"Mars Attacks!" 4K UHD Movie Review

Mars Attacks!

- for sci-fi fantasy violence and brief sexuality.
Director: Tim Burton
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Annette Bening, Martin Short, Tom Jones, Natalie Portman, Jack Black
Running Time: 1 hour, 46 minutes
Theatrical Release Date: December 13, 1996
4K UHD Release Date: August 18, 2026 (Amazon.com)

READER RATING: MarsAttacks

- / 5.0 (0 votes)

Plot Summary

Earth is invaded by Martians with unbeatable weapons and a cruel sense of humor. (from IMDb)

Film Review

It's been 30 years now since Warner Bro. and Tim Burton unleashed Mars Attacks! on the world. I remember seeing the ads for this one and its massive, impressive cast and thinking I just had to see it. The end result, though? Kind of a hot mess. The movie is actually a nod to the old cheesy (but charming) 50's sci-fi films, and serves as a spoof of the more modern big blockbuster formula at the same time. The concept was actually inspired by a popular series of Topps trading cards from 1962, also called "Mars Attacks." The film prides itself on introducing celebrities and recognizable faces, only to kill them off quickly and often horribly. Just when you think the movie is going to be centered around a particular Hollywood talent, they're either blown up, dismembered, decapitated... or any combination of those terrible ways to go.

Mars Attacks!
Why would I be willing to revisit this film for review? That's a good question. I think part of it is definitely morbid curiosity, but I think, each time I watch it (which, admittedly, hasn't been very many times), I hope that maybe the next viewing will finally "click" for me. I think this most recent viewing fared best with me, but, for the most part, I just still find it lacking. Some of the gags are clever, the Martians are certainly memorable, and it serves well as a spoof for disaster and alien movies, like Independence Day, but I don't think the script is strong enough to make everything really work together.

I have the say, though... the 4K transfer is pretty fantastic. It's certainly better than the movie deserves, honestly. It's crisp, clear and vibrant. This does, however, show how dated some of the effects are -- they can feel quite mid-90's at times -- but a lot of the effects survive the clarity anyway. I actually didn't know that the Martians were often created using stop motion animation, and I have to say it's pretty impressive. The Martians really probably are the best thing the movie has going for it. Because, while the celebrity death scenes are memorable, their presence in the film isn't really all that memorable otherwise. You may remember so-and-so is in this, but possibly only because their body is reduced to a dismembered hand, or their head is removed by the Martians and sewn to the body of a chihuahua. Aside from Jack Nicholson pulling double duty as the president of the United States and a casino owner named Art, most characters just don't have a lot of screentime.

Mars Attacks!
With that said, the content is most certainly PG-13. While there isn't a lot of profanity - although there is some - the main concern would be that there is a good number of gross visuals and people dying. Characters get vaporized down to skeletons in large numbers. In a couple instances, we see their bodies get hit by lasers and convulse as everything burns up till just a skeleton (colored by the red or green ray they were hit with) is left. We also see a lot of Martian heads burst with green goo and splatter. Some scenes are more gruesome than others, too. One of the "goriest" moments includes seeing a man who has had his body separated into many parts and suspended inside a spaceship. We see his head floating - and still talking - with blood slowly dripping from the wound at his neck. Then we see his legs, arms, and torso all suspended in pieces behind him. Finally, his chest is visibly cut open with wires connecting to his heart that is suspended in front of it and still beating. We also see a woman whose head has been removed and sewn onto a small dog. We also see the dog's head sewn onto her body, which is in just a bra and panties. A separate scene shows an alien biting off a man's finger and spitting it out so it lands in a fish tank and floats to the bottom. We briefly see him screaming about his hand missing a finger (and see the wound), and then see fish picking on the bloody finger in the tank. As mentioned before, there's a moment where two characters hold hands as people around them get vaporized and we suddenly see that she's holding the man's dismembered hand with the rest of him having been reduced to a skeleton. A dog runs off with the hand and then we later briefly see the hand connected to wires on a spaceship with the aliens making it walk around by the fingertips. Finally, we see a robot hand crawl around a person's body and then impale the man through the back with a sharp metallic tentacle. We see it sticking out of their (clothed) chest with blood around the wound briefly before they fall over and die. The gruesomeness in the movie is on par with Burton's Beetlejuice films. Sexual content includes the aliens ogling a human Playboy magazine, and then we briefly see the centerfold with the side of the woman's bare butt and a blanket covering any frontal nudity. Martin Short's press secretary character, Jerry, approaches some prostitutes on a street corner in his car, but we don't see anything. Later, he does the same to a woman he doesn't realize is a Martian in disguise, and then he takes her to a private room where he tries to seduce her. She attacks him before anything else can happen. The most blatant sexual scene, however, is when we see a trailer park trailer rocking back and forth, and then see a man on top of a woman inside while they are having sex (a blanket covers any nudity). There's motion and sounds. We then see two Martians at the window panting as they watch them in action. And, lastly, when people are talking about the importance of Martians coming to visit Earth, someone says it's "the most important thing since Jesus walked in Galilee," which some may find offensive.

So... Mars Attacks! 30 years later... may still not be a great movie by any stretch of the imagination, but this 4K treatment is a loving tribute to a film that has gained a following since its release years ago. If you're a fan already, this 4K update should be more than satisfying. But if you haven't seen it before and are kind of interested in it... I'd probably recommend spending your time on any number of better movies than this one.

- John DiBiase (reviewed: 8/18/26)

4K UHD Special Features Review

There aren't many bonus features on the 4K set. The combo pack comes with a 4K UHD disc and a standard Blu-Ray disc, as well as a digital copy. The only bonus features on the 4K disc include the following retrospectives:

Looking Back on Mars Attacks! (7:26) - Using new webcam interviews from production team members, the film's screenwriter talks about how the movie came about. The story is he had found the Topps cards for "Mars Attacks!" and "Dinosaurs Attack!" and pitched them as movie ideas to Tim Burton. Burton wanted to do the latter, but couldn't because of Jurassic Park: The Lost World coming out. He talks a lot about problem solving for the story and how Tim helped flesh out ideas for the film. (2 "h*ll")

Ack! Ack! Aesthetic (10:50) - The production team reflects on the film thirty years later and how challenging it was to make it come to life. We see some behind-the-scenes footage as they talk about the stop motion effects for the aliens, elaborate set designs, and more. I find it really odd that Tim Burton himself isn't interviewed at all in these segments - nor are any of the cast. It curious, and makes these featurettes feel a little incomplete.

Parental Guide: Content Summary

Sex/Nudity: Jason asks Nathalie over the phone if she's wearing a bra; A waitress in a casino wears a busty top that shows massive cleavage. We see her like this many times throughout the film; In the back of his limo, Jerry pulls up at a street corner and a couple busty women lean into his window and offer him a date. He ogles them as he talks about how stressful work has been and the scene ends; A woman who looks masculine with a manly voice asks during a press conference, "Do the Martians have two sexes like we do?" causing others to look bewildered; You see the top of Billy Glenn's butt crack in his pants; An alien is seen reading Playboy. It then opens the centerfold and we see the woman with a blanket in front of her chest and the side of her bare butt (with a tan line). He then looks menacingly at Nathalie in her underwear in a cage; Jerry meets a shapely woman - who he doesn't know is a Martian in disguise - and takes her to a secret room at the Whitehouse. He sits her down and lunges at her and they disappear off screen. They quickly sit back up and he acts pleased with how feisty she is. He tries to get her to spit out her gum by putting his finger in her mouth, but she just bites his finger off; We see a trailer rocking back and forth with sexual sounds and then we see a man on top of a woman inside under a blanket in the middle of sex. (A blanket covers any nudity.) We then see two aliens looking at them through the window, panting, and stick figure graphics of sexual positions inside the trailer next to the window.

Vulgarity/Language: 4 "S" word, 1 "J-sus Chr-st," 2 "*ssh*les," 11 "h*ll," 1 "d*mn," 1 "Oh Chr-st," 1 "Oh G-d," 1 "cr*p," 2 "Oh my G-d," 1 My G-d," "Holy Mother of G-d"

Alcohol/Drugs: People have drinks in a casino; Art enjoys a drink while smoking with his wife; Barbara speaks at an AA meeting in a church and says she's an alcoholic; Barbara grabs a bottle of Southern Comfort and Art records an audio note to stock their limos with lots of alcohol; The president drinks in his office; Barbara drinks in a casino; Jerry fixes two martinis for himself and a woman, but they don't drink them.

Blood/Gore: A herd of cattle on fire run down a street; A video game shows parts of a man's body getting bitten by little aliens and we see some blood and bones; We see diagrams of the insides of the Martians, showing their organs; A Martian pulls out a ray gun and shoots a dove. It falls to the ground in a charred corpse. He then shoots a military man, with the laser burning right through him. The laser consumes his body down to a skeleton; A soldier burns up to a skeleton; We see skeletons in a jeep and more on the ground; A man is shot with a ray gun and convulses as he slowly burns up to a skeleton; A woman grabs a man's hand and then we see the hand separated at the wrist with a burn mark at the end of it and the rest of the man having been burned up to a green skeleton; A dog is seen with the dismembered hand in its mouth; Donald performs an autopsy on a dead Martian. From the side, we see its skin pulled back while lying on a table. He then sticks a gloved hand into its cranium and pulls out green slime and examines it; We hear cutting sounds as a dog's head is put on Nathalie's body. And Nathalie's decapitated head floats in a jar; We see kids playing the aforementioned video game again; We see a jar of eyeballs on the spaceship; We see the dismembered hand hooked up to wires as the Martians play with it; Two whole audience groups of people are vaporized into skeletons; We see Donald's head decapitated and suspended, dripping blood from the neck. The rest of his body parts are hanging in pieces. His chest is partially cut open with organs visible and his heart is suspended and beating. Nathalie's head is shown sewn to the body of the dog, with metal clips holding her head onto its body and a visible cut line where they're joined; While trying to seduce a woman, Jerry sticks his finger in her mouth when he thinks she has chewing gum in there. She then bites down and bites his finger off. He holds up his hand in shock, clearly missing the finger, and she spits the finger out, sending it across the room into a fish tank. We see the dismembered finger float to the bottom of the tank with blood on it. We see part of her mouth was torn away and we can see the Martian mouth beneath the fake human skin. We then see fish picking at the dismembered finger in the fish tank. We continue to see her face torn like that; The alien removes the human face and shoots a dog, burning it to a skeleton. It then blows up a bird and Secret Service shoot up a Martian, with green goo flying everywhere. We see its head squirting green blood as it's hit. The President has green goo all over his face from this; We see Donald's decapitated head bleeding from the neck again; We briefly see the Martian corpse on an autopsy table; A couple aliens are shot in the head with green blood splatter. One splatters all over the wall; Aliens shoot up a room, turning them all to skeletons; We see the aliens frying people in a nursing home with lots of skeletons; Sound causes the heads of the aliens to explode inside their helmets; A Martian shakes a man's hand and the hand comes off, crawls over the man's body and impales the man through the back so it sticks out his chest, with a little blood around the wound. He then falls over dead; We see more destruction and then many more instances of the Martians' heads exploding in their suits. Some explode outside their suits and we see their burst cavities with green goo pouring out; The decapitated heads of Nathalie and Donald roll around and then kiss when they meet; A man steps on a dead Martian's head, with green gooey fluid pouring out of it.

Violence: A herd of cattle on fire run down a street; A Martian pulls out a ray gun and shoots a dove. It falls to the ground in a charred corpse. He then shoots a military man, with the laser burning right through him. The laser consumes his body down to a skeleton. The Martians and US military then exchange fire; A trailer falls over, throwing Nathalie to the ground; We hear cutting sounds as a dog's head is put on Nathalie's body. And Nathalie's decapitated head floats in a jar; There's a gun salute at a funeral; Kids shoot aliens in a video game, with gory results. (We see this game in two scenes); Two whole audience groups of people are vaporized into skeletons; An explosion causes a man to go flying into the air; An alien hits a man in the back of the head with a gun; Military opens fire on a spaceship; While trying to seduce a woman, Jerry sticks his finger in her mouth when he thinks she has chewing gum in there. She then bites down and bites his finger off. He holds up his hand in shock, clearly missing the finger, and she spits the finger out, sending it across the room into a fish tank. We see the dismembered finger float to the bottom of the tank with blood on it. We see part of her mouth was torn away and we can see the Martian mouth beneath the fake human skin. She then picks up a statue and hits him over the head with it, knocking him out. We then see fish picking at the dismembered finger in the fish tank. We continue to see her face torn like that; The alien removes the human face and shoots a dog, burning it to a skeleton. It then blows up a bird and Secret Service shoot up a Martian, with green goo flying everywhere; The Martians attack the Washington Monument and keep pushing a saucer against it till it falls in the direction of a group of Boy Scouts; A Martian vaporizes a tour guide and shoot up the White House. They shoot a Martian in the head and kill him as more destruction happens in the White House. A giant chandelier falls on the First Lady, killing her, and more aliens are shot; A large building is shot by a saucer and the front of it slides off, with people falling around inside. A giant globe rolls out of place and crushes a man off screen as the building collapses; Aliens shoot up a shoot up a show in Vegas and people run screaming; A car rolls down a street on fire with skeletons in it; Flying saucers blow up more buildings; Aliens shoot up a room, turning them all to skeletons; We see more military versus alien action; More buildings and landmarks are destroyed; We see footage of Godzilla walking in a city; A giant robot picks up two trailers with people in them and slams them together; An alien fries a man. Then the alien fries when hit with a raygun ray; We see the aliens frying people in a nursing home with lots of skeletons; Sound causes the heads of the aliens to explode inside their helmets; A metal door blows open. A Martian shrinks a man to tiny size and then they step on him, squishing him under their boot. A man is shot with a raygun and burns up; A Martian shakes a man's hand and the hand comes off, crawls over the man's body and impales the man through the back so it sticks out his chest, with a little blood around the wound. He then falls over dead; We see more destruction and then many more instances of the Martians' heads exploding in their suits; Spaceships crash into each other and explode; A spaceship crashes into a body of water; We see many dead Martians in the aftermath; A man steps on a dead Martian's head, with green goo pouring out.

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