'Curiosity' Landing: 5 Fun Mars Movies

The Mars Rover Curiosity successfully landed on our neighboring planet last night to much fanfare, and now it begins its pioneering quest to determine if the planet is inhabitable and search for signs that we may not be alone in the universe. Of course, in the movie world we already know we're not alone on Mars, and here are five entertaining movies to prove it – despite the stigma that Mars movies are box-office poison!

This year's much-maligned action-adventure is nowhere near as bad as people like to believe, despite its poor box office reception. Based on the classic story by Tarzan creator Edgar Rice Burroughs -- whose tales inspired such visionary filmmakers as George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and James Cameron -- John Carter casts Taylor Kitsch in the title role as a war-weary Civil War vet who is unexpectedly transported to the mysterious and exotic planet of Barsoom, aka Mars. There, Carter becomes reluctantly embroiled in a conflict of epic proportions amongst the inhabitants of the planet, including the nine-foot, four-armed alien Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe) and the captivating Princess Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins). In a world on the brink of collapse, Carter rediscovers his humanity when he realizes that the survival of Barsoom and its people rests in his mighty hands.


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Forget the current Total Recall remake, which has nothing to do with Mars. One of the best movies set on the angry red planet also happens to be one of Arnold Schwarzenegger's most popular flicks next to the Terminator and Predator films. Based on Philip K. Dick's 1966 short story We Can Remember It for You Wholesale, the 1990 Total Recall casts Ah-nuld as Doug Quaid, a construction worker who has recurring dreams of being on the human colonies of Mars. Unable to afford the actual trip, he decides to have false memories implanted into his brain to simulate an exciting vacation in which he's a secret agent – only to learn the hard way that everything he's been dreaming about is true. Oh, and the pyramids of Mars hold an ancient secret that men are willing to kill to protect.


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Director Brian De Palma, well-known for appropriating Hitchcock's style, turns his attention to Kubrick territory and 2001: A Space Odyssey with this 2000 story of an interplanetary exploration gone awry and its doomed rescue mission. Gary Sinise, Tim Robbins, Don Cheadle, Connie Nielsen and Jerry O'Connell turn in admirable performances on expensive sets, but the film is ultimately derailed by a Close Encounters-style ending with a chintzy, CGI alien. The trailer (featuring stirring music from Vangelis' 1492: Conquest of Paradise soundtrack) is much more exciting than this exercise in patience with little payoff. Another Mars movie, Red Planet (starring Val Kilmer and Carrie-Anne Moss), came out the same year and similarly borrowed from 2001, with a HAL-inspired killer robot that was more reminiscent of Hector in Saturn 3.


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Batman star Adam West, a monkey in a spacesuit and alien ships borrowed from George Pal's War of the Worlds punctuate this 1964 otherworldy adaptation of the classic tale. **Spoiler Alert!** After West is killed off in their crash landing, Paul Mantee is Commander Christopher 'Kit' Draper -- the "modern Robinson Crusoe, struggling for survival in a cruel environment." Learning to forage for food and breathe the air by burning strange, yellow rocks, Kit must "face the reality of being alone forever," only to discover slaves laboring for alien mining ships. He helps one escape and naturally names him "Friday," only to face more alien attacks and a deadly meteor crash/firestorm in the Martian ice cap.


Get Robinson Crusoe on Mars

This campy sci-fi relic from the waning days of the '50s cosmic cinema casts Gerald Mohr, Nora Hayden, Les Tremayne and Jack Kruschen as astronauts landing their M-1 Rocket on Mars, only to discover that the red planet is indeed angry, with a deadly, 40-foot "bat-rat-spider" monster, an amphibious, one-eyed, won-ton-soup beast, and giant carnivorous plants lurking around every corner. Perfect for the young kiddies on a rainy Saturday afternoon, this movie would make Ed Wood green -- er, red -- with envy. In Cinemagic!


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