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Red Planet Reviews

Establishes an amusingly nasty pecking order once it reaches the surface and even morphs into "Predator" for a hot minute. But it generally bears the anonymous aesthetics of an assembly-line product and is the uglier of 2000's dueling Mars films.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 30, 2020

There are plenty of elements to the story, and it even manages to throw in a shipboard romance before the credits roll. But more plot frippery does make for a more hospitable Red Planet.

Full Review | Mar 11, 2020

Better than you remember.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 8, 2011

What could have been regarded as a good monster flick turned into a biblical and preachy flick.

Full Review | Apr 29, 2009

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Aug 7, 2008

Zero gravity.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Jun 18, 2008

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 6, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 30, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | May 14, 2003

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Feb 8, 2003

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 8, 2002

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Oct 30, 2002

Red Planet's lack of original ideas locks it into a decaying orbit.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 16, 2002

Even when the astronauts are running out of oxygen, they still insist on espousing their theories about life, science and God. Had the movie any sexual or racial tension, it could pass itself off as "The Real World: Mars."

Full Review | Jun 15, 2002

The film’s dearth of imagination is nowhere more evident than in the flat, tepid dialogue.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | May 8, 2002

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Mar 22, 2002

As B films go, Red Planet has its heart in the right place.

Full Review | Original Score: short | Mar 7, 2002

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Oct 30, 2001

In a choice of lesser evils, you could do a whole lot worse... While it never climbs very high, it survives because we know how much further it could fall.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Oct 24, 2001

Yawn. Another boring trip to Mars.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/10 | Oct 10, 2001

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Common sense media reviewers.

Teens may enjoy this by-the-book space thriller.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

One astronaut hits another, causing him to fall of

Brief partial nudity when the female commander get

Infrequent mild to moderate profanity and one extr

The astronauts use the ship's lab to distill v

Parents need to know that young teens will enjoy this by-the-book space mission thriller, but there are perilous situations and some mature content, so we recommend it for only the most mature in this group. Parents should be aware of some strong language, brief female nudity, and sci-fi violence.

Violence & Scariness

One astronaut hits another, causing him to fall off a cliff. AMEE the robot, in military mode, fights with the astronauts, killing one and injuring another. Sensitive viewers will squirm when roachlike bugs swarm over astronauts' bodies and break through

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Brief partial nudity when the female commander gets out of the shower.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Infrequent mild to moderate profanity and one extreme expletive near the end.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

The astronauts use the ship's lab to distill vodka.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

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There aren't any parent reviews yet. Be the first to review this title.

What's the Story?

RED PLANET takes place in 2050, when the Earth is in very bad shape. A team heads to Mars to make it inhabitable for humans. But the experiment goes awry, and another team is sent on a rescue mission. Commander Bowman (Carrie-Anne Moss) and her rescue team (Val Kilmer, Terrence Stamp, and Tom Sizemore) wind up crash landing, leaving them stranded on an isolated planet where nothing they encounter is what they expected, and the technology that was supposed to help them turns against them in a deadly way. Their commander might be dead, and chances are slim to none that anybody gets back home alive. If they do get back home, they better come back with a way to save humanity, or it's still curtains.

Is It Any Good?

Red Planet won't blow you away, but it is an exciting diversion, especially if your family likes space adventures. Perhaps the movie's best quality is that it doesn't come off as an overblown Hollywood blockbuster, with an overemphasis on booming music flashy effects. The effects are great--especially the robot turned guerilla warrior--but the movie slows down when it needs to, letting viewers feel what the characters are going through.

The actors bring nuances and strong character traits to scenes that could have come out of an independent sci-fi film (albeit one with a big budget). Clever moments ease the doomsday tension and don't draw attention to themselves as "funny one-liners." Some of the dialogue is simplistic and some of the plot elements are predictable, but the by-the-numbers elements add up to a surprisingly down-to-earth space movie.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the real-world explorations of Mars.

Movie Details

In theaters : March 27, 2001
On DVD or streaming : March 27, 2001
Cast : Carrie-Anne Moss , Tom Sizemore , Val Kilmer
Director : Anthony Hoffman
Inclusion Information : Female actors
Studio : Warner Bros.
Genre : Science Fiction
Run time : 106 minutes
MPAA rating : PG-13
MPAA explanation : sci-fi violence, brief nudity and language
Last updated : March 31, 2022

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2001: A Space Odyssey

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DVD & Streaming
Action/Adventure , Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Content Caution

In Theaters

Val Kilmer as Robbie Gallagher; Carrie-Anne Moss as Kate Bowman; Tom Sizemore as Dr. Quinn Burchenal; Benjamin Bratt as Ted Santen; Simon Baker as Chip Pettengil; Terence Stamp as Dr. Bud Chantillas

Home Release Date

Anthony Hoffman

Distributor

Warner Bros.

Movie Review

Earth has become overpopulated. Mankind can no longer control its pollution problems. So it’s Mars or bust! After vainly attempting to create an artificial, breathable atmosphere on the red planet using unmanned shuttles and probes, six astronauts are sent to determine what the problems are and resolve them. Their six-month journey from a space dock orbiting earth to the outskirts of Mars goes off without a hitch. But the very second they begin orbiting what they hope will soon be mankind’s new home, a shower of deadly solar flares engulfs their ship. The damage is immense, forcing the “away team” to abandon their captain, Kate Bowman, onboard the now-burning vessel. She may be the lucky one, however, as their landing pod is in for a bumpy landing on Mars’ rocky, desert-like surface. The dust settles with one man down, four to go. But they only have about seven hours of oxygen. A disastrous fistfight (brought on by sharp dissention in the ranks) lowers the tally to three. A destroyed habitat, a rogue robot programmed to kill, ferocious man-eating insects and treacherous environmental conditions all stand in the way of success. But this is remote-control sci-fi action, so never fear, Gallagher is here. He’s the team’s mechanical engineer and operational backbone. Just watch, he’ll save the day!

positive elements: Teamwork is a theme that runs through the whole movie. At times, though, it’s a bit forced, grudging and … futile. Still, the basic idea is there. Bowman diligently tries to repair her damaged ship so she can rescue her crew and get them safely back to earth. On the ground, one man sacrifices his life for his comrades and, ultimately, the future of all mankind.

spiritual content: While trying to figure out what went wrong with the artificial atmosphere on Mars, crew members ponder whether the failure was caused by a scientific mishap or divine intervention. It is eventually discovered that a bizarre species of insects were responsible for the atmospheric problems, prompting one scientist to exclaim that he knew God wasn’t ever involved. One scientist tells Gallagher that, “Science couldn’t answer my questions so I turned to philosophy and I’ve been searching for God ever since.”

sexual content: One sensuous scene shows Bowman through a slightly fogged glass shower door. She walks out of the shower naked, giving theater audiences a glimpse of her bare side. Gallagher, however stands directly in front of her, obviously loath to look away. She downplays her nudity, telling him that he needs to get used to it in their cramped quarters, suggesting he think of her as his sister. He quips that she doesn’t look anything like his sister. Eschewing her military uniform, Bowman frequently wears tight, form-fitting tops. A crewman cracks jokes about lesbian sex and his rapid accumulation of ex-wives.

violent content: Big explosions and even touches of blood and gore. AMEE, the robot that has “gone Mustang,” attacks the men on the surface. A few gritty scenes are shown through “her” eyes. Bowman battles intense zero-gravity fires. Far below, a fistfight results in death as one man pushes another off a tall cliff. The insects attack two of the crewmembers. One close-up shot shows one writhing creature burrowing in a man’s face. Another shows the bugs exploding out of a body in a shower of sparks. Running out of oxygen, men suffer from asphyxiation.

crude or profane language: Just under a dozen s-words, coupled with mild profanities and inappropriate references to God. Then, in a climactic scene, Bowman screams the f-word and makes an obscene gesture.

drug and alcohol content: Two of the crewmembers rig a distillery on the ship. Everyone gets together and drinks the concocted moonshine, getting pretty much sloshed.

other negative elements: The guys in the ground crew make a big show out of being the first humans to urinate on Mars.

conclusion: Even though isolated scenes in Red Planet toy with the idea that God “might” have the power to work wonders, the script turns around to discredit Him by consistently placing science above Him. Not that intellectual conversations get much space here. Clever scripting is clearly not what this movie is all about. Computer graphics vainly try to bolster its paint-by-numbers plot, but the filmmakers didn’t even bother to follow well-established sci-fi rules. (Note to the producers: There is no “up” in space.) Red Planet never makes it off the launch pad—morally or artistically.

Tony Powell

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Red Planet (2000)

The best scene in Red Planet is the actual arrival on the planet’s surface, a landing sequence not quite like anything I’ve ever seen in any other movie (honorable mentions to Indiana Jones and Jackie Chan for having come the closest). Once the crew steps onto Martian soil, though, moments of interest are few and far between.

Artistic/Entertainment Value

Moral/spiritual value, age appropriateness, mpaa rating, caveat spectator.

The film’s dearth of imagination is nowhere more evident than in the flat, tepid dialogue. To be sure, there are a few funny lines ("Well, this is the moment our teachers told us about in high school, when algebra would save our lives"); and a very few thoughtful lines ("I think you underestimate the challenges of the spiritual life; it’s a lot tougher than just being intelligent"). But mostly it’s maddeningly mundane. When we went to the moon, we said things like "one giant leap for mankind" and "magnificent desolation." Now comes the first manned mission to another planet — a milestone specifically described in the opening voice-over narration as "another giant leap for mankind" — and what do we get? In one scene the ground team comes across an immense field of algae that they thought wasn’t there, and in a rare moment of wonder, one of the characters says something like, "I haven’t seen fields like this since I was a kid."

At least there’s stuff worth looking at. First-time film director Antony Hoffman has an eye for visuals; and the Martian landscape, shot in an Australian quarry and a Jordanian wadi, is stark and compelling. Then there’s the constantly swiveling, gyrating AMEE, a preposterous plot device of a robot which, in its (or "her") feline grace and unlimited range of free-flowing motion, resembles a high-tech computer-generated cross between Transformers and Battle Cats. I liked the little touches almost as much: the crew uses nifty, collapsible hand-held computers with a flexible, glossy display that pulls out from and rolls up into a cylindrical CPU like a window shade, looking for all the world like something you might actually see in a Macintosh commercial from 2050, when the movie is set.

And there’s a stab at serious science fiction in the film’s premise: Earth is rapidly becoming uninhabitable, and mankind is mounting its first manned mission to Mars to find out why an ambitious terraforming project to make a new home for humanity on the red planet has gone wrong, with new oxygen levels dropping and sensors going offline. This could be the start of a sophisticated, engrossing vision of the near future; a story concerned largely with the fate of a crop of bioengineered algae holds hope for a tale with more substance than the recent dismal spate of sci-fi flops ( Battlefield Earth , Mission to Mars , Supernova , Hollow Man , Event Horizon ). And the alien threat turns out to be more sober and reasonable than the horror-film foes of Pitch Black or Starship Troopers.

Yet from the opening voice-over narration by mission commander Carrie-Anne Moss ("Trinity" from The Matrix ), I knew the film was in trouble. After summarizing the situation for us, Moss proceeds to introduce us to the five men of her crew, each of whom merits as many as four words of description for his single personality trait. One is "a hothead but a fine pilot"; another is pretentiously called "the soul of the crew"; there’s also "the janitor," which isn’t technically an actual personality trait but will have to do; and even "the last-minute replacement" (who might as well have been issued a nametag reading "Hi! I’m the wild card!"). All this made me wistful for Aliens, where the space marines also had one personality trait apiece, but at least we got to figure them out for ourselves in engaging establishing scenes. Here, we get spoken title cards. Bad sign.

Another bad sign: The "soul of the crew" is the first to die. (The movie didn’t have much soul to begin with, and apparently felt it best to get away from the whole embarrassing subject as quickly as possible.) This is Terence Stamp (the cult leader in Bowfinger ), a philosophical scientist who "realized that science can’t answer any of the really interesting questions" and has been "searching for God ever since." His insufferable attitude is exactly paralleled by that of Tom Sizemore’s skeptical geneticist. None of the characters ever progresses much beyond their title-card placeholders; even the hero (Val Kilmer) is bland and muted, with nothing setting him apart as the hero, except being played by Val Kilmer.

A bit later, Kilmer introduces us to the long-limbed, metallic AMEE (affectionately known as "sweetie"), about whom we learn two things: First, although her task in this mission is to navigate the surface of Mars, she was developed for military use ("They took her knife away, but inside she’s all Green Beret," Kilmer says fondly, with none of the apprehension you’d expect from a man who might as well be dictating his own epitaph, if he weren’t the hero). Second, we are specifically told about the battery that powers her (as if otherwise we might think she got by on Purina Robot Chow). Immediately, with depressing certitude, I understood that (a) there would be a malfunction, and AMEE would spend most of her time on Mars in combat mode, preying on the crew; and (b) sooner or later someone would need a power source, and steal AMEE’s battery. Sadly, I was not pleasantly surprised.

The only character not formally introduced is Carrie-Anne Moss herself; perhaps the writers felt her early, gratuitous shower scene establishes all there is to know about her (at least, as much as possible in a PG-13 movie). And maybe it does: As she steps out of the shower, Kilmer stumbles into the room, and Moss just stands there naked in front of him, languidly asking him to pass her a towel. "This only works if we pretend it doesn’t matter," she tells him. "Pretend I’m your sister." But he isn’t buying it: "I have two sisters; neither of them looks like you." (And if either of them had?)

Later Moss joins her men for a drinking party in which they talk idly about taking Mars for themselves. One of the guys stakes his claim as king of Mars, and explains that Moss will be his queen: "you know, propagation of the species." I expected her either to laugh it off or to take exception. Instead, she simply looks at him with an enigmatic smile and liquid eyes. After an uncomfortable moment, he mumbles awkwardly that it was only a joke; and she leaves without a word. Is this how a female officer keeps a crew of men in line — playing flirty mind-games with them? Or is all this for our benefit, like the spaghetti-string tanktop Moss wears while the men are on Mars?

All of this might be mitigated if there were anything interesting or clever about what actually happens on the planet, or what the characters do. But there isn’t. Although they are supposed to be clever scientists, the thought never crosses their minds that the unmanned Martian station, which is no longer relaying data back to Earth, may have been destroyed; they fully expect to find air and water and tomatoes there, although they are unable to verify this. And while I can’t fault them for not guessing the obvious fact that, when their air reserves run out, the Martian atmosphere will turn out to be breathable ( they don’t know they can’t die so early in the story), I do have to wonder why nobody did any tests on the Martian atmosphere once they arrived. (Their last data was over six months old.)

The AMEE subplot falls apart right from the start, when the malfunctioning robot has every opportunity to kill the whole crew in a clean shot, but merely wounds one crewman and then leaves for no reason at all — except of course the same reason the air on Mars is breathable: otherwise it would be a short movie. Kilmer recites nonsense about a guerrilla trick of wounding one opponent to slow the others down, and then picking them off one at a time later. Presumably real guerrillas do this only when they don’t have the opportunity to kill everyone at once.

The film borrows directly from Kubrick’s landmark 2001: A Space Odyssey : Moss’s character is named Bowman, after Kubrick’s protagonist; and AMEE has a single round eye a lot like that of HAL, the rogue killer computer in 2001. The precision movements of the space vehicles, too, recall Kubrick’s outer-space waltz set to Strauss. Alas, these reminders of a far better film serve only to underscore Red Planet ’s failings and faults. Those who want more from science fiction may have to wait for the project Kubrick left behind: A.I. Artificial Intelligence , due next year from director Steven Spielberg.

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Movie Review

US Release Date: 11-10-2000

Directed by: Antony Hoffman

Starring ▸ ▾

Val Kilmer , as
Robby Gallagher
Carrie-Anne Moss , as
Kate Bowman
Benjamin Bratt , as
Tom Sizemore , as
Dr. Quinn Burchenal
Terence Stamp , as
Dr. Bud Chantilas
Simon Baker as
Chip Pettengill

Tom Sizemore and Val Kilmer in Red Planet .

I'm sure this has happened to many of you; you go to the movies to see one movie, but that one turns out to be sold out, so you end up seeing a different one. Well that's what happened to me with Red Planet . I intended on seeing The Grinch Who Stole Christmas , but was beat out by a bunch of screaming children and amateur moviegoers. And after leaving the crowded, noisy, lobby with my large Diet Coke (no ice), and settling gently into the padded darkness of the relatively empty theater, I was already glad I was seeing this movie and not The Grinch . A feeling that was confirmed by the time the credits rolled.

The year is 2050 and the earth has not aged well. Due to the poisoning of its eco-system by mankind, top scientists give all life on the planet roughly 100 years to live. To remedy the situation, humanity must find a new home. Mars, being the closest in size and proximity to the sun as ours, is chosen as that new home. Probes containing algae are sent to the planet so that they might begin creating oxygen and the slow process of terra-forming is begun. While at first, things seem to be proceeding nicely, suddenly and inexplicably, the new oxygen levels begin dropping, undoing all the work that has been done. Someone must go to Mars and investigate. Enter the Mars One and its crew, on a mission to save mankind.

Upon their arrival at Mars, things start to go wrong. A solar flare disables the ship, the escape pod crashes in the wrong spot, one of the crew is injured beyond hope, all of the algae seems to be gone, and the navigation robot, damaged in the crash, is now locked in military mode, viewing everything that moves as an enemy, including the crew. But there is one small sign of hope when Val Kilmer's character discovers by chance that he can breathe without his helmet. And it's now a race to discover why, get off the planet before starving or dying of thirst, avoiding death by the mad robot, and finally repairing the ship and getting home.

I've always been a fan of Val Kilmer. I know all about the rumors that he is difficult to work with and a perfectionist on a movie set, but I don't give a shit. Why should I? I don't have to work with him, I just get to enjoy watching him on screen. He gives a good performance here as the engineer, even though this movie is obviously not an Oscar Contender. He's likable and by the end of the film you are rooting for him.

Carrie Anne-Moss continues her intelligent, beautiful, Sci-Fi action babe, thing that she started in The Matrix . She plays the Commander of the mission and the only woman. And no woman has looked this hot in fatigues on a spaceship since Ripley stripped down to her underwear to kick some Alien Ass.

30 years ago, Red Planet would have been the blockbuster of the summer just on the merits of its special effects, which are superb, but times have changed and we now take these things for granted. Mars is recreated with great care, you have a 'you are there' kind of feeling, and the scenes in space are done as well or better than I've ever seen. The good part about these effects is that none of them are pushed in your face. They never take over the movie. They just sit quietly in the background like special effects should, without getting in the way of the plot.

So while Red Planet breaks no real new ground, it is solidly entertaining and a good film.

Carrie-Anne Moss in Red Planet .

Red Planet is a decent science fiction film. It would have been a great film if I had never seen another movie before. It is predictable and follows a plot that you can see unfolding long before it actually does.

I would think that of all movie genres, science fiction would be one type of film making where originality was most prevalent. This film proves me wrong. I knew who would live and who would not fairly early on. As soon as I saw AMEE (the droid) I knew she wasn't going to help the crew. It looked far too threatening. When they were all about to die from lack of oxygen I was thinking "I bet they can breath the atmosphere." Did I know because I am so science fiction savvy? No, I knew because it was the only logical way out of the situation the writers had put the characters in.

With a little thought, you can guess who makes it to a possible sequel. Val Kilmer is the star. Obviously he would not have an early exit from the film. The directors were not about to keep his pretty mug behind a helmet the whole movie, so I knew they were going to find a way to breathe without them. As soon as Baker accidentally killed Bratt and lied about his death, he became a flawed character signaling his minutes of screentime were numbered.

Scott sings Val Kilmer's praises as an actor. In my opinion he is just another movie star that needs to thank God he was born photogenic. I like relative newcomer Simon Baker. This guy could have a great career. Watch him as the bisexual prostitute in LA Confidential and now television's The Guardian . This is an actor. He actually shows emotion on his face without speaking lines.

The direction, as Scott mentioned is good, except he telegraphs the plot. The effects as well stand out. To the amateur moviegoer this is a very good movie. However, us seasoned movie watchers require a little more creativity.

Terence Stamp and Benjamin Bratt in Red Planet .

I'm in the middle on this one. I agree with Eric that there is little originality to be found here. I too guessed they could breathe the air when they were all suffocating inside their space helmets, but the deaths were more difficult to surmise (except for the two leads of course) since several well known stars die fairly early in the story. In fact Red Planet plays like a disaster movie in space. Everything goes wrong from the beginning, they are in a constant struggle to survive against nearly insurmountable odds, and the cast members start dying off one by one.

Like Scott, despite the fact that it's quite derivative, I still rather enjoyed this movie. Thanks mostly to the talented cast and great special effects, which hold up quite nicely a dozen years later. Some of the visuals in space are very reminiscent of Kubrik's 2001: A Space Odyssey . But it appears we are in the minority. Most movie goers and critics agreed with Eric, as it received mostly scathing reviews and earned a worldwide gross of just 33 million dollars against an estimated budget of 80 million. Not exactly a hit.

The one angle where they fooled me was with Benjamin Bratt's character. Since they didn't show what happened to his body after he fell I assumed he was still alive and would show up unexpectedly to save the day at the last minute. I was mistaken.

The script is OK but nothing to brag about. I did like the fact that they went for a fairly realistic approach. There are no ravenous space aliens or little green Martians running about. Compared to John Carter this is a documentary. My favorite bit of dialogue was spoken by Val Kilmer. When they are lost and are trying to figure out their coordinates he says, “This is it. That moment they told us in high school where one day, algebra would save our lives.”

Red Planet is not as bad as its reputation. It holds up quite nicely from a technical standpoint and is entertaining enough in a formulaic B-movie way.

Photos © Copyright Warner Bros. (2000)

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12 July 2000 10:50AM

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"Searching for God in Outer Space"

What You Need To Know:

(BB, C, EE, H, Ab, LLL, VV, N, A, M) Moral worldview that sometimes argues in favor of the existence of God, but ultimately leaves it a mystery, with characters saying “Thank God” & “God help us” at two crucial moments & with redemptive elements, but with unproven environmentalist ideas about pollution & “over-population” plus humanist solutions to world problems & a major supporting humanist character argues against the existence of God, but two other characters, including male lead, dispute his humanist atheism; 23 obscenities, including one “f” word, 4 strong profanities, 3 mild profanities, 1 obscene gesture, & urinating scene; action violence such as intense situations, explosions, module tumbles down Martian landscape, accidental death, two men sacrifice their own lives for others, & men battle military robot which tries to maim & kill them; no sex, but hero encounters female astronaut coming out of shower, leading to some mild sexual innuendo; side & rear female nudity & woman wears revealing top; alcohol use & one man becomes somewhat tipsy; and, conceit, envy & man hides truth about accidental death.

More Detail:

RED PLANET is an intense, well-produced science fiction movie that casts doubts about the ability of atheism to sustain man and prolong the future. Although it ultimately leaves the existence and workings of God a mystery, two of the movie’s three most positive characters embrace the idea as a distinct possibility. This is unique for a genre that hasn’t always been the most friendly toward those of us who believe in some form of theism, much less to those of us who embrace the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Val Kilmer stars as Gallagher, a mechanical systems engineer aboard a spaceship headed for Mars. Its mission: find out why Earth’s attempt to transform Mars into a livable, breathable home for the survivors of a crowded, polluted Earth has gone wrong. Oxygen levels on Mars are dropping, the movie tells viewers, even though unmanned spaceflights have melted the icecaps and planted algae.

When the spaceship experiences a really bad solar flare, the captain, a woman named Commander Bowman and played by Carrie-Anne Moss of THE MATRIX, hurriedly dispatches the other five crewmembers, all male, to complete the mission. They survive the landing, barely, and begin to explore why the algae seems to have disappeared and why the biological compound waiting for them there has been demolished as if it were eaten away. Meanwhile, the men have to fight off a menacing robot whose system has switched to military mode after its own crash landing.

Moss, Kilmer and Tom Sizemore as Dr. Burchenal, leader of the biological analysis, give the best performances in RED PLANET, but that’s partly because they are given the most developed characters to play. Moss and Kilmer, as they did in THE MATRIX and BATMAN FOREVER, again show they can play leading roles, and Sizemore, as he did in SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, again shows he can play a solid supporting role.

Most interesting of all is the fact that acclaimed actor Terence Stamp plays Chief Science Officer Chantilas, the most experienced astronaut on the ship and a spiritual leader. At one point in the movie, which is repeated, Chantilas says to Kilmer’s Gallagher that he doesn’t think science has all the answers. Chantilas adds that he’s turned to philosophy and is “searching for God.” He says this line more in the sense of knowing who God really is rather than in the sense of wondering whether God exists at all. His words to Gallagher play an important role later on in the movie, although RED PLANET ultimately leaves the existence and identity of God a mystery. In fact, Gallagher gets into an argument with Sizemore’s Burchenal, who doesn’t believe in God at all. Burchenal advises Gallagher to stick with God if he wants, but he’ll place his trust in science and “my Ph.D.’s” Of course, this is a false dilemma, because God created the whole universe. Thus, an honest scientific investigation of how the universe works should not lead to a rejection of God, but to an embrace of Him and His Glory. Hopefully, audiences who see RED PLANET will side with Chantilas and Gallagher’s opinion, not that of the other characters.

Examined carefully, it seems that RED PLANET has a moral worldview with redemptive themes of sacrifice, loyalty, duty, determination, and heroism. This is undercut by some foul language, including one “f” word and a few strong profanities, an obscured nude shot of Commander Bowman in the shower and some other potentially objectionable elements. The movie also accepts the unproven environmentalist ideas that the earth can be destroyed by our current projected levels of pollution and “over-population.”

Finally, although RED PLANET is a well-produced, often exciting and tense, movie with lots of action, it’s predictable at times and contains some cheesy dialogue. Also, the pulse-pounding music and sound effects overpower the drama several times. The filmmakers also seem to suffer from a big trend in too many Hollywood action movies these days, where the images are often more murky, dark and fragmented than they need to be. Instead of following this trend all the time, it would be a relief to see more movies like the fantastic chase scene at the end of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, which takes place in daylight and lets viewers actually see what’s going on in the scene.

Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.

What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.

You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.

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Review of Red Planet

By 2050, Earth's pollution has gone out of control, and the only hope for humanity lies in terra-forming on Mars to render it a habitable environment. However, something has gone wrong with the terra-forming project and a group of astronauts and scientists have been dispatched to see what happened.

The crew is headed by Commander Kate Bowman (Carrie-Ann Moss). There's also the "space janitor" Robby Gallagher (Val Kilmer), science officer Chantilas (Terence Stamp), Air Force Captain Santen (Benjamin Bratt), and another scientist, Burchenal (Tom Sizemore).

The mission goes smoothly until they hit Mars, where a crash-landing strands everyone but Bowman on Mars. As the survivors try to stay alive ¿ a task made difficult by AMEE (Autonomous Mapping Evaluation and Evasion), a malfunctioning robot that has gone into combat mode ¿ Bowman struggles to bring them back to the ship.

Every technical consideration in Red Planet is nearly flawless. From the polished cinematography by Peter Suschitzky (David Cronenberg's director of photography) to the special visual effects, the movie looks fabulous. The barren, arid landscape of Mars is beautifully rendered. The spacecraft are very cool. And, of course, AMEE the robot is a stunner.

So what's the problem? Point blank: We've gotten to the point that, in terms of special effects, we can do literally anything. Unfortunately, Red Planet , like so many other movies of late, doesn't have a bit of substance to serve the stunning visuals.

To explain just why Red Planet is so bad, I must invoke the memory of an earlier and far better movie: John Carpenter's 1982 remake of The Thing . I just happened to watch a chunk of Carpenter's film on DVD the afternoon before I saw the screening of Red Planet ¿ not as a point of comparison, mind you, but rather purely by chance. However, Carpenter's movie bears mention because it has more than a few similarities to Red Planet : they're both sf/horror/action hybrids; they're both largely ensemble pieces with tough-guy, working class heroes (Kurt Russell in The Thing , Val Kilmer in Red Planet ); and they're both technical wonders. That is, however, where the similarities end.

You see, in Carpenter's movie, you actually cared about the characters. That made all of the fantastical elements of the plot work so well ¿ not only did we believe in the characters, but what happened to them mattered. Not so with Red Planet , in which the "characterization" of Jonathan Lemkin and Chuck Pfarrer's screenplay comes down to dull dialogue moments with the characters spouting dialogue that sounds like fortune cookie aphorisms gene-spliced with every bad sci-fi movie cliche you can imagine.

Also, not to be too nit-picky, but why is the science and technology in this movie so stupid? I didn't think any movie could top the ignorance of Armageddon , with its astronauts who weren't sure how to defuse the nuclear weapon they brought with them ¿ but Red Planet goes a step beyond, with a robot that goes into man-killing combat mode when it gets banged around in a crash-landing. What?! Why even bring a robot that has that capability?

Left to right: Benjamin Bratt, Tom Sizemore, Simon Baker and Val Kilmer in Red Planet

The actors ¿ Kilmer, Moss, Stamp, Sizemore ¿ are all talented, and they don't embarrass themselves, but there's so little they can do with such wretched material that they're utterly disposable. Any interest that the characters hold comes squarely from the appeal of the performers ¿ but that's not really enough to make it worthwhile. Ultimately, the lack of substantial meaning or point to the characters is driven home by an unfortunate coincidence (or possibly hommage) in the naming of Moss' character: Bowman, which was of course the name of the astronaut played by Keir Dullea in 2001: A Space Odyssey . Whatever the rationale in the naming of the character in Red Planet , it only serves to remind us of how high the bar is for a movie of this type...and how far below that bar Red Planet falls. Even Brian DePalma's Mission To Mars , awful as it was, at least attempted to take a higher road than Red Planet ever does. First-time feature director Antony Hoffman helms the movie exactly how you'd figure a former TV commercial director would: In other words, the whole thing is slick and hollow and soulless.

The ugliest thing about this great-looking piece of awfulness is what its makers seem to think of their audience.

The official Red Planet website can be accessed by clicking HERE . Related Coverage The Red Planet Experience: A Conversation with Val Kilmer, Carrie-Anne Moss and Simon Baker Psychobabble with Val Kilmer (IGN Movies)

1.5 out of 5 Stars, 3/10 Score

Review of <I>Red Planet</I>

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2000 Directed by Antony Hoffman

Not a sound. Not a warning. Not a chance. Not alone.

Astronauts search for solutions to save a dying Earth by searching on Mars, only to have the mission go terribly awry.

Val Kilmer Carrie-Anne Moss Benjamin Bratt Tom Sizemore Simon Baker Terence Stamp Jessica Morton Bob Neill Caroline Bossi

Director Director

Antony Hoffman

Assistant Directors Asst. Directors

Colin Fletcher Noni Roy

Additional Directing Add. Directing

Graeme Burfoot

Producers Producers

Bruce Berman Jorge Saralegui Mark Canton Stephen Jones

Executive Producers Exec. Producers

Andrew Mason Chuck Pfarrer Charles J.D. Schlissel

Writers Writers

Jonathan Lemkin Chuck Pfarrer

Casting Casting

Lora Kennedy

Editors Editors

Dallas Puett Robert K. Lambert

Cinematography Cinematography

Peter Suschitzky

Camera Operators Camera Operators

Mitchell Amundsen Randy Nolen Pete Cavaciuti Harry Panagiotidis

Lighting Lighting

Peter Bushby

Additional Photography Add. Photography

Geoffrey Wharton Jean-Yves Le Poulain

Production Design Production Design

Owen Paterson

Art Direction Art Direction

Hugh Bateup Catherine Mansill Constantine Sekeris

Set Decoration Set Decoration

Brian Dusting Fiona Donovan

Special Effects Special Effects

Tom Davies Dave Barkovitz

Visual Effects Visual Effects

Cosmas Paul Bolger Jr. Thomas Boland Constance Bracewell Steve Markowski Tony Anderson

Stunts Stunts

Guy Norris Damian Bradford Annette van Moorsel Brett Praed

Composer Composer

Graeme Revell

Sound Sound

Dane A. Davis Julia Evershade Eric Lindemann Jeremy Peirson Chad Algarin Alyson Dee Moore Stephanie Flack Paul 'Salty' Brincat Carolyn Tapp Joe Dorn Mary Jo Lang Thom Brennan Eric Cameron Hosmer

Costume Design Costume Design

Kym Barrett

Makeup Makeup

Paul Engelen

Hairstyling Hairstyling

Vera Mitchell Erica Wells

Mars Production Pty. Ltd. Village Roadshow Pictures NPV Entertainment The Canton Company Warner Bros. Pictures

Australia USA

Releases by Date

06 nov 2000, 10 nov 2000, 24 nov 2000, 29 nov 2000, 01 dec 2000, 06 dec 2000, 07 dec 2000, 08 dec 2000, 14 dec 2000, 22 dec 2000, 29 dec 2000, 30 dec 2000, 04 jan 2001, 05 jan 2001, 12 jan 2001, 13 jan 2001, 19 jan 2001, 25 jan 2001, 26 jan 2001, 08 feb 2001, 09 feb 2001, 15 feb 2001, 16 feb 2001, 23 feb 2001, 01 mar 2001, 02 mar 2001, 06 apr 2001, 19 apr 2001, 19 sep 2001, 23 may 2001, 23 jan 2008, 28 sep 2011, 14 dec 2003, releases by country.

Theatrical M
Theatrical 12+
Theatrical U
Theatrical 12
Theatrical 13
Theatrical Jakarta
Theatrical T

Netherlands

TV 12 Veronica
Physical 12 DVD

New Zealand

Russian federation.

Physical 12+ Video

South Africa

South korea.

Theatrical 7
Theatrical 11
Physical 11 DVD release
Physical 11 Blu-ray release
Premiere PG-13
Theatrical PG-13

106 mins More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by Josh Gillam ★★½

Red Planet always feels as if it’s some sort of fake movie-within-a-movie (like that sci-fi film Julia Roberts and Alec Baldwin’s characters are shooting in Notting Hill ) somehow padded out to feature length.

Whether that’s down to some of the choices here (weird clunky dialogue, lifeless action sequences, a first half that constantly jumps forward) there’s a strangely stilted approach to this that’s pretty uninvolving. Even when a lot’s supposed to be at stake it never really gives you a chance to care about these characters, some pretty odd motivations adding to that arbitrary feel.

The story’s just a bit dull really (with an odd mix of dragging out some moments and then rushing through others), though I think this…

Review by shookone ★½ 1

thought it's about 5 dicks fighting about Carrie-Ann Moss and was pretty disappointed that it is about 5 dicks procrastinating on the red planet while Moss is pushing buttons on a space ship all by herself.

Review by Andy Summers 🤠 ★★★½ 3

Over the last twenty years since this film came out there have been a fair few films focusing on Mars and the thought of us humans turning it into a liveable habitat for the continuation of the species. Some have been better than others, some have had aliens, some have had remarkable feats of heroism, and others got pilloried on release so badly that nobody actually saw them after those early reviews. This film was a massive flop financially, as was Brian De Palma's Mission To Mars which came out 7 months prior to this one. Two films with similar visual aesthetics, even in their reasoning for exploring the big red planet in the first place, although each takes it's…

Review by DirkH ★★ 8

Watching this is like watching a weak juggler trying to juggle with fifteen balls.

Red Planet is a good looking B movie that follows the 'space mission gone wrong' blue print perfectly. It has a decent enough cast and most special effects are fine. But then there is this little thing called plot. And it's a stinker.

See, you already know what is going to happen beforehand, as is often the case in films like this. But in some sort of desperate attempt to be different or to foolishly create a sense of urgency, it keeps chucking threat after threat at our heroes, giving us no clear villain or main antagonist making it all a rather flacid affair.

Still, even in uneven B-grade SF material there is some fun to be had and that is certainly the case here. But it's tough to find among the rubbish.

Review by cblaze ★

This movie has a screenplay that makes you wonder if anyone fucking read it before making it. It's fucking terrible. It's fucking terrible. It's fucking terrible. It's fucking terrible. It's fucking terrible. It's fucking terrible. It's fucking terrible. It's fucking terrible. It's fucking terrilb.e

This movie was doomed since the begin talk where the girl kept saying dum shit - like - he's a hot head but he's a good pilot. What the reasonable fuck does that mean? Why are you reading the screenply notes on the characters? Fucking dumbbbb

Why does your fucing makping robot have amilitary mode? Dumbassesessss!!! It makes mpas or it kills people pick one!

My notes say that it's okay that the fx where shit…

Review by 📀 Cammmalot 📀 ★½

”We just disappointed 10 billion people. Not counting the ex-wives.”

Murphy’s law says that anything that can go wrong will go wrong…somehow this film found a way to make even more things go wrong. Right from the exposition heavy start you know this movie’s in trouble and then it piles on challenge after challenge for the crew until you’re just numb and want it all to end. What a ridiculous mess.

Earlier in my 2000 marathon I noted that Mission to Mars was pretty mediocre, but this film makes it look brilliant.

”You watching this, AMEE? We're taking the first piss on Mars.”

Cinematic Time Capsule - 2000 Ranked

Review by Old Man Angelo ★★★

I saw this in cinemas with my dad and I remember liking it, in the intervening years id forgotten it and chalked up what I assumed was a bad film to be being a kid who didn’t know better. But no actually, I quite enjoyed it upon revisiting it 23 years later. It’s like a very first draft version of The Martian, but comparatively small scale and much much dumber. Still there’s enough similarities with the use of old rovers and Russian ships that make me wonder if Andy Weir wasn’t a fan, or at least saw this and decided he would tell a better version of the same story.

There’s some fun 2000’s charm with the vfx which reminded…

Review by rubbybells ★★

At one point Tom Sizemore lists the DNA nucleotides A, G, T, and P . P! We could've been living in a world where Ethan Hawke starred in GATTAPA.

Review by kjdson ★★

With the well known cast and the ending where a lone survivor uses a rickety device to blast off from the surface of Mars to into space for a one in a million rescue attempt, one could make a comparison between this and The Martian . But The Martian didn't have little alien bugs or killer space robots.

I'm making this movie sound cooler than it really is. The alien bugs are the big twist and it's a big letdown. The story isn't that interesting and the cast is wasted, especially Carrie Anne Moss who is up on the ship while the rest of the cast walk around the desert.

The CGI robot creature holds up though.

Review by aaronog ★★★½

Moonshine to Mars Faith and Destiny on Martian Time. It’s almost like Heat in Space.

Review by emma ★★★½

you’re going to think i’m pulling a morbius on you but i’m not making this up when i say that my favorite part of this movie was when val kilmer looked directly into the camera, flipped us (the audience) the bird, and said “ FUCK this planet .”

Review by GordoFlower ★½

I'll never forget that in the iconic telenovela Rebelde there was a poster for this movie in the posh school's cafeteria.

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Movieman's Guide to the Movies

Red planet blu-ray review.

REVIEW NAVIGATION The Movie | Special Features | Video Quality | Audio Quality | Overall

Genre(s): Science Fiction, Action, Thriller Warner Bros. | PG13 – 106 min. – $19.98 | July 26, 2011

MOVIE INFO: Directed by: Antony Hoffman Writer(s): Chuck Pfarrer (story), Chuck Pfarrer and Jonathan Lempkin (screenplay) Cast: Val Kilmer, Carrie-Anne Moss, Tom Sizemore, Benjamin Bratt, Simon Baker, Terrence Stamp

Theatrical Release Date: November 10, 2000

DISC INFO: Features: Deleted Scenes, Theatrical Trailer Number of Discs: 1

Audio: English (DTS-HD MA 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1) Video: 1080p/Widescreen 2.40 Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Region(s): Region Free

THE MOVIE – 2.25/5

Science Fiction movies where space travel is the primary subject, with a genre thrown to propel the story, don’t often turn out all too well with the exception – off the top of my head – of the first two Alien movies. Even something like Sunshine , a brilliant film for the first two-thirds, faltered in the third act turning from strange fantasy to almost straight-up horror seemingly inspired by Event Horizon .

In 2000, there was not just one but two space travel films to come out and both involved the planet Mars. While the Disney version, Mission to Mars , which cost a reported $100 million, went on to make around $110 million worldwide, Red Planet apparently cost $80 million and made a mere $35 million worldwide amidst poor reviews and audience indifference. After my first viewing, I can see why. It’s not that the movie was bad per se, but it was generally downright dull through and through.

The story takes place in the year 2055 and Earth is dying with one last hope of colonization is the planet Mars. Year’s earlier scientists, via rockets, populated the planet with algae in the hopes it would create a breathable atmosphere for mankind. The crew of this mission is led by Commander Trinity (CARRIE-ANNE MOSS) and her team consists of cocky pilot Law & Order (BENJAMIN BRATT), technician The Mentalist (SIMON BAKER), civilian Heat (TOM SIZEMORE) and glorified janitor Iceman (VAL KILMER).

During their three month journey, the crew discusses various topics including religion and philosophy vs. science, in a minimalist way, and a couple of them get on the nerves of others (mainly L&O and Mentalist, one is a jock, the other a nerd). After some minor sexual tension between Trinity and Iceman, the mission gets going as the ship reaches Mars’ orbit. Well, if this weren’t a clichéd-riddled film, everything would go smoothly and they would all go home happy. Of course, that does not happen and the proverbial sh** hits the fan where all systems go haywire and the Trinity must make a quick decision to send the rest of the crew down to Mars in the hopes of salvaging the mission while she tries to restore systems. With some reluctance, Iceman and the rest get into the space modular which launches down to the surface but, lo and behold, the craft has its own troubles and lands miles outside of the designated zone. But that’s not all of the trouble as, on this modular, was a military navigation robot called AMEE had to be separated from the crew. It’s a robot with precisely two settings: happy, dog-like robot and killer robot; take a stab at which one causes a whole lot of havoc upon them all.

And yet the crew has more problems. First, The Mentalist and Law & Order have at it on the planet which causes one of them to die an unfortunate and lame death; the second issue is they have an issue concerning rapidly depleting oxygen levels which become a bigger problem when the base that was built on Mars, and where they can find oxygen and rations, has been completely demolished. Ok, I think that’s all the disasters that have plagued this poor ragtag crew…

That’s the basic premise behind Red Planet and quite frankly for all that does go wrong, it all doesn’t seem to matter between 1-dimensional characters, a plotline that isn’t all that interesting which in turn brings about a dull motion picture.

Where the movie does succeed is with the practical effects, visual effects (save for the space fire) and, for the most part, miniature construction. For a film made in 2000 on a modest budget, especially considering Val Kilmer and Carrie-Anne Moss were still making decent money. But for all the good the effects do, it can’t save a floundering and mostly predictable story.

In regards to the casting, as I mentioned, Val Kilmer was still a viable name and receives top billing and Carrie-Anne Moss was coming off of the surprise hit, The Matrix just a year earlier. Add them to a who’s who of recognizable faces from Benjamin Bratt, trying to poise himself to movie fame out of the shadow of “Law & Order” (in fact he left the series in ‘99) to do this and several other flops; the venerable Terrence Stamp filling the necessary wise-old-man void; Tom Sizemore before his addiction became a hindrance in his career; and Simon Baker in one of his earlier roles before going onto The Ring Two , The Devil Wears Prada and, of course, the hit CBS television series, “The Mentalist”. His performance seems to be underplayed, living with what his character does but never really reaching any kind of emotional crescendo.

Red Planet was directed by Antony Hoffman in his first and only feature film before returning to his roots of commercials. All things considered, and with so much wrong with the movie, I thought the visuals were one of the better aspects but it wasn’t helped at all by the script. Speaking of which, the screenplay was written by Chuck Pfarrer (this was his last credited script) and Jonathan Lemkin (who’s only other credit after was Shooter ).

In the end, Red Planet isn’t a bad movie, just mediocre to the point of being dull and downright boring with bland characters only propped up by some good visual effects and miniature work. The cast I suppose did their best with what they were given but even still this isn’t exactly a highlight in their resume.

SPECIAL FEATURES – 1.25/5

The disc includes some Deleted Scenes (14:22; SD) and the Theatrical Trailer (1:39; SD) .

VIDEO – 4.25/5

Red Planet boasts a solid video transfer with its original 2.40 aspect ratio and 1080p high-definition. These types of catalogue releases, meaning smaller interest/fan-base, can be a mixed bag where the studio does a quick one-over with the transfer and releases it as is with little fanfare. While the latter is true, the former is not because save for a few shots, most notably some of the visual effects ones, this is a good looking Blu-ray release that fans of the film will enjoy. Since I don’t have the original DVD release, I can’t do a comparison but I would suspect that this is a fair amount better than its SD counterpart. Colors, when not on Mars, are well balanced and black levels, which there are plenty of, are free of any ghastly pixilation or other flaws. When on Mars, there is a noticeable amount of film grain but that only adds to the detail level. Why I didn’t give this a higher rating is in certain shots it does look a tad oversaturated but those are few and far between.

AUDIO – 4.5/5

The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track packs quite the punch which there are plenty to gauge and from the beginning the bass, beginning at a low level, quickly cranks up to shake the entire room. With the rest of the film, you get clear dialogue levels along with some depth coming from the rear channels during the action sequences. It’s not exactly reference quality, but for a catalogue title, I still found it to be impressive.

OVERALL – 3.0/5

Overall, despite some decent visual and practical effects, Red Planet is just an ordinary movie in that hellish spot between the good and bad making it a forgettable film as a whole. The Blu-ray itself though boasts fine audio and video transfers though is limited in features which were carried over from the DVD releases. Given the low MSRP of $19.98, this is yet another shelf filler that will, in a few months, be below $10 at which point if you’ve enjoyed the film might be worthwhile picking up.

The Movieman Published: 07/29/2011

One Response to “Red Planet Blu-ray Review”

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Red Planet Parent Guide

Why is Red Planet rated PG-13? The MPAA rated Red Planet PG-13 for sci-fi violence, brief nudity and language.

Get Content Details

The guide to our grades, parent movie review by jim fleming.

It’ 2050 A.D. and the earth is an ecological mess. With the most liberal estimates giving our terrestrial home a mere 100 years to sustain life, mankind’s only chance for survival is to pack their bags and move to Mars. In preparation for the migration, scientists dispatched the unmanned Martian Terraforming Project some 25 years previous, and its oxygen generating algae have been happily reproducing ever since—creating an atmosphere fit for human habitation in the process.

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Jim fleming, red planet rating & content info.

Why is Red Planet rated PG-13? Red Planet is rated PG-13 by the MPAA for sci-fi violence, brief nudity and language.

Page last updated July 17, 2017

Red Planet Parents' Guide

This movie is based on the fact that we don’t treat our planet very well. Will the Earth be capable of sustaining life, as we know it, in the near future? Should we be concerned about the world we leave to future generations? Are there steps families can take to prevent ecological disasters?

Many sci-fi movies require us to overlook some highly improbable scenarios in order for the script to flow. Do you think that present day computer hardware could interface with that built 50 years hence without any compatibility issues? How many other times were you required to suspend disbelief?

Even in the year 2050, duct tape appears to be a necessary item when it comes to the handy man’s toolbox. Since cargo space would be a scarce commodity, what is the most important personal item you’d take along on a lengthy space mission?

And finally, how much do you think Toshiba paid for the exclusive advertising on the astronaut’s spacesuits?

Back to Black

The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time. The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time. The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time.