maybe this mission should have been scrubbedthere's a world of difference between artists and technicians . the artist has a vision to create something new . he may not do it well , it might be sloppy , but it's something you've never seen before . a good technician can make it look good , but without direction from his own inner artist or someone else , it's going to be just a xerox . obviously successful films need both skills . brian de palma is a masterful technician . he's spent his career copying others , most notably hitchcock . he usually knows exactly what to do to make a scene work , but only because he has learned it by rote . aside from rare flashes of originality , his films are often soul-dead . in de palma's latest , he turns his attention to stanley kubrick . to tell the truth , i enjoyed portions of this movie , but i liked it a lot better over 30 years ago when it was called " 2001 " . i enjoyed it even more when it was titled " close encounters " . nasa has set its sights for mars . when the first crew meets with disaster , a rescue mission is sent to the red planet . they don't do so well either , but eventually meet up the lone surviving astronaut-gone-rasta and solve the mysteries of the universe . and it's all so boring . there are so many scenes that just don't work , it's difficult to begin . when the first crew is a few feet away from a raging massive upside-down martian tornado ( which looks remarkably like a sandworm from " dune " ) destroying everything in its path , they just hang out watching . error . the most interesting character ( and that's not saying much ) is killed off . error . the alien is laughable . error . the rest of the characters are the dullest people imaginable . error . there's some nice eyecandy . the face on mars , which turns out to be a giant metal thai buddha head , looks cool . a three-dimensional holographic planetarium is more fun to watch than anything at disney world . maneuvering in space suits outside the ship seems realistic . but there's so much more that feels as if we've been there before . from " 2001 " , there's the rotating space station , the blinding white room . >from " close encounters " , they solve a sound puzzle and play it to the aliens . the list goes on . the actors are mostly mobile wooden statues . even gary sinise and tim robbins can't muster enough emotion to convince us they are breathing . no one seems to care about anything that happens . you won't either . the absolutely worst sin is the blatant product placement as dr . pepper , with a 20 foot tall logo , saves the day . they should save the commercials for those insipid bits before the film . ( michael redman has written this column since before mars was discovered and if that planet is as exciting as this film , he thinks he'll just stay home . email your martian chronicles to <a href= " mailto : redman@bluemarble . net . " >redman@bluemarble . net . </a> ) [this appeared in the 3/16/2000 " bloomington independent " , bloomington , indiana . michael redman can be contacted at <a href= " mailto : redman@bluemarble . net . " >redman@bluemarble . net . </a>] -- <a href= " mailto : mailto : redman@bluemarble . net " >mailto : redman@bluemarble . net</a> film reviews archive : <a href= " http : //us . imdb . com/m/reviews_by ? michael%20redman " >http : //us . imdb . com/m/reviews_by ? michael%20redman</a> 
