Red Planet

International Agencies’ Report from 2000: "NASA has unexpectedly suffered heavy losses. Its top scientists were invited to the world premiere of Red Planet. During the screening, three of the scientists burst their diaphragms due to uncontrollable laughter, one died of a heart attack and one ended up in a psychiatric ward." A few years later, Reuters published: "On 9 February, 2004, leading astronomer Czech Jiří Grygar attempted suicide. His wife told police that he had been watching an American film on TV that had the word 'planet' in the title. Apparently, Red Planet again. Could there be a connection with the tragic events of 4 years ago?"… And finally, the news that has not been reported anywhere. A film fan from the Czech Republic had a great time at the expense of the creators of this horrible monstrosity and pitied the great actors who appeared in it. (10/02/2004)

This film could have been very good, but unfortunately it's exactly like the decorations used in it. Flat, dull, red. A handy director would surely cope with the fairly decent theme and the mysterious plot and could smuggle both thought depth into the film (although Zemeckis's Contact overwhelmingly analyzes science vs. faith) and the momentum of the action. Hoffman, however, filmed a boring, slow conversation film, where all attempts at tension end in excessive predictability and all attempts at philosophical reflection in the two-dimensionality of the characters and awkward dialogues. If you add to this mediocre tricks and sometimes even awkward efforts to achieve monumetality (e.g., the final scene in orbit probably wanted to achieve Kubrick grandeur, but the result is dismal), you get a below-average science fiction. (10/02/2004)

Was it really necessary to send a robot to Mars? Couldn't they have done it with an alien or something? And isn't it all just a romance about a pair that absolutely doesn't fit together? Without that sexy scene at the beginning, this movie wouldn't catch my attention at all, but Carrie-Anne definitely had it. This movie, however, didn't. It doesn't even deserve to be compared to something like "The Martian". (13/11/2015)