Brian De Palma 

David S. Goyer (story) 
Ted Tally 

Sci-Fi

1hr 53min

PG: Parental Guidance Suggested
for sci-fi violence and language

Buena Vista Pictures

QuickTime

Official Site

SoundTrack from 

 The People's Review of Mission To Mars 

Brian C.
score = 30
All I can say is that the only action scene in the whole movie was when the vortex wiped out three out of the four astronauts. Too bad it didn't waste the whole crew. I absolutely agree with the previous reviews in regards to the musical score- (if you can call it that) - it was tirelessly childless and made me wonder why the producers ever let that score slip past the editor. For some of you who said you wish you hadn't paid full price at the theatre- check this out- I'm the biggest idiot- it looked like a cool movie with promising special effects so I bought it and paid 20.00 on DVD. A very bad consumer blunder- I truely judged a book by it's cover.

Nick
score = 10
Exceptionally Bad. These people shouldn't have been allowed TO TAKE A TAXI CAB, let alone pilot a space ship. THE PLOT IS ABSURD! - Sorry honey didn't mean to overshoot the resupply module after I never checked the ship and it blew up, oh well, here ill just suicide right here 3 feet in front of you in deep space for no good reason. Taking off my helmet,Say buh bye to the kids for me.... At least I didn't pay to see this in the theater

*
score = 80
This is a cool and must see movie. This movie, however needs a little acton and other stuff.The story line is pretty good with a good cast.I think its well written.I think if you havent seen this you need to!!!Altough this movie has a couple of downfalls.Overall this movie is pretty good.Grade:B-

TUKEY KOFFEND
score = 10
PROBABLY ONE THE WORST WRITTEN, WORST ACTED FILMS I HAVE EVER SEEN.  AND THE MUSIC!  THE WHOLE THING WAS LAUGHABLE AND WHY DID BRIAN  DE PALMA  USE HIS REAL NAME ON THE CREDITS???

Jim
score = None
DONT WASTE YOUR TIME!!
Horrible movie, disgraced several fine actors.  Product placements galore (budweiser, ISUZU, Kawasaki, M&Ms, Dr. Pepper, etc.), what a cheasy sell out.  Copy cat story line, little to no originality.
Brian De Palma should be banned from the industry.

Sarah
score = 70
I thought it was a pretty good movie, up until the end that is. It just leaves you hanging there, will there be a part two?  I hope there'll be something in the future to explain what happenned better, 'cause I just did'nt get it.

michael
score = 100
i thought this movie was very good and i am hoping that there will be a second mission to mars that tells us what happens to jim mcconnell thanks.                michael ansell

Civi
score = 70
comments = I must say that I had expected more, but overall it was worth my time and money.  The sequence of them dancing together in weightlessness was amazing and heartfelt. GREAT SOUNDTRACK

Mike
score = 90
comments = I thought  the movie was excellent.The special idea and the effects were really good.First people reached the moon, now people want to reach red planet,in hope to find evidence of life.During many years people are tring to answer this question.Is there life in the Universe? I am going to buy movie as soon as it going to be on the shalfs.

russell 
score = 60 
the movie was good i liked the special effects. in some places in movie was a bit sad but all up a good movie

Bill 
score = 50 
While it's not worth full price, it was worth the $1.75 that I paid to see it.  While First Contact with Jodi Foster was better done, it is fun to compare the two films.  More than anything though this film shows American creativity and ingenuity with some gaps in basic fundamental skills in math and reasoning.  There is a classic problem about how far you can go with fuel that I don't think the writers ever figured out, and the irony is delicious.  The characters can do all sorts of complex calculations, but they miss the simple one because the writers could not do it--keep in mind there were three fuel tanks with the same amount of fuel when the fourth tank was empty.  Similarly, the great explanation of the mystery of the explosion of life on earth does nothing to answer the question of how life evolved in the first place.  I left this movie convinced that my BA in liberal arts was well worth it, but I also left sad that most people would miss these two points.  This sense of knowing so much and still making such basic mistakes is perhaps the most profound point of the movie.  It is especially interesting when you think of writing software, diagnosing diseases, or even fixing a car.  A little mistake can do a lot of damage.

Me 
score = 60 
For those of you who keep saying this movie was the worst you've ever seen, you haven't seen a very wide variety of movies. I'll admit that Mission to Mars wasn't that good. It lacked an engrossing plot and just didn't do a good job of involving you emotionally with the characters. I liked the special effects except for the alien, which I thought could have looked more realistic if they hadn't used computer graphics. However, I did like the concept of the movie and thought it showed that well. So it's definitely not the WORST movie I have ever seen, but if you have a chance to see something else that looks better, see it. Chances are it is.

Nick 
score = 30 
I didn't really like this movie at all but I will give it credit for the 1 scene of cool special effects, when the tornado thing kills people, but the rest of the movie was boring as hell.

Byron Ghost

score = 100 

So many years after the Apollo missions fell from public awe, and in an age where shuttle missions and other space developments are barely competitive with everything else on television, its invigorating to be alive at a time when NASA and other space agencies are again reaching for a new world, and people are renewing the longstanding fascination and romance with the Red Planet. "Mission to Mars," while visually spectacular, reaches deeper than our need for simple entertainment and distraction, and touches something fundamental to the human soul. Specifically, the need to grow beyond the bounds of earthly existence and find peace through an answer to the question that some ask of space and others ask of God. Hello? Is there anybody out there?

Rob Helmstetter 
score = 10 
The movie is horrible. I was laughing through the whole thing. I can honestly say without hyperbole that, as movies go nowadays, it is worse than a movie with the Olson twins in it.

Mr. E 
score = 10 
"And a short movie review: Mission to Mars is the worst movie I have seen in a long time...and I've seen Stigmata for god's sake. I wish I had spent the money on acid so I can rob myself of my own sight...don't bother with this overbudgeted piece of trash."  Mr. E

kathy 
score = 10 
This was a really dumb and boring movie.

Mani 
score = 100
I thought the movie was excellent. There was not a single  moment in the  movie where i got bored. the dialoques were a  little lame, especially for the character of Jerry O'Connell.The final sequence of the movie, where they discover the origin of life was very nicely portraited and looked very believable. The inquisitiveness of the directors mind in this movie is very nicely displayed with rich visual effects. My fascination with NASA, SETI and extraterrestrial life form in this universe makes going to sci- fi movies a treat. Way to go- Brian de Palma. Score- 101

Greg M 
score = 20 
With great special effects and a solid plot to work with, director Brian DePalma fails to deliver in this dissappointing production. It seemed like 1950's dialogue and editing with year 2000 special effects. With so much potential it will be a dissappointment to most sci-fi fans.

Tom 
score = 10 
God, this is awful.A total waste, just very boring.Go and see Drowning Mona instead, it cost only a tenth, but ist's smart clever and "movie-of -the-year"canditate compaired to this piece of expensive. 

Mark 
score = 20 
This movie could have been wonderful. The potential was there, especially during scenes such as the astronauts' mid-space transfer to another spaceship above the martian planet, to make a truly memorable and moving film. Instead, I was disappointed by the horrible score, which at best was sophomoric in its composition. I laughed at the ridiculuous looking alien--I've seen better in my son's video games. The story took such a weepy and silly turn, I found myself squirming, especially when the cheesy looking martian shed a tear--the audience chuckled at this decidedly soapy silliness. Brian DePalma should be banned from filmaking.

Peg 
score = 10 
I walked out after about an hour.  Good cast wasted in a boring movie with a bad script.  A waste of time and money!

Fat Albert 
score = 90 
Mission to Mars is a great movie and I encourage peopple to see it.But I take away points for some bad dialogues.

David 
score = 30
I felt as though I'd been on the mission the whole way & boy was it long... They really missed the mark with what could have been a much better film, over emotional sappy flashbacks, that didn't establish much more interest in the characters, a terrible sound track that sounded like my grandmother playing the organ, and last of all, I don't need dialogue that restates what I've just seen in the previous seen. Terrible writting great effects.  They should have focused on Mars and not all that useless time wasted on earth and space station and travel. Mars was definetely the most interesting part and we got so little of it. They wet your taste for it in the early part and then you wait for what seems like 2 hours(the audience very restless)before you get back there just to have it end with no real ending. Disney made the previews look like an intellectual 2001 and what we got was a lot of flag waving emotionalisim with not much substance. There were a few good scenes, the mars portions, the space walk and weightless dance but hey I would have liked to see a landing on Mars, or just more about mars and less about the mission.

Ball 
score = 10 
This is one of the worst movies I have ever seen.  The actors were given the worst parts, meaning that it didn't meet their "attitude" in previous movies, and it lacked realism.  Please do not see this movie, go spend a couple of bucks on a better meal beforehand.

Joel Jordan 
score = 30 
I didn't believe it was possible to see I what would deem the worst film of all time, but "mission" proved I just hadn't seen nothing yet! I began to feel absolutely embarrassed for the people that put their name on this film. Did anyone not see "Star Trek:The motion picture"? Hello writers, get a clue!! This film reminds me of what Ed Wood could have done if he had a big budget to make a film. Stupendous visual effects could not save this film. Brian DePalma should be locked out of every directorial consideration forever!!! And now we have "Battlefield Earth" to look forward to...I won't bother from the dumb trailer I saw just before "mission"...

Ken 
score = 90 
Don't go see this movie unless you have a brain. People without brains will not enjoy this movie.  There are no car chases in this movie. One thing I especially enjoyed was the Ennio Morricone score. My only complaint was that the movie was set in 2020 and yet there were no technilogical advances in the movie. Everything in the movie could exist today. It would have been better if the movie was set in an alternate present where Nixon hadn't trashed the space program.

TChild 
Actually a good movie.  Reviewers are unjustly condemning the entire movie when it really only has one fatal flaw....the music.  The music underscore is so wrong that it diffuses moments that are supposed to be tense, and makes the acting seem bad, when it isn't.  A better score would bring the movie up to the "two thumbs up" category.

Peter Butler 
score = 10 
This was beyond a doubt the worst movie I have seen since "Escape from LA".  The premise is not bad, but the script is TERRIBLE and the dialogue STUPID.  The effects were shameful, including scenes where in supposedly zero-gravity people's hair and clothing still manages to dangle straight down. Plain and simple, this movie is an EMBARRASSMENT. I feel bad for the big-name actors and director who have their names associated with this mockable waste of time.

Tim 
score = 10 
It wasn't worth the even worth the drive. It could have been so much better, i expected so much more!

Stephen Thompson 
score = None 
I believe a movie review is a balancing act of sorts. Meaning that certain desireable qualities a particular movie exhibits can be negated by "crap" (mixed in amongst the good). While Mission To Mars had some good special effects at select moments, it also had a lot o' crap which tipped the scales over to the dark (crap) side. Take for instance the Bugs Bunny inspired scene where the Astronauts (the cream of NASA) are shown a cartoon by the Martian explaining what happened to Mars and how it influenced life on Earth. What a joke! Let me see if I have this right, these Astronauts who no doubt would have some lengthy credentials after their names are patronized with a cartoon for the explanation of the millenium. Then they do the Ring around the Rosey bit with that Conehead of a Martian. What's next, Patty Cake Bakers Man?!?! Just how stupid does Brian De Palma take his audience to be? Or was he trying to produce the cheesiest movie of the new millenium? Further "crap" was forced down my already heaving throat when I had to view the (full side profile) scene with the black Astronaut shaking the hand of the white Astronaut, complete with the American flag shown on the Astronauts suits. Thankfully I reached for my Dr. Pepper (T.M.) to wash the taste of this "crap" away... Wait a minute! That's more crap I had to endure! Not only did I have to pay $10 for this piece o' crap but I had to endure silly contrived product placement to boot. But then the reality of all of this is that Mr. De Palma is so far out (as in Mars far out) of touch with his audience that he actually thought he could get away with this. After viewing Mission To Mars I made it my mission to project copious quantities of foreign matter into Buella via the big white phone.

Dkeeper17849 
score = 10 

This movie sucked.  The music was awful, the script was awful, and even though it had some good actors it was still...well, awful.  Don't even waste your money renting it.

Tracy Kirk 
score = 90 

This movie was VERY wonderful. I kinda am a critic in movies, and believe me, my admiration for Jerry O'Connell had nothing to with my opinion. This movie, although it contradicts with my beliefs of God, had parts that made you want to scream, want to laugh, want to cry. But most of all, parts that you wanted to silently cheer for the characters and their findings. I took a friend with me who doesn't like science fiction or scary movies at all. She thought the movie was a little scary(as I did) and it changed her entire perspective of science fiction and science in general. She absolutely loved that movie and both of us are willing to watch it over and over again.

Karl 
score = None 
This may have been the worst movie I've ever seen.  The dialog was lame, and overly dramatic.  The special effects were alright, but accuracy was way off, such as the pressurized tent blowing around on the martian surface. The whole movie was totally ridiculous.  I couldn't even drive when I walked left because it felt like my brain had been sucked out of my head.  Please don't waste your money.

Nick Baker 
score = None 
I HATED IT! I hate this move with a passion it stinks! I have seen some bad movies but this move takes the cake! I am passionately interested in space exploration and firmly believe there is life out there and expected so much more.  The concept of this move could have been another “Titanic” instead it was a waste of time. It was mind numbing with an obtuse plot and dull witted dialogue. Brian DePalma has failed dismally. Don’t waste your money on this stupid movie, stay home and watch reruns of Gilligans Island instead.  My score is –100.

Kevin 
score = None 
I don't know how anyone could have liked this movie.  I read the reviews on this site, it sickens me to think that there are people with such low intelegence that they actually liked this movie.  They had so much potential with this movie, but they totally screwed it up from the first scene

Grant 
score = 80 
I am a great fan of Sci Fiction movies, I thought this movie was great, it certainly had a different storyline.  For those who do not have imagination, humour, or emotions I would suggest, to you, to stay home, this movie is not for you.

Arnoud 
score = 10 
M2M is the scholar example on how to make a 'totally sucking' movie. Just everything is wrong! They should show this movie to everybody involved in making movies, so nobody would make the same mistakes EVER again. A part from the plot, which is drowned in fake sentimental flashbacks and hyper-unrealistic, the editing is where it all went wrong. There is NO speed, NO tension, NO excitement, just a flat 2 hours of crappy spacecraft animation and bad dialogues. But worst of all is the musical score...oh my god please no what a COMPLETE waste of money and time. Shame.

Johan Waldenström 
score = 20 
After have seen the trailer of this movie, i really believed that this was going to be a hit film (i think many people saw it because of the trailer). Instead i got very dissapointed at this awful movie where the story is so wierd and beyond reality that i hardly could keep myself from laughing. It could have been a very good film, but it really wasn´t. Don´t see it.

Lew 
score = 80 
This a good film. Not a great film, but a good film and certainly worth the admission price. Having read some of the negative reviews before seeing it I wondered if I was seeing the same movie as the reviewers. The characters were reasonably well drawn, but then one cannot expect depth in a film of this type, so many things are happening. I did like the way the relationship between the Tim Robbin's and Connie Neilson's characters was portrayed. The film has it's technical shortcomings, but when did  Hollywood ever achieve perfection and the faults definately did not detract from enjoyment of the movie. And that is what it is all about in my view - enjoyment. I don't go into a movie wanting to deconstruct the thing like some reviewers appear to do. Maybe I am easily pleased - but then I suspect I get more enjoyment than many of the critical reviewers of "Mission to Mars". My advice is to everyone out there go and see it and make up their own mind. In my experience the critics, especially of SF films, often are wrong and/or miss the point of the movie.

Lulu

score = None 

Five minutes into this movie, and were asking ourselves  WHAT IS THIS?? Sadly the movie falls short of any good ratings. I was very surprise for the rating, how could this movie be rated pg?  My children were upset at the language and gross graphics.  Definitely a waste of time. Does anyone knows the main plot of this movie? Listen, instead of this one how about a nice cold drink and a board game?  That sounds good to me.  Hey, stop the movie!!!

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