggestions if you plan on seeing "Mars Attacks!"! First off, I don't think I've seen a movie with this many stars, and you know, don't get too attached to them because the little green dudes seem to hate everyone. Secondly, if you go to this movie expecting a sci-fi thriller, or one of the best comedies in the world, you might as well just head back home and save the bucks - this movie is about spoofing movies and the laughs are not gut-busting (at least not for me) but keep you chuckling. Thirdly, unless they give Oscars for talented actors portraying tacky actors portraying bad characters, don't expect too many nominations from this movie, except maybe for the little Chihuahua. And lastly, I think Tim Burton should have given Christina Applegate a larger role in the film. Oh yea, one more thing, any film with Tom Jones automatically gets the "go to" nod from me. Basically, I like the movie because I was expecting it to be just what it was - a cheesy spoof on the classic Martian movies of yesteryear.

That's if for me on this one, I'm The Dude on the Right! L8R!!