Plot: In the future, Mars has been colonized. A martial artist arrives to investigate what happened to his brother. A powerful mining company is the prime suspect.
Mars is basically a low budget knock off of Total Recall with Olivier Gruner playing the amazingly monikered Caution Templar. He’s come to Mars to find out who killed his brother and why… what ensues is Caution beating up everyone on the red planet in awesome style.
This may not have a huge budget, but there is still no shortage of action with fight scenes every few minutes and several explosions and shoot-outs too. It’s a well paced 87 minutes making it a mostly easy watch.
Is it just me or is Gruner dubbed in this movie? It doesn’t sound like him as Caution has a deep American accent which Gruner does not. I found his sidekick character Buckskin Greenberg (Gabriel Dell Jr.) a little on the annoying side and I’m glad that trope isn’t really a thing in anymore as I hate annoying supporting characters.
On the plus side thee is a stripclub scene which was always a highlight of classic actioners while also giving the film a rather seedy vibe.
It’s nice to see Lee de Broux in a sizeable role as you’ll remember him from RoboCop; he plays the Sheriff and reluctantly works for the evil company that runs Mars. Lindsey Ginter is especially evil has the main henchman Ike Ringo who is basically in the Michael Ironside role. There is an attempted rape scene which is unpleasant but thankfully is interrupted as Doc Halliday (Shari Belafonte) manages to escape.
Nils Allen Stewart was always a great go-to nameless henchmen in 90’s action pictures and he’s as mean as you’d expect here. I particularly remember him from The Mask, Bloodsport 2, The Quest, The Demolitionist and more. He also does stunt coordinating too which is cool.
Overall, Mars does feel like a lower budget Total Recall, but Olivier Gruner delivers the goods beating up everyone on the planet and it’s well paced too, making it an easy watch.