[...Day 3 of the 12 Days of Christmas review project...]

Director: Wayne Coyne
Writer: Wayne Coyne
Starring: Steven Drozd, Wayne Coyne, Steve Burns, Adam Goldberg
MPAA Rating: NR
Running time: 82 min.
Year of Release: 2008

So the thing with Christmas on Mars is that it is tailor made to be a midnight cult classic for stoners. Sure there might be some underlying depth that I’m not seeing and yeah it has a nice message (I think), but generally this is a tripped out story made for stoners to dig. Which is actually fine – I love plenty a stoner flick. Except this one isn’t really funny or interesting for the rest of us.

The “story” revolves around a bunch of astronauts on Mars trying to set up a colonization base. One doo-hickey on the craft malfunctions and then another and another. While some of the crew tries to repair the damage, others have different ideas of how to spend their time. Some better than others. When everything looks to be at its bleakest, an alien shows up and just stands there while the Major yells at it and asks it questions; getting no response. Somehow this is inspirational to the crew and they stage some sort of Christmas pageant and all is well. At least, that’s what I think basically happened. Really though, just roll a fat one and look at the pretty colors.

As directorial debut of Flaming Lips front man, Wayne Coyne, I can actually say that there may be some potential here. I’m actually a fan of The Flaming Lips’ music and have been for some time. But potential isn’t going to cut it for this film. There are some nice shots (90% in B&W by the way) and a few moments of humor that had me laughing out loud, but on the whole this thing is just plain boring – unless you’re under the influence of illegal narcotics.

The music itself is all Lips, but even the music seems to fall a little bit on the flat side and feels like not much more than an afterthought to the movie. Now to be fair, it’s likely they didn’t want the music to over power the scenes. Still, I would’ve liked something a little more toe-tapping to go with some of the psychedelia.

For those who like David Lynch’s more inaccessible stuff, you might find yourself right at home here. Though with Lynch, there’s genius and importance to almost every shot and every little nuance. With Christmas on Mars it feels more like someone trying to be weird just for the sake of being weird and it doesn’t work at all.

I did appreciate a couple of the cameos in the film, particularly the philosophical musings of Adam Goldberg (Dazed & Confused, Two Days in Paris) as the ship’s psychologist. Also you might recognize Blues Clues host Steve Burns in there as well.

Mostly though, I spent most of the movie just trying to keep my eyes open – and that was not at home on my crappy DVD player. This was on the big screen. Look elsewhere for your Christmas fix or your sci-fi or your psychedelic, stoner film.