Ghosts of Mars (2001)
Average Rating: 3.7/10
Reviews Counted: 103
Fresh: 22 | Rotten: 81
John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars is not one of Carpenter's better movies, filled as it is with bad dialogue, bad acting, confusing flashbacks, and scenes that are more campy than scary.
Average Rating: 3.6/10
Critic Reviews: 24
Fresh: 5 | Rotten: 19
John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars is not one of Carpenter's better movies, filled as it is with bad dialogue, bad acting, confusing flashbacks, and scenes that are more campy than scary.
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Average Rating: 2.4/5
User Ratings: 43,977
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Movie Info
Writer and director John Carpenter returns to the mixture of science fiction and horror that made The Thing (1982) a success. Natasha Henstridge stars as Lt. Melanie Ballard of the Martian Police Force, a member of a law enforcement team two centuries in the future, dispatched to the remote colony of Shining Canyon. There, the most notorious criminal on Mars, James "Desolation" Williams (Ice Cube), awaits transport to a more secure jail. Besides Ballard, the other cops include the rookie Bashira
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Cast
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Ice Cube
James "Desolation" Will... -
Natasha Henstridge
Lt. Melanie Ballard -
Jason Statham
Jericho Butler -
Pam Grier
Commander Helena Braddo... -
Joanna Cassidy
Professor Whitlock -
Clea DuVall
Bashira Kincaid -
Richard Cetrone
Big Daddy Mars -
Rosemary Forsyth
Inquisitor -
Duane Davis
Uno -
Robert Carradine
Rodale -
Liam Waite
Descanso
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All Critics (117) | Top Critics (28) | Fresh (24) | Rotten (84) | DVD (31)
Written, directed, and edited with the offhand shoddiness of a day worker thinking about his evening beer.
Someday we're all going to look back on this one and l-a-a-a-augh.
The acting is so pallid that you're never sure the cast members quite get the jokes.
Schlocky, sluggish shoot-'em-up.
A flawed but worthy effort from an auteur whose near-misses are more entertaining than many others' hits.
A tired and dispiriting affair that takes forever to get going.
A rather sturdy modernized mash-up of Assault on Precinct 13 and Escape from New York.
Cheesy D grade popcorn guilty pleasure...
...mostly dull, formulaic gore, which high definition does nothing to improve. (Blu-ray Edition)
Mad Max Heads for the Angry Red Planet on a Pitch Black Night of the Living Dead.
Ghosts of Mars is not Carpenter at his best. It may very well be Carpenter at rock bottom.
A turd wrapped up in a nice bow is still a turd.
More Mars lacks than Mars attacks and an outing for Carpenter die-hards only.
Original movies on the Sci-Fi Channel have better production values.
Audience Reviews for Ghosts of Mars
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Latest News on Ghosts of Mars
January 17, 2007:
Disney Signs On with "John Carter of Mars"Not too long ago Jon Favreau was this close to directing "John Carter of Mars" for...
May 13, 2005:
John Carpenter to Return to Directing with "Apostle"Yahoo! brings some news that should please the horror fans out there. Seems that legendary...
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Foreign Titles
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Top Critic
You know its Carpenter straight away with most of his films but this was different. For a start the soundtrack was a lot of actual heavy metal performers playing pieces created by Carpenter. So yes the tunes are all Carpenters work as usual but it just didn't have the cool quirky simple electronic vibes you associate with his films. The heavy metal stuff just feels too errr heavy for what the film is, it tries to force the action and gore upon you with loud thrashing music which just seems childish really.
Naturally with Carpenter it looks cheap haha, everything is normally basic but created well with clever lighting, camera angles and editing. In this there is none of that craftsmanship, it really does feel as if John has sold out and given us a loud cliched straight to DVD action flick with no real thought or imagination. Everything also looks really really poor, terrible sets, terrible effects and makeup work and why are the good guys all wearing ski masks lol!. You can virtually see the edge of the sets half the time, we are talking TV movie standards here people!.
The plot is completely lame lets be honest, in fact it just feels like 'The Fog' but set on Mars or in space. That red dusty alien spirit cloud that goes around infecting the miners? come on John!. On top of that its all just a basic crappy zombie-ish horror theme. Humans are turned into mindless zombies that like to mutilate themselves and cut peoples heads off, errr gee, like wow!.
Its a shame because the cast is pretty cool with good names. A very young slim looking Statham with a bit of fuzz left on his bonce, Grier who is always sultry n sexy (why does she have to buy the farm so soon John!?) and Henstridge does add a 'Ripley-ish' current but personally I would of cast someone else. Yes 'Ice Cube' is there too being ridiculously over the top trying to make us all think he's a rough tough gangsta' in space, when will you grow up and use your real name jesus!.
All together this really does feel like a rehash of previous thrillers 'The Fog' and 'Assault on Precinct 13' all mixed into one. Completely inept in every area, very cheap looking and totally un-thrilling in any way, how Carpenter produced such a generic piece of crapola like this I don't know. You only have to look at the space zombie bad guys to see how poor it is, looks like the makeup was applied by themselves and thought up by teenagers.