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Mars Attacks! (1996)
Mars Attacks! (1996)
1996 | Action, Comedy, Sci-Fi
Lavishly camp black-comedy sci-fi extravaganza. Motivated largely by their innate gittishness, Martians attack the Earth (the clue is in the title), and various people naturally respond in their own personal ways. Much property damage and rather dated mid-90s CGI result.

One of those bizarre mutants that should never really have got past the script stage, let alone received a $70m budget: the release schedule inevitably resulted in it being hailed as a spoof of Independence Day (hard to spoof something that wasn't meant to be taken seriously in the first place), but this is much more a send-up of classic 50s sci-fi B-movies (various spot-on parodies), as well as being a startlingly subversive black comedy. You can also sense Burton trying to do his version of Dr Strangelove, with Nicholson in a multiple role, but it doesn't have anything like the same sharpness or impact. A bit patchy overall - some laugh-out-loud moments and game performances, but also a lot of dead wood and characters and jokes that just don't work. On the whole, though, the fact that films like this still get made suggests hope is not yet lost for the world.
  
The Running Man (1987)
The Running Man (1987)
1987 | Action, Sci-Fi
Great Arnie one-liners (0 more)
Cheesy but great
Quite possibly the cheesiest Arnie film of all time, but that's what makes it so good. Arnie plays an ex-cop who refuses to fire upon unarmed civilians, but he gets overwhelmed by his team mates and the video afterwards gets edited to make it look like he was the one doing it and he gets thrown into a labour camp style prison. Eventually he and some others escape, he goes back to his old flat (which is now rented by a female journalist). Things happen, he eventually gets recaptured but again the footage is doctored but this time the journalist realises things aren't what they seem. All of the characters end up on a TV show called The Running Man, which seems to be contenders Vs characters in terrible costumes. This is where the fun begins. So many brilliant one-liners throughout the film (mostly from Arnie, but a few others) and just pure 'good guy wins, bad guy gets what's coming to him' cheese. Brilliant for an easy-watching film to laugh and cheer at! And for those that have seen it, all I need to add is "Hello Christmas Tree!"