Mars Attacks!

Dir. Tim Burton. 1996, 106 mins. U.S. 35mm. With Jack Nicholson, Pierce Brosnan, Danny DeVito, Annette Bening, Glenn Close, Jack Black, Lisa Marie, Sarah Jessica Parker, Natalie Portman, Michael J. Fox. On the heels of his loving comic biography Ed Wood, Burton amassed a star-studded cast to gleefully riff on 1950s sci-fi schlock in this delightful goofball satire about an invasion of ray-gun-wielding Martians. The ingenious production design by Wynn Thomas is a marvel of deliberate tackiness. Everyone from Tom Jones to Rod Steiger to Sylvia Sidney pops up in small roles in the most winningly irreverent movie of Burton’s career, an ode to a long-gone era of true cultural disreputability, when the world of comic books and bubble-gum science fiction were far from the mainstream. It’s the kind of gaudy, self-aware multiplex fare that, in its skirting of all pretensions to narrative coherence and seriousness of intent, Hollywood wouldn’t be caught dead making anymore. 

Tickets: $15 / $11 senior and students / $9 youth (ages 3–17) / discounted for MoMI members ($7–$11). There is a $1.50 transaction fee per ticket for all online purchases. The cost of admission may be applied toward a same-day purchase of a membership. 

Order tickets. Please pick up tickets at the Museum’s admissions desk upon arrival. All seating is general admission.