Mission to Mars (2000)

  Happy Labor Day!  Here's a movie about space!

In the year 2020, a manned expedition to Mars is underway.  A team of astronauts, led by Luke (Don Cheadle), lands on the surface and almost immediately discovers a weird signal.  They go to investigate and are attacked by a mysterious force.  Luke survives long enough to send a cry for help to the space station above Earth.  Another team of astronauts, led by Woody (Tim Robbins) plan a frantic rescue mission, knowing that they might already be too late, just because of the distance involved.  Woody insists on having grief-stricken co-pilot Jim (Gary Sinise) join the mission and it's a good thing because stuff goes wrong immediately.

This is one of those movies that had a good idea but failed in execution.  There's something so earnest about its premise, so cloying in its delivery that I found it to be very off-putting.  It was like watching a small child carefully mangling a piano piece.  You grit your teeth and clap because otherwise you feel like a monster but you also never accept an invitation to hear them again.

I find it an interesting coincidence that I was just comparing a pair of French films to Scarface, a movie widely regarded as a masterpiece, and then watched this science fiction love letter from the same director as that seminal work.  The world moves in little circles.

I can't in good conscience recommend this movie for any reason.  Nothing is particularly wrong with the acting or the central plot; there are just too many better space films on which to bestow your precious time.