Director tim burton unleashes mars attacks!, a vicious, affectionate, brightly colored homage to 1950s alien invasion movies'. '.strtoupper('w')hen a shiny silver flying saucer lands in the nevada desert, a group of skull faced martians exit the gleaming craft'. '.strtoupper('a')lthough they claim to be peaceful, they promptly vaporize a gathering of unfortunate earthlings, kicking off a bizarre high tech war with wild special effects'. '.strtoupper('t')his studiously campy sci fi spoof, based on a series of topps bubble gum cards, gleefully parodies not only schlock b horror movies, but also overblown blockbusters such as independence day'. '.strtoupper('t')his subversive film is helped along by an all star cast including jack nicholson in dual roles as both a clueless u.s'. '.strtoupper('p')resident with first lady glenn close and a las vegas sleazebag'. '.strtoupper('t')he film follows the wacky war of the world like proceedings from the points of view of numerous colorful characters, from the inane u.s'. '.strtoupper('p')ress secretary martin short to a trailer park family lukas haas and sylvia sidney, singer tom jones as himself.