Necro:
Oh dear, Someone does not know his/her place in B-film-history!
1988 = No CGI when B-movie!
1996 = When CGI was almost, as abused ass* today(2015)
8 years? WTF Who counts
*I meant that!

The special effects in this seemed like the same type they used for Ghostbusters If only there were better actors involved.
Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance."

I agree. Didn't like Mars Attacks, but this movie was great.

OMG OP i was just thinking the same thing. Mars Attack! sucked and the CGI was horrible. This movie was so much better and captured the "comedy" part that "Mars Attacks!" tried so hard to do.

Too right. Both films were made by director who were former or were at the time special effects people. The Chiodos made the effects themselves for KK at very little cost!
Generally I prefer practical to CGI anyway but here it's definetely true.
Mars Attacks! captured the look of the trading cards fine, I guess, but everything else stank. The script was awful. Jack Nicholson was totally wasted in two roles with about two laughs between them (you'll laugh more at The Shining, it's true). It's a spoof of 1950s Invader films like EARTH VS THE FLYING SAUCERS, also a big influence on Independance Day at the time (leading some to call Mars Attacks a spoof of ID4, Tim Burton said it was the "Mad magazine version")
Killer Klowns is a riff on THE BLOB and man is it funny. I think my favourite part, and it's SO deadpan, is when Royal Dano says "I'LL TEAR THIS PLACE APART WITH MY BARE HANDS!" then gets electrocuted.
Plus, how can you not love all those endings to scenes with just a clown's face either laughing or saying some nonsense word - "Myunda!", "RAAWWWWOOOO!".

I like both movies personally. Considering Mars Attacks was based on bubble gum cards from the 50s/60s, the visual effects were in the spirit of the 50s sci-fi movies it was mocking.

This message has been deleted.

CGI was not in its early stages. Look at JURASSIC PARK which was released 3 years earlier and the effects in that film still look better than most anything that's released today.
Regardless of how "real" it looks, I think the effects in MARS ATTACKS are pretty fun.

This message has been deleted.

That's because they wasted their budget getting every big-name actor they could get to appear in it. Mars Attacks is actually a really bad movie. The cast list is the only thing about it that's even worth discussing.