Mars (1997) User Reviews (19)

Tries too hard, but not nearly as bad as the reviews show

[mstomaso · 3/10 · 2 April 2006]

It took three sittings to get through, but I made it through this low-budget sci-fi kick-boxing thriller. The two elements that really killed this film are the script and Gabrield Dell Jr's channeling of Rob Schneider (on crack). Mars is so full of clichés that the cast should have been given awards for keeping straight faces throughout the production. And Dell's character is so loud, obnoxious, and unfunny, that the single best line in the film, and perhaps it's most dramatic moment, occurs when Greunier tries to get him to shut up.

Shari Belafonte is beautiful and Olivier Greunier looks good too, but good looks don't help a bad script. Some of the acting is poor, but mostly its the absurd script that makes good acting almost inconceivable. Belafonte carries her lines better than the rest of the cast. Greunier is pretty good at looking apathetic, angry and detached, but I have to say that the whole casting non-actors as silent unemotional heroes thing is really wearing thin.

Knowing how low budget this film was, and knowing a little about how it was made, I have to say that the production values are really not that bad, and the directing is actually pretty good. The director, a tenth degree black-bekt and Undefeated Florida Full-Contact Heavyweight Karate Champion, has made some absolutely hideous films (The Watchers http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096425/ being the worst example), but Mars is a big improvement over his earlier works. The film keeps a reasonable pace and doesn't try to do very much with what it doesn't have (i.e. a useful script).

Though I just finished watching this last night, I am struggling to remember the plot. Greunier is Caution Templer - a "Keeper" - a kind of corporate intelligence officer. His brother, also a keeper, has been murdered on Mars, where the company has a mining interest. Almost as soon as he gets to Mars to investigate, he connects with Belafonte, who has just made a startling and troublesome discovery, and people start trying to kill them both. There really isn't much more too it.

I recommend this film for kick-boxing fans, and would give it a very mild recommendation of low budget sci fi fans.

A bit of production trivia

[dmgrin · 3/10 · 29 August 2005]

The budget for Mars was about $1 million US. That wasn't much money, and almost all of it went to the film's paltry CGI effects, and one explosion scene.

The film was shot by a first time director in an abandoned shopping mall. Most of the places you see in the film are converted retail stores like Gap or Foot Locker. The surface of mars is a truckload of sand that someone dumped in the food court and died red. If you look closely at the costumes, you can see that the futuristic breathing equipment is made from pool toys that were spray-painted black. You just can't make this stuff up.

Sharon Belafonte tries to make a comeback in this film... and fails. She looks good for her age though. Grunier does a good Terminator impression, as in, shows little or no emotion for the whole film.

Not as bad is some reviewers would have it

[mergatroid-1 · 5/10 · 6 November 2010]

OK, so it's been a few years since I watched this movie, and I'll have to dig it out of my collection and rewatch it one of these days, however I have to say that while this movie didn't thrill me, it's no where near the worst movies out there.

Just in case you're at a bargain bin and you see, say, this movie and "King of the Ants", or "King Kong Lives", or maybe "Ghost Rock", then by all means take home Mars. It's the classic line you get from the second worse team in a league: "We don't suck the worst". I've definitely seen worse. A cop gets a message from his brother that sends him to Mars where he finds his brother is dead. With the help of a local babe he has to biatch-slap his way around to find out what's going on. So, it's pretty much a Hollywood plot retread, but as I mentioned it's sure not the worst you can do in a pinch.

Very boring!

[Pingo-2 · 1/10 · 11 May 2001]

MARS is probably the most boring film you can find starring Oliver Gruner. NEMESIS was an okay movie (despite it being made by Albert Puyn), but this little "action"-movie is very boring.

The story is stolen from all other Mars-movies, and is of course about that evil corporation that has a mining enterprise on the planet. Gruner is to find out what happened to his brother, who was murdered two days ago. And that's about as exciting it gets...

The bad-guys have VERY disappointing dialogue and the script is poorly written. The main idea is not at all bad. The production could have been so much better with some re-writes. The cast isn't necessary all bad either - especially Lee de Broux (RoboCop) is nice to see, even though he doesn't have much to work with.

Gruner himself isn't all that bad either, but the lack of a good script, the bad directing, the VERY bad sets and props and especially the terrible dialogue is making this film a very boring and very bad movie. Yes, it is in the league of Creepozoids and Timewalker.

I give this film 1 out of 10.

Derivative flop with worst aspects of "Outland" and "Total Recall"

[vfrickey · 2/10 · 27 June 2007]

"Mars" - a very hard name to carry off for what is at very best a "B" movie. After all, Mars is dramatic territory explored before by Edgar Rice Burroughs, C.S. Lewis, Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov and Philip K. Dick (among many others).

The writers of this turkey should have stayed home. It's no crime to realize your limitations and work within them - and these guys might have a promising future in the porn industry if they apply themselves. As serious screenwriters they seem outclassed.

Olivier Gruner fails to impress the viewer as the protagonist Caution Templer, a lawman who must defend himself from attackers while investigating the mysterious death of his brother (also a lawman) on the Martian outpost Alpha City. (Fans of French science-fiction cinema will recall the classic "Alphaville," whose protagonist was named "Lemmy Caution.")

The director and screenwriters have Caution Templar bulling through all sorts of unsocial encounters with bad guys with nary a scratch... and actor Gruner's delivery is such that calling it "wooden" is unkind to wood.

Other action film actors' "wooden delivery" is leavened by compensating features. Next time, Olivier, please watch a LOT of Clint Eastwood's spaghetti westerns and the "Dirty Harry" oeuvre, and see how HE gets away with it.

Shari Belafonte turns in a better performance, but her character is a dim copy of Frances Sternhagen's frontier quack in "Outland" - without the dramatic scope of the original character. Rae Dawn Chong joins the throng of name actors who sleepwalk through their parts - whether this was the fault of the part she was given or her own acting isn't clear, because trying to inject some sort of animation into this script might have opened the cast to charges of overacting. And they're the TALENT in this picture.

The plot's uninspiring in the way of nearly every French science-fiction film except for "The Fifth Element." I generally felt robbed of the time I spent watching this turkey. It shares all the weaknesses of the films from which it cribs, but shares NONE of their high spots.

Your mileage may vary if you like this sort of film. It sure has enough action to carry the attention of a hard-core fan of slasher sci-fi - say, if you thought the face-suckers and gut-ripping scenes were the high points of the "Alien" movies. If so, feel free to indulge, there's plenty of that stuff there to keep you happy.

Really, Really Bad

[acolozza · 1/10 · 16 October 2004]

This has to be one of the worst movies I have seen. I generally like science fiction and was interested in it because it was a Mars based movie. It was hard to completely watch it though. The acting was poor and the editing was horrible. Scenes would cut to other scenes or jump around making it hard to follow the movie. The story line is really pretty weak with transparent characters and very little plot. It is pretty easy to predict what is going to happen by the end of the movie. There are some interesting fight scenes but that is about the only positive aspect of the movie. This is obviously a lower budget made for video movie. But all in all do not waste your time. There are much better science fiction movies out there.

Why is this movie called "Mars"?

[Vomitron_G · 3/10 · 22 February 2006]

With a title like MARS, you instantly think of movies like TOTAL RECALL, RED PLANET or even the slightly abominable MISSION TO MARS. Now those movies at least showed the planet Mars in all its glory. In Jon Hess' MARS we get a story that could take place anywhere. We only get two CGI top-shots of the Mars-based Alpha City in the beginning and the end of the movie, and we also see some actors stumbling around on a pile of red sand. The rest of the dull and clichéd story takes place on card-board interior-sets. It all looks real small and they don't even have enough extra's to populate the sets. The story itself is predictable involving a company-man (Olivier Gruner) arriving on Mars to investigate the death of his brother. But still the plot manages to be structured like any decent police-investigation story. You can immediately spot who the bad guy is and the plot is just an excuse for a lot of kicking and fighting. There's also supposed to be a big successful mining-company on Mars, but all we see is three man drilling outside. The bad guys just can't act and Olivier Gruner is incapable of showing emotion but does kick a few good punches (that's why he was great playing a cyborg in AUTOMATIC and a cybernetic human in NEMESIS). But please don't give him any meaningful lines to say, 'cause you won't be able to stop laughing with his straight face. In the end this movie even loses track of its own purpose. Is it about the drugs? Is it about the ore? Is it about the health of the Marsians? Who cares. But it will have you laughing when the bad boss is killed at the end. So, to many, MARS might be a waste of time, which it probably is. But still, I've seen worse. Mars belongs in that same bad sci-fi vein as PRECIOUS FIND, but at least that one was fun 'cause it didn't take itself seriously.

not-so-Total Recall

[Mattias · 2/10 · 16 November 2001]

Best described as the poor man's version of Total Recall. And I'm not saying that a movie needs a big budget to be good, but in this case the script, the set and the actors are poor as well. It's like the cast from 'The Bold and the Beautiful' are trying to fill the shoes of Arnold Schwarzenegger. But what I hated most about the movie was the horrible side-kick. Save yourself the time, do something useful like watch paint dry or something.

Energy with nowhere to go

[btucker · 6/10 · 27 October 2001]

Acting energy with a poor script, talent is a terrible thing to waste. This movie had two typical plot lines with no surprises. The main character starts off with an aggressiveness that promises a good movie, but it never goes anywhere. If you really have nothing better to do (snowed in for days), then it might be alright to watch this one once . ..

A C+ Sci Fi Movie

[FilmWolf318 · 21 August 2011]

There is a lot of terribly negative reviews of this movie. I can certainly see why. There are parts of this movie which seem incoherent, unnecessary and silly; I will not lie. The Plot is thin, but the Protagonist, Caution Templar, (Olivier Gruner) gives a performance that is on par with the likes of Chuck Norris or Steven Segal. That may not be your forte, and that is fine. If it isn't, then you may wish to watch something else, if however you like seeing the protagonist kick butt all the way through and not even get touched, this might be for you. Caution Templar is a member of a Mining Company's police force. His brother was as well. Caution is there to investigate his brother's disappearance and death. He kick-boxes his way through henchmen and finds out why his brother is killed. On his way he meets Doc Halliday (Shari Bellfonte) and they work together. He also meets an irritating sidekick and I was thankful to see he didn't have much in the movie. This is a C+ movie. It is not ground breaking stuff by far, but given the facts in the trivia, that this movie was shot in an old shopping mall on 1 million dollars budget and a short time, it is not terrible. It will not compete with Total Recall or other A list Mars movies, but it is like your first car, rough around the edges, but gets you there. It is worth your time if you can see past a few faults.

More low budget sci fi non thrills

[JohnSeal · 2/10 · 25 May 1999]

This is one of those low budget affairs that purport to present an alien world or a bleak future whilst looking like they were filmed in a warehouse for about $20,000.... which Mars probably was. Tedious and unexciting.

Really not too bad

[snortch · 9/10 · 31 August 2002]

This movie wasn't near as bad as I was expecting. But then again, these futuristic B movies are right down my alley. Lots of decent action, plot twists and intrigue. The only thing I couldn't understand is why they dubbed over the main actor's voice. Couldn't he speak English? and if not, why cast him in an English speaking movie. All in all, a decent movie.

"There are no children on Mars"

[hwg1957-102-265704 · 6/10 · 2 October 2020]

A security man goes to Mars to investigate the death of his brother and while there helps with the uncovering of the reason why people are falling ill. It's a simple plot and reminds one of several other Mars based films but It moves along speedily and the plentiful action scenes are OK.

The acting.... Olivier Gruner is robotic (In fact at first I thought he was an android) as the hero Caution Templer, Lindsey Ginter over hams it hilariously as the support villain Ike Ringo, Shari Belafonte looks nice in white underwear as Doc Halliday and Gabriel Dell Jr. was so darned annoying as hyper active Buckskin Greenberg that I hoped someone would off him early on in the movie, but alas he survives to the end. Though I did like Scott Valentine as grizzled Pete the Hermit and Alex Hyde-White as the oily corporate head Phillip Clement.

There is a moving scene when the reason for the lack of children on Mars is explained but apart from that this is not a film to lodge in the memory.

I can't believe it

[mgg4 · 2/10 · 22 May 1999]

I can't believe I sat through this film. I didn't find much to recommend about this film. Save yourself 90 minutes of hell. Watch something else.

EEEEWWWWWW!!!!

[Brandy-28 · 14 May 1999]

Do you know what this movie reminded me of, Chuck Norris on steriods and trapped on Mars. That's all. The plot did not make any sense what-so-ever. The movie started right away with no explaination of what the story was about, only a guy running through a tunnel. It sounded like this guy was having sex by all of the panting that was going on. Then his brother shows up, this Caution fellow, never smiles (not once), and then starts the Chuck Norris on steriods bit. This movie had nothing to do with Sci-Fi. It should have been listed under Action not Drama/Sci-Fi. Usually in Drama's you can figure out what the movie is somewhat about. One other thing upset me, was that Caution had this sidekick, who reminded me of the mouse in those cartoons that would circle the bigger/stronger mouse again and again and say stuff like, "what are we going to do boss?, are we going to hurt..." stuff like that.

My advice, save your coins. Go buy a soda, it'll feel better in the end.

Cheap sci-fi kickfest

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 3 May 2019]

MARS is a cheap sci-fi kickfest starring everyone's favourite high-kicker, Olivier Gruner. The plot, what exists of it, seems to be made of bits and pieces of OUTLAND and TOTAL RECALL. Mars has been colonised and is now a busy mining operation, but when a man is murdered by members of an evil conglomerate, his martial artist brother turns up to break the conspiracy. The plotting is limited here, the acting even more limited, and around half the running time seems to be made up of elaboratly staged fight sequences in which Gruner squares off against opponents with knives. It's hardly high art, but I got a mild kick out of it - pun intended.

your typical, kickboxing, science fiction, western

[yeodawg · 8/10 · 5 February 2006]

The plot: very simple, space colonies have interplanetary cops to enforce the law. Because you can't use guns in the space colonies (they'll blow out a wall and implode it) they must kick-box their way to justice.

In comes Kick-boxer a Oliver Gruner (im his greatest fan) a journeyman lone hero to find out who killed his brother a fellow cop. Surprise, its a conspiracy by an evil greedy corporation. The corporation decides to dispacth its goon squad to dissuade the investigation. Causing O.G. here to beat his way down to the truth.

Rae dawn Chong phones in another performance.

Its a horrible movie but i give it an 8 out of 10 because it gives you everything you'd expect. It loses a point because into only did it power the entire plot from other movies it also borrowed the space suits from different movies. One looks like its from the 50's the other 2000's. Uniformity boys, uniformity. It loses another point for (I can't believe I'm saying this)a sex scene, it didn't need to be in there, just a back alley buck for drugs. It came to late in the movie for a sex scene and it wasn't fun to watch. its like they threw it in there to kill time.

OK movie but could be better

[ardie8 · 12 September 2003]

Caution Templer [Olivier Gruner] come to mars to find out what happened to his brother. Caution once landing on he must fight & is a shock to find out what it's all about.

All during the movie mars base did not look real but in a warehouse but the action was alright.

Luke warm

[Raven-34 · 23 October 1998]

Over all slow moving.Straight forward plot no surprises.The action scenes were as usual with this actor enjoyable to see. However would recommend that if you enjoy Mr Gruner's work to select one of his other movies.I personally spent most of the movie distracted by the dubbing over of the Mr Gruner's voice.