Mission to Mars (2000)

Directed by Brian De Palma. Starring Gary Sinise, Connie Nielsen, Don Cheadle, Tim Robbins, Jerry O’Connell, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Kavan Smith, Jill Teed, Peter Outerbridge. [PG]

Sinise leads a rescue operation after receiving a distress message from the lone survivor of a strange, catastrophic event that befell the first manned mission to Mars, but he and his crew encounter dire crises and startling discoveries they weren’t prepared for. Tries to have it both ways in multiple departments—heady cosmic revelations and white-knuckle suspense/FX sequences, reams of scientific jargon and touchy-feely sentimentality, physics-bound realism and poppycock fantasy, etc.—resulting in a confused final product that’s not a total wash, but is unlikely to satisfy almost anyone. Solid cast is saddled with lots of bad dialogue, forced to take everything so seriously that there’s barely any room for mourning dead cohorts or demonstrating awe over the sights and knowledge they uncover (which is handled in such a deadeningly literal, spelled-out fashion in the final act that it makes 2010 look like 2001: A Space Odyssey). The director’s only science fiction film, but it’s not entirely out of character—it wouldn’t be a De Palma picture without a long, complicated tracking shot (coming right off the bat during the Earthbound prologue, but something had to enliven all the cornball characterizations and clumsy exposition going on). Mueller-Stahl went unbilled.

40/100