Red Planet

I seem to be on a kick of watching films about Mars. Last week was Mission to Mars, this week is Red Planet, a 2000 film directed by Antony Hoffman. I liked this one much better. It wasn't as intellectually ambitious, but it was fun, taut, Saturday-matinee-type movie.

Set in 2025, the Earth is almost destroyed by environmental damage and humans have looked to the red planet. They've seeded Mars with algae to create oxygen, but when oxygen levels drop, a crew is sent on manned mission.

Leading the team is Carrie-Anne Moss (playing Bowman, a name that is surely a nod to 2001: A Space Odyssey). Everyone else in the cast is also recognizable: Benjamin Bratton as cocky pilot, Val Kilmer as a technical specialist (they joking call him "Space Janitor"), Terence Stamp as a science officer who has turned to philosophy, Tom Sizemore as a bioengineer, and Simon Baker as...well, I don't what he does exactly, but he plays a pivotal part in the action.

Of course something goes wrong, and the five men land on the planet, while Moss stays above trying to fix the ship (we learn that using a fire extinguisher in zero gravity isn't easy). On the surface, the astronauts have to deal with oxygen tanks that are running out and a robot they've carried along for navigation purposes has been accidentally switched to "military mode," and hunts them like a stainless-steel cougar.

Red Planet is slickly made, and I enjoyed the "Ten Little Indians" aspect, as the crew members are picked off one by one by various hazards. Star power is no guarantee of long life in this film.

It was also nice to see Val Kilmer acting the part of a humble and decent guy, which is a switch. I could not, though, as hard as I tried, believe Tom Sizemore as a genius with numerous doctorates.