.: Tim Burton sums up the flavour of the fifties best with his film Mars Attacks.

<: Burton masterfully simulates the genre and turns it into contemporary slapstick. It borrows from many of the elements that define the original fifties genre; Flying Saucers, Heat Rays, Mad Professors, Military incompetence mixed with some more modern folklore such as, cattle mutilations and media manhandling.

.: The plot is relatively simple (see title), and some viewers may have expected more of a story, if you have watched many of the fifties films stories were never valued as much as concepts.

<: It also features an impressive all-star cast that includes such personalities as Michael J. Fox, Lilian Gish (star of the silent cinema era and one of the first ever movie stars), Pierce (shite as Bond) Brosnon, Tom (knicker fetish) Jones, Danny DeVito, Jack Nicholson (playing two roles as a Vegas Casino owner and the president of the USA), Glenn Close and so on...

.: The mindlessness of the alien's attack is to me what makes this film so great. No matter how hard the earthlings try to negotiate, the aliens treat it as a big joke and settle for blasting off their lasers. If they are here for the purpose of attack, then that's what they'll do.

.: The details of the genre have been brilliantly authenticated even up to its soundtrack that features an original score complete with saucer whirs and wee-oow's. Created, as with most of Burton's movies by Danny Elfman, most famous for The Simpsons theme.