Belgium has produced a number of delightful comedies but "News from the planet Mars" sure as hell doesn't fall in this category : it is a deeply unfunny movie full of half-baked ideas, shallow concepts, WTF dialogue and unpleasant characters. Watching the movie is very much like sitting in the waiting room at the dentist's, if the dentist were located somewhere in the murkier corners of Purgatory.
Pretty despicable : the ease with which cruelty towards dogs is treated. Throwing a dog from a bridge is funny because it's a little yapping dog and everybody knows that little yapping dogs deserve everything humans can think of in the way of torture and killing.
Once I used to have a colleague (now many years dead, poor soul) who took a dim view of humanity and who was in the habit of saying : "If they ever develop a rocket capable of traveling to Mars, I'll be one of the first passengers". I understood what she meant and after seeing the movie I understand it even better.
Pretty despicable : the ease with which cruelty towards dogs is treated. Throwing a dog from a bridge is funny because it's a little yapping dog and everybody knows that little yapping dogs deserve everything humans can think of in the way of torture and killing.
Once I used to have a colleague (now many years dead, poor soul) who took a dim view of humanity and who was in the habit of saying : "If they ever develop a rocket capable of traveling to Mars, I'll be one of the first passengers". I understood what she meant and after seeing the movie I understand it even better.