Written as part of the blogathon hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves. Play along by picking three films that fit the week's theme and telling us about them!
The alien invasion subgenre of sci-fi got some seriously good play when I was growing up in the 90s. Even though I don't generally LOVE this kind of story, these three films are some of my all-time favorites.
Mars Attacks! (Tim Burton, 1996) But of the three, this one is probably my favorite. Tim Burton's masterfully silly send-up of old-school B-movies has an incredible All-Star Cast (Annette Bening, Sarah Jessica Parker, Pierce Brosnan, Sylvia Sidney, Pam Grier) and plenty of delightfully absurd moments (what ends up defeating the aliens? Tom Jones's "It's Not Unusual", which makes their heads explode). The martians themselves are perfectly designed, and memorably voiced ("ACK ACK ACK!"). Plus, Burton cast perhaps the greatest First Family of all time: President Jack Nicholson, First Lady Glenn Close (in PERFECT Nancy Regan drag), and sarcastic First Daughter Natalie Portman.
Independence Day (Roland Emmerich, 1996) The prototypical Dean Devlin/Roland Emmerich blockbuster is still their best, largely thanks to an incredibly charismatic lead performance by Will Smith in the first of his string of July 4th hits. Bill Pullman's classic climactic monologue has been spoofed a lot recently, but it's still pretty damn inspiring in the context of the film, which has held up surprisingly well despite its 90s-ness - Jeff Goldblum as a master computer hacker, anyone?
Men In Black (Barry Sonnenfeld, 1997) The glory of this comic adaptation is two-fold: The crackling, surprisingly perfect chemistry between Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith, and the fantastic alien designs by master makeup artist Rick Baker. It's also REALLY funny - again, mostly thanks to the dynamic duo that leads the film. Jones's deadpan is a perfect foil for Smith's looseness as the veteran, seen-it-all agent showing the newbie the ropes as they police Earth's hidden alien population and protect "the galaxy" from an alien bug.
