Sunday, April 27, 2014

The Last Days on Mars (2013)

The very title of “The Last Days on Mars” is erroneous as it all takes place within one day on the Red Planet, but, hey, somehow it recalls a ’70s Brit prog rock concept album. Never mind that. This is “Alien” meets “Night of the Living Dead,” with Liev Schreiber as a scientist on a Mars research gig with a motley crew (Elias Koteas and Olivia Williams among them) who are all gung-ho to finish up until that one last errand goes bad bad bad oh so wrong. And then people start turning into zombies and start attacking each other. Why? No idea. I don’t need to know. “Alien” didn’t explain a thing. But I peered in too deep because there has to be something else here other than zombies attacking people on Mars, with no escape. But there’s just not. Oh, I dug Schreiber’s messed up astronaut, with his fear of closed spaces, and space ships (huh?), and some accident that struck before the film, but that’s not enough to carry this story. Not when the best character –- Williams’ cold officer -– is tossed off with a shrug. C+

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