Well I just finished typing up my review of Vertical Limit and I moved on to do a review of this turkey and the state that Chris O'Donnell's career made me think of the parallel's between him and Val Kilmer who stars in this. Both had early promise and starred in a few good movies with interesting acting, but now both appear to be heading downward towards hack work in their careers.

Woops, nearly forgot that I was supposed to be reviewing Red Planet here, but you know what I'm like when I go off on a bit of a rant!

Buy the Poster!

Red Planet is a bit of an anachronism, it is so obviously meant to be a summer event movie, but they release it in winter, plus it is released six months after Mission To Mars which was so bad that it destroyed any enthusiasm anyone might have had for another Mars movie. So is this movie actually any good?

Well both Carrie Ann Moss and Tom Sizemore manage to rise above the maerial and turn in creditable performances with the weak material they are given to work with.

Val Kilmer however turns in yet another carbon copy of his Iceman role from Top Gun. Oooh how exciting, that was how many years ago?

The story of Red Planet concerns man's destruction of Earth's atmosphere and man's desperate need to colonise Mars. Souns like an interesting concept doesn't it, but hey this is Hollywood, so that's not really what kind of movie we are going to get is it. Hell, no. We get a murder movie instead. Yaaawn.

Now with a monster movie you really do need tension and suspense don't you? Yes, I think you probably would, but then why does director Antony Hoffman singularly fail to achieve this? Because there is little tension, all that you feel watching this movie is.....well to be blunt....boredom.

You never know maybe one day somebody in Hollywood will green light a movie about Mars that might just, you know, be good.

Tall Guy