The Flaming Lips survive. Brightly synthetic, they make a great noise full of corn and cheese. Wisdom is hard-won, humor a means to cope. They have a ton of heart.

Christmas On Mars is a bit boring. No-one cares that the film – homemade, half-baked space oddity – is far from expert. Problem is: there's nothing to hang your hat on, including the soundtrack which is Eno-lite. (The Lips make soundtracks to films that don't exist. Mars would seem to have it the other way around.) So the movie is self-consciously bad, but it should have broken the fourth wall "a la" Mystery Science Theater 3000. That would have been a lot more fun.

2008-12-30 - Joe Cormack