After seeing Mission To Mars, you will not have to worry about seeing another sci-fi movie for a long time, because it rips off all the others. It especially takes from 2001: A Space Odessey, Contact, and even Apollo 13. If you have seen those then save your money. I wish I had.

Mission To Mars stars Gary Sinise (Ransom and Forrest Gump), Don Cheadle (Boogie Nights and the Rat Pack) and Tim Robbins (Shawshank Redemption and Bull Durham). It costars Connie Nielsen, Jerry O’Connell and Kim Delaney and is directed by Brian De Palma.

In the year 2020, NASA launches a space shuttle team to explore Mars. The team is headed by Mission Commander Luke Graham (Cheadle). Everything goes well, until they believed they have discovered ice on a side of a mountain. Ice is water and water means that permanent settlement on Mars would be possible.

What should be a great moment for America turns into tragedy, when a giant whirlwind comes out of the top of the mountain and kills everyone instantly-except for Luke. After the whirlwind dies down, a giant face appears on at the bottom of the mountain.

Back on the space station, Luke’s friends Woody Blake (Robbins) and Jim McConnell (Sinise) listen to his distress message. They decide to put a recovery mission together and rescue Luke.

After getting NASA’s approval, Woody starts putting his team together. He wants Jim as his second seat, but questions arise about Jim’s sanity following his wife’s death. Woody proves to NASA that Jim is okay and gets him as his second seat.

Besides Woody and Jim, the Mars Recovery team includes Woody’s wife, Dr. Terri Fisher (Nielsen), and Phil Ohlmyer (O’Connell). The launch goes great, but tragedy strikes in deep dark space. The crew abandons ship.

They remember that another ship, R.E.M.O., is orbiting the planet taking pictures. They decide that getting to that ship is their only hope. After exiting the ship, Woody is sent to latch a hook onto R.E.M.O. Woody hooks it correctly but can’t grab on for himself. Terri goes after him, but her fuel pack starts to run out, and she can’t reach him. She starts to still go after him, but Woody wants her to go back. When she disobeys him, he pulls off his helmet and freezes to death.

The team lands on Mars, and they make way over to the camp that the original mission set up. There they discover that even though it has been six months, Luke is still alive. Luke tells them what happened and about the giant face on top of the mountain where the whirlwind was.

Team starts to pick up sounds coming from the giant face. They figure out that it is like a big puzzle and that they must answer correctly-or else. When they solve the puzzle, a giant door opens and revels to them what is inside.

Mission To Mars is secretly a mission to waste your time. What is supposed to be a sci-fi thriller turns out to be a sci-fi joke. The scenes that are supposed to make you grip your seat make you check the time.

The film does try to have a lighter side, but bad jokes don’t count. The audience has to pay close attention because the time in the film, passes very quickly and the only indication of it is from a few lines said by the characters.

The filming and camera work are about the only highlights of the film. Some of the scenes are cool, but if you get motion sickness this will not be a highlight for you.

With two great stars like Sinise and Robbins, you would expect a great movie, but what you get is a good cast wasted on a bad movie.

As much as it hurts to say the main stars of this film were not very good. Acclaimed director Brian De Palma gives the audience a disappointment. It forces people to wonder if he is done making great films like Scareface.

Final Synopsis: four glances at the watch, a naked alien that looks like E.T.’s mom, and a running time that’s way too long.

Sadly, NASA’s new Space Act Agreement for film and TV goes to waste. The agreement allows for space movies to be film at the Kennedy Space Center, use the NASA logo and receive advice from actual astronauts. However, these benefits come only with NASA-approved scripts.

Contributions by Tina Barber