Fairly good Sci-Fi entertainment
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Author: TxMike from Houston, Tx, USA, Earth
20 June 2002

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

"Red Planet" builds on an interesting premise - send bioengineered algae to Mars to produce oxygen so that settlers can leave the increasingly polluted Earth and preserve mankind. However, the algae starts to disappear, based on Earth measurements, so about 2050 a team is sent to Mars to find out why. They encounter the mandatory storyline problems - a sunflare triggers a burst of radiation which mainly disables the mothership so the crew has to escape prematurely, but the captain (Carrie-Ann Moss of Matrix fame) stays behind to try and salvage the ship, otherwise they are all doomed to be stranded on Mars.

The 4 men make a very rough landing, and even with the balloons deployed, the older one gets a ruptured spleen and stays behind to die. The others make it to the home base that had been built previously, only to find it destroyed and all supplies gone. About to die of oxygen starvation, Kilmer opens his mask to find they can breath. So, the rest of the film is their dealing with one difficulty after another, not the least of which is an ice storm with 115 mph winds and minus 53 degree temperature. One by one they expire, but Kilmer gets to a 50-year-old Russian module that had failed to fire, and with a jury-rigged old radio and 50-year-old modem is able to download instructions to launch the ship. He gets into orbit, Carrie-Ann retrieves him, they finally kiss!

Kinda cheesy in many places, most of the "science" is very shaky, some of the funny lines are clever, others are stupid, but as a Sci-Fi film not to be taken too seriously, it is fun entertainment, especially on DVD with a good sound system. The Dolby 5.1 surround channels are used very well, and the several blasts and explosions are very energetic. Carrie-Ann only does one nude shower scene and it is near the beginning, about 8 minutes into the film.