As you would expect, Jenna Ortega has had nothing bad to say about famed director Tim Burton. After all, starring in Burton’s Addams Family spinoff Wednesday as its title character has launched Ortega’s career into the ether. Ortega’s fave Burton film, which she touted during her appearance on Hot Ones, has some people wondering if maybe she’s just a glutton for pain — and not just the kind that comes from a 135,600 Scoville hot sauce.
Actually, Ortega was only two sauces into her ten-sauce gauntlet when she revealed that her fave Burton film was the oft-derided and divisive Sci-Fi spoof Mars Attacks. The 1996 film was a box-office dud that The Washington Post derided as “half-developed, pedestrian material,” and was Burton’s first major flop after a string of hits that included Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice, and Batman.
To be fair, the Scream actor did qualify that the film was a childhood favorite. “When I was younger I wanted to be one of the aliens from Mars Attacks! so bad,” she told Hot Ones host Sean Evans. “It’s an incredible movie. I feel like people don’t give it the credit it deserves.”
“Wildly underrated movie,” Evans agreed.
Yet while Ortega and Evans might be on the same page regarding the alien invasion satire, theirs isn’t the majority opinion. Despite its cast being a blockbuster roster of talent, boasting Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, and Sarah Jessica Parker, audiences didn’t exactly invade the theaters to check out Mars Attacks! Most critics found the characters uninteresting and the premise uninspired. The film currently holds a 56% Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer rating, and a 53% audience score.
Burton would certainly go on to bring in lower ratings, but there’s no doubt that Mars Attack! firmly ended the wunderkind reputation that he had enjoyed prior. But maybe his newest star will get people to revisit the film with younger eyes. We will agree with her on one thing — those aliens did look pretty cool. But the Sarah Jessica Parker chihuahua is nightmare fuel.
