Customer Reviews

Christmas On Mars (CD/DVD)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This 2-disc CD/DVD of their bigger-budget "home movie" and accompanying score is finally out and, if you know the Flaming Lips music and creators, "Christmas On Mars" makes perfect sense.

First, the score CD: the Flaming Lips have done instrumental music before...the occasional track or song-excursion, like that "Balloon" song on "Yoshimi", which was actually written for "Christmas On Mars", but was deemed too poppy for it but perfect for "Yoshimi". If you like these types of tracks that Wayne & co do, you will dig the score...however if you are a Lips fan strictly for Wayne's SINGING, you probably won't. Me, I dig the crazy creative minds of Wayne Coyne, Steven Drozd and Michael Ivins, so I dig the score (it IS on the short side, 32 minutes and change).

As for the movie itself...it's black & white (with flashes of colour), 86 minutes long (not TOO long), flat-out WEIRD and fun and trippy and you see not only all 4 Lips (yes Klyph Scurlock too), but their family (Wayne's wife Michelle is VERY prominent in it, as are a Coyne brother and nephews and baby niece) and friends...the 7-years-in-the-making "Christmas On Mars" is a film extension of their unique psychedelic freakout/childrens birthday party on acid/warped pop music. How it came into being in the first place was courtesy of Wayne's mom Dolly...Wayne & his bros came home late one night, 2AM, saw their mom crying, as she saw some sad old movie and described it as people in space dying and as they coped with the idea of death, a strange being came down (an alien, God, etc) and comforted them...turns out this movie never existed in the first place...Mrs Coyne saw a combo of bits of old flicks, fell asleep inbetween and dreamt the rest. Well, Wayne was so taken by this "movie" that once he found out it never existed, he took it upon himself to actually make this movie...and actually did it!!! Using family and friends, a handful of them REAL actors, along with locations around OKC, including abandoned warehouses and Wayne's & Michelle's own backyard, scraps of found parts and metal, and sets Wayne built himself, and done in fits & starts, over the course of 7 years, inbetween albums and tours, "Christmas On Mars" is finally complete.

It's worth it...an INSTANT, weird, compelling cult classic...show it to your friends and family, buy multiple copies and give them as gifts for the holiday season!!! Spread the Lips luv!!! Perfect for anyone's warped mind and inner child!!! Equal parts "Wizard Of Oz" and "Eraserhead" and "2001: A Space Odyssey", with a nice dose of Lips warped uniqueness. Perfect!!!

I am looking forward to their next project, now that Wayne & co got this movie out of their system...an instant cult classic you have to experience for yourselves...it was very much worth the wait, oh yes.

Even further, buy the GREEN VINYL version, how cool is that??!!??!!

Although it has been mentioned by other reviewers, I will confirm that you do, indeed, get a DVD copy of the movie slipped in with this beautiful green vinyl LP, as well as the white 45rpm single with two songs that, as far as I know, are unavailable elsewhere. By far the best Christmas present I ever gave to myself.

Despite the fabulous musical phenomenon that the Flaming Lips are, the main attraction here is the movie. My only caveat, and I am quite serious about this: this film is not recommended for anyone averse to viewing female genitalia, or simulations thereof, or various fantastical constructs suggestive in appearance of female genitalia. Having said that, this is definitely not porn. There is curiously only one female character in the film, and she spends the vast majority of her screen time literally sealed alone in a plastic bubble, nor do we at any time see anything which is unambiguously suggested to be the genitalia of this specific character.

Having fulfilled my duty to convey the above warning, I am somewhat hesitant to describe the film in much detail. It is an experience unto itself which, much like a dream, cannot be adequately conveyed through narrative description.

I will say that I enjoy the great contrasts in this film, between the very quiet and the very loud, between the colorless, and the very effectively shocking moments of brilliant color, between bleak and pervasive hopelessness and the kind of ecstatic wonder and fearless faith normally reserved only for the luckiest of young children, and only in the best and most magical moments of their lives.

This film is also the kind of art that finds beauty in strange places, like a lingering shot of a glistening tear of blood creeping down a cheek from a bandaged and ruined eye.

The whole thing looks and feels home-made, because it literally is, and as such has authenticity, bravery, heart and just plain freakyness that Hollywood simply cannot understand, much less create.

This moves to the top of my list of movies that I must force everyone I know to watch every Christmas (curiously enough, edging out the MST3K treatment of Santa Claus Conquers The Martians).

The music itself (this is ostensibly a record review after all) is gloriously avant-garde noise experimentation, with a little bit of uncredited dreamy Holst choral music from Neptune snuck in (performed, not sampled). So in the vast stylistic range of the Lips, don't expect this to represent their Pop or Punk persona. This is more like listening to spacey ambient music while getting your teeth drilled, along with occasional bursts of electroshock, but I mean all of that in the best way possible.

Bought this at the local store, and the clerk immediately offered to sell me a used one for a fraction of the new price. "What a nice guy" I thought.. "the folks at Hoodlums (in Tempe, plug, plug) really care about the customer"

Oh.. how I was so very glad I only paid 8$ and not 24$.. the considerate clerk must have known how I'd be feeling some hours from then.

The DVD was watched first, and it was pretty disappointing. The budget kitschy black and white filming was fine, it was the rambling pointlessness of it all that wore me down. Perhaps a proper Lips fan would get it, but since I started at this end and am working backwards, I found nothing to relate to. 2.5 stars for the hard work..

A few days later I popped in the CD.. oh Lordy ! it's a jumble of "tunes" from the film's soundtrack, the likes of which only the most ardent fan could listen to for pleasure.. 1 star.

If you thought Yoshimi was "the s*it" avoid this as it's "a s*it"

Love the Lips. Got everything. The soundtrack is interesting, but not listenable. Do not buy it without checking it out first. I was very disappointed with how lame the music was, compared to what they could have created. I expect the DVD to be as silly as it's been made out to be, so no review needed there. Of course I pre-ordered this, but I think reading a review like this one would have saved me 20 bucks. It'll be budget bin in a year.
Too bad - I always look forward to the latest Lips to hear what melodies they've stolen this time (insert smiley face HERE) - but no melodies on THIS puppy. (P.S. - Soft Bulletin is one of the finest albums ever made).

Another great creation by The Flaming Lips. I've been waiting for this for many years now, and it was well worth the wait. If your having a Holiday party this year nothing would compliment the ambience better than The Flaming Lips DVD and the Kasio Kristmas CD.

Happy Holidays

I suppose that if you have a belly full of booze this movie could be amusing, but any campy charm it has is offset by the boredom you will encounter watching it. I consider myself a Flaming Lips fan, but this just doesn't work.

*SPOILER* This movie is what an acid trip feels like. That is all the movie does and it does it perfectly. If you've experimented before then you will get and appreciate this movie. If you haven't then you probably won't enjoy this movie.

so damn good! cant wait to see it on the big screen with other freaky flaming lips fans!

I got mine out of the used bin for $11. I recomend the same.

The "Christmas On Mars" score The Flaming Lips have come up with is simply genius! This is not your typical Lips sound, clearly. Yet they deserve credit for having reinvented themselves again, not unlike Radiohead, coming up with an album that resembles more a surreal, dreamy ambient piece than their alternative rock sound that has made them legendary.

Note: I have not had the opportunity to watch the DVD accompanying the music CD.