Brian De Palma joined this movie after Gore Verbinski. walked away due to c the lack of additional money for the budget. De Palma got that money, which went right into the CGI, but was already written and the film cast. At least Ennio Morricone wrote the music.

American critics hated it — at least Roger Ebert understood the issues, saying “It misses too many of its marks. But it has extraordinary things in it. It’s as if the director, the gifted Brian De Palma, rises to the occasions but the screenplay gives him nothing much to do in between them.” — but they loved it in Europe with Cahiers du cinéma picking it as the fourth-best movie of 2000.

But man, seeing Brian De Palma direct a movie based on a Disney ride is, well, sad. But you know, people need to get paid.

Graham Yost created Justified and wrote Speed, while Jim and John Thomas wrote Predator. I guess that just may absolve them all for this script, which is so talky and full of jargon that I almost didn’t make it through some scenes. I was kept awake by De Palma’s skill as a director.

Set twenty years in the future — which is now three years ago — the Mars I mission, commanded by Luke Graham (Don Cheadle), touches down and immediately runs into a bright white formation in the Cydonia region which ends up killing everyone but the commander. That structure? Oh, you know, the face on Mars.

Mars II becomes Mars Rescue and is made up of Commander Woody Blake (Tim Robbins), his wife Terri Fisher (Connie Neisen), Jim McConnell (Gary Sinise) and Phil Ohlmyer (Jerry O’Connell). Their ship is damaged before it even gets near Mars and Woody sacrifices himself to save his crew. They solve a missing DNA helix and soon are admitted inside the face, where they discover that humanoid Martian lifeforms left the planet centuries ago but seeded our planet with their DNA, creating life that could one day make it to Mars.

As the astronauts all escape, the aliens invite them to follow them. Only Jim goes, which makes sense as he’s a widower with nothing left on Earth. Also: Gary Sinise’s eye makeup suggests that he either loves glam or is already part alien.

I loved that the astronauts are blasting “Dance the Night Away” by Van Halen at one point but the whole thing feels at once too long and too short. De Palma did what he could, I think.

The set was 2 million square feet and took 14,000 cans of paint to create. Today, you can see the turning wheel set and the model of the ship while you wait to ride Mission Space at Epcot in Walt Disney World in Orlando.

Also, you have to love this in the credits: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s cooperation and assistance does not reflect an endorsement of the contents of the film or the treatment of the characters depicted therein.