Mission to Mars - Starring Tim Robbins, Gary Sinise, Don Cheadle, Connie Nielsen - Movies

Brian De Palma in space - now that sounded like a fine sort of an idea.

The director has been much lauded over the years as a virtuoso of visual style and he's certainly made the odd classic (Scarface, Carrie, Carlito's Way). He also directed the dreadful adaption of Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities.

Regrettably, his first foray into the sci-fi genre has more in common with the latter than the former. While visually impressive, it is simply an appalling piece of storytelling.

The year is 2020 and Nasa has made another giant leap for mankind - it's successfully landed a team of astronauts on Mars. However, shortly after their arrival on the Martian surface the mission commander, Luke Graham (Cheadle), and his mates encounter what the publicity likes to call "bizarre, shocking and chilling" but is really just another schlocky sci-fi special effect.

The crew is decimated, bar Graham, who manages to send home a gabbled SOS. A rescue mission is sent, leading to further disaster and, eventually, to what is apparently intended as a revolutionary thesis on how life arrived on Earth.

The overall effect is hokey and dull, a sort of 2001 Lite.

The talented cast seems to have been deserted by De Palma. While he and his long-time cinematographer and editor, Stephen H. Burum, have concentrated on delivering an interesting variety of space technology and a realistic surface of the red planet, they seem to have forgotten that drama is about characters.

But then the script is a dog, and filled with dialogue ranging from cliched to stupid to unintentionally amusing ("Come on people, work the problem"). Meanwhile the cast, particularly Robbins and Sinise, play it like they've just had their wisdom teeth pulled.

This mission should never have left the story board.

n.e.w@journalist.com

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Page Updated Tue Apr 4, 2000 1:01am EDT