SPACE MOVIE WILL HAVE YOU SEEING 'RED'.Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic Life still doesn't exist on Mars in ``Red Planet,'' the year's second tedious movie journey to our planetary neighbor. This one stars Val Kilmer, ``The Matrix's'' Carrie-Anne Moss Carrie-Anne Moss (born August 21, 1967) is a Canadian actress best known for her role as Trinity in The Matrix trilogy. Biography Early life Moss was born in Burnaby, British Columbia. She has an older brother, Brooke. and expendable co-stars Tom Sizemore, Benjamin Bratt and Terence Stamp. Its references to ``2001: A Space Odyssey'' are more thematic (Moss' spaceship captain is named Bowman, she has lots of on-board conversations with an omnipresent om·ni·pres·ent adj. Present everywhere simultaneously. [Medieval Latin omnipres , if benign, computer voice) than visual. The alien life forms here are below us on the developmental scale, not advanced. But that's about it for differences with ``Mission to Mars.'' Otherwise, it's the same dumb, uninvolving movie. Fifty years from now, Earth is irreversibly polluted, so unmanned terraforming missions have been sent to Mars. But the oxygen-creating algae algae (ăl`jē) [plural of Lat. alga=seaweed], a large and diverse group of primarily aquatic plantlike organisms. These organisms were previously classified as a primitive subkingdom of the plant kingdom, the thallophytes (plants that they unleashed is mysteriously dying off, so a ship with some scientists and Kilmer's space janitor Gallagher is sent up to investigate. The evidently unavoidable space storm causes severe structural damage as Mars orbit is entered. Bowman stays up in the ship, intending to fix things, while the rest of the occupants rough jettison jettison (jĕt`əsən, –zən) [O.Fr.,=throwing], in maritime law, casting all or part of a ship's cargo overboard to lighten the vessel or to meet some danger, such as fire. onto the globe's craggy crag·gy adj. crag·gi·er, crag·gi·est 1. Having crags: craggy terrain. 2. Rugged and uneven: a craggy face. surface. They then must march across the arid environment for plot reasons that aren't worth recounting. Meanwhile, their robot AMEE AMEE Association for Medical Education in Europe AMEE Avoiding Mass Extinctions Engine AMEE Autonomous Mapping Exploration and Evasion (the robot in the movie 'Red Planet') AMEE Africa, Middle East and Eastern Europe , a CG metal doglike creature who possesses the only interesting personality in the movie, goes nuts and decides to kill her masters. Other things skitter skit·ter v. skit·tered, skit·ter·ing, skit·ters v.intr. 1. To move rapidly along a surface, usually with frequent light contacts or changes of direction; skip or glide quickly: about. Humans die because ... well, because they're not supposed to be on Mars. Will anybody escape? We don't care. Will Earth survive? We're not told. Will Peter Suschitzky, David Cronenberg's crack cinematographer, let up with the monotonous amber lens filters already? We remain unfulfilled. Will novice director Antony Hoffman have a real story to work with for his future features? We can only wish him good luck. ``RED PLANET'' (Rated PG-13: violence, nudity, language) The stars: Val Kilmer, Carrie-Anne Moss, Tom Sizemore, Benjamin Bratt, Simon Baker, Terence Stamp. Behind the scenes: Directed by Antony Hoffman. Written by Chuck Pfarrer and Jonathan Lemkin. Produced by Mark Canton, Bruce Berman and Jorge Saralegui. Released by Warner Bros BROS Brothers BROS Benefits and Retirement Operations Section (King County, Washington) BROS Barnes and Richmond Operatic Society (London, UK) . Running time: One hour, 46 minutes. Playing: Citywide. Our rating: Two stars CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Val Kilmer comes face to face with AMEE, a once-friendly robot ally that has since gone on a deadly rampage, in the mindless sci-fi Mars story ``Red Planet.'' |
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