Man goes into space and space comes back with a vengeance on Blu-ray and 4K discBy Jim Bray Mankind's first trek to the stars, well the moon, is now on a terrific Blu-ray release, while Tim Burton's hilarious look at an alien invasion is now available in a lovely 4K disc version. I'm talking about George Pal's Destination Moon, of course, as well as the much more recent Mars Attacks! Both are great sci-fi films, though they couldn't be much more different from each other. Let's look at Mars Attacks! first, since it's the newest and in 4K, then I'll opine on the movie that I think is as important and innovative a science fiction movie as Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece 2001: a space odyssey. It isn't easy to find a truly good and truly funny sci-fi comedy, and before we had such hoots as Galaxy Quest, we had Mars Attacks! It isn't a complete yukfest, but it has plenty of humour, an interesting story, an all-star cast – and the 4K disc version looks truly spectacular. Tim Burton's film is based on a series of trading cards and is basically a disaster movie in the manner of Irwin Allen's (The Towering Inferno, etc.) library. It begins with a Martian ship (well, we don't know they're Martians yet unless we've actually noticed the title of the movie) heading back into space after (I assume) doing a reconnoitre of Earth and, in the process, setting a herd of cattle on fire in a really cool-looking scene. Next thing we know, thousands of Martian saucers are heading back to Earth so the Martians can take over. They think it'll be as easy as shooting fish in a barrel – and it very nearly is like that – until the humans figure out the aliens' weakness and manage to exploit it to save their civilization. There are plenty of laughs as the aliens destroy Las Vegas, Washington DC and many other global locations. The aliens are happy in their work, they enjoy sightseeing Earth's landmarks before they destroy them and they really want the earthlings dead, though they also gaslight them by pretending to be friendly before zapping them with their ray guns. In the end, there's a simple solution for offing the aliens and it's quite hilarious if you aren't a fan of a particular country music yodeller. And the cast! I've never been much of a Jack Nicholson fan, but he plays mulitple parts here and is good in them. He's joined by Glenn Close, Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan, Danny DeVito, Natalie Portman, Martin Short, Michael J. Fox, Sarah Jessica Parker, Rod Steiger, Jim Brown, Lukas Haas, Tom Jones and more. That's a lot of star power for what's basically a silly story, but that's fine. The movie looked great when I reviewed it on Blu-ray, but the 4K disc is really spectacular. The Dolby Vision helps make the colours deep and rich, while the detail is so clean the movie almost looks 3D. It isn't, of course, but on my OLED it simply popped off the screen and I had to keep putting it back. Okay, that last part is a joke... Audio is Dolby Atmos and DTS-HD Master Audio and it's also very nice. Surround is lovely, the fidelity is first rate and the alien destruction sounds very realistic. Extras are very limited, but good. You get two: Looking back at Mars Attacks! and Ack! Ack! Aesthetic, both of which feature some of the folks who worked on the movie, whether on set or in post. The first is only about eight minutes, but offers some nifty insight, and the second (about 10 minutes) looks more at the creation of the aliens via early CG etc. I liked Mars Attacks! when I first saw it, but it has grown on me a lot since then and I really liked this 4K disc version. If you don't yet own this movie, and have the 4K capability (there's no Blu-ray in the package, just a digital code and the 4K disc), this is definitely the one to get. 
Then there's Destination Moon, one of the first great colour science fiction films. George Pal, whose 7 Faces of Dr. Lao I reviewed here, produced this, his first colour feature, and it was directed by Irving Pichel. It's a serious look at what could perhaps have been Man's first voyage from the earth. The screenplay credits three writers, one of whom is the great science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein, a man I think is the greatest of all time. It's hard to see who wrote what here, but Heinlein's fingerprints are all over the screenplay – and that's a very good thing! The story follows a group of tycoons who decide to do the new and hitherto unthinkable project of taking a man to the moon and returning him safely to Earth (where have we heard that before?), except that it's four men in this case. They aren't looking for government money to do it, and in fact they actively eschew such because, as they make clear, government can't do such things as well. And here, in fact, the government actually works against them, forcing them to take off hurriedly while extending a well-earned middle finger to the powers that be who show up to prevent their historic mission. But take off they do and the rest of the movie documents, in a quite realistic style, the trip across the void to their moon landing point. But once there, those darn laws of physics threaten to strand them on Luna's surface, leading to quite a bit of angst on the crew's part, as well as some brilliant calculations and strategy. Do they get back? Watch the movie; it's well worth your time. It's a tad slow moving, perhaps, for today's generations, but this film did its best to be accurate scientifically and, considering that no one or nothing had ever left the surface of the Earth before then, they did a darn fine job. The special effects are excellent for 1950, the production values are as well, and the performances, though maybe a tad wooden, are believable. There are even a couple of laughs. Destination Moon may not be one of my "desert island discs," but it's one I watch regularly and I'm pleased that Film Masters has done such a terrific job on it. They've even included a second feature, "Flight to Mars," though I'm not sure why since it already got a nice Blu-ray release a few years back. It's a decent movie and worth seeing. For more info, check out my earlier review here. The new release seems to be basically the same. Back to Destination Moon, which also includes some very welcome supplements, including a nice essay in a booklet in the package, though I believe the author may have confused jet propulsion with rocket propulsion at one point. But don't worry; Woody Woodpecker will make it clear for you. First up in the disc supplements is "Man's Greatest Adventure: Making Destination Moon" a nearly half hour overview of the film that I found fascinating and which also introduces us to Chesley Bonestell, an artist who practically single handedly created the genre of astronomical art and whose paintings are front and centre here. There's also a running commentary by Justin Humphreys. The commentary I really liked was a fake one, actually. It's from an interview with uber-fan Bob Burns with Tom Weaver and covers about the last 40 minutes of the film. What it is in reality is a recreation by actors who portray Burns as well as George Pal (who became a lifelong friend of Burns). It starts when Burns was a school kid who was invited to the soundstage during the filming of Destination Moon, met Pal, and as they say "the rest is history." I loved this commentary, probably because I'm familiar with Burns and most of the people and other things his actor portrayer name drops – folks like Forrest J. Ackerman and magazines such as Starlog and Cinefantastique (both of which I subscribed to back in the day). You also get the restored original 35mm Trailer for Destination Moon, a short gallery of photographic stuff, and the above-mentioned booklet. It may not be one of my desert island discs, but Destination Moon is an excellent story told and visualized beautifully and I revisit it regularly. Now that there's an excellent Blu-ray version (though I wish it were 4K), I'm going to enjoy it even more. You might, too. Copyright 2026 Jim Bray |
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