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John Carpenter's Ghosts Of Mars
2001
From director John Carpenter comes a sci-fi thriller full of explosive action and bone-chilling suspense that recalls such earlier Carpenter classics as Assault On Precinct 13 and The Thing. Natasha Henstridge is Melanie Ballard, a headstrong police lieutenant on Mars in the year 2025. Humans have been colonising and mining on .. Read more
| Starring | Ice Cube, Natasha Henstridge, Jason Statham, Pam Grier |
|---|---|
| Director | John Carpenter |
| Genres | Action/Adventure, Horror, Sci-Fi/Fantasy |
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John Carpenter's Ghosts Of Mars
From director John Carpenter comes a sci-fi thriller full of explosive action and bone-chilling suspense that recalls such earlier Carpenter classics as Assault On Precinct 13 and The Thing. Natasha Henstridge is Melanie Ballard, a headstrong police lieutenant on Mars in the year 2025. Humans have been colonising and mining on the red planet for some time, but when Ballard and her squad are sent to a remote region to apprehend the dangerous criminal James "Desolation" Williams (Ice Cube), they discover that he's the least of their worries. The mining operations have unleashed a deadly army of Martian spirits who take over the bodies of humans and won't stop until they destroy all invaders of their planet. With a stellar cast including Pam Grier, Jason Statham and Clea Duvall, as well as excellent special effects, John Carpenter's Ghosts Of Mars is an intergalactic terror fest unlike anything you've seen...
| Starring | Ice Cube, Natasha Henstridge, Jason Statham, Pam Grier, Joanna Cassidy, Clea Duvall |
|---|---|
| Director | John Carpenter |
| Studio | UCA |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 34 mins Blu-ray: 1 hr 38 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Action/Adventure, Horror, Sci-Fi/Fantasy |
| Language | DVD: English |
| Hearing-impaired | English |
| Subtitles | DVD: English, German, Hindi, Turkish Blu-ray: Greek, Dutch, Hindi, Norwegian, Finnish, Italian, German, English, Danish, Swedish, Turkish |
| Released | DVD: 25 Feb 2004 Blu-ray: not available Production year: 2001 |
| Format | DVD |
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Critics' reviews (3)
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Dark Star and The Thing director John Carpenter has, with this latest sci-fi offering, been reduced to repeating his own movies. Set in the year 2176, this has feisty cop Melanie Ballard (Natasha Henstridge) arrive at an isolated Martian mining town to transport notorious killer “Desolation” Williams (Ice Cube) to a high-security prison. The colonists are being possessed by the spooks of the title and transformed into zombies that look as threatening as refugees from a Kiss reunion concert. These Martian living dead then swarm in a siege hugely reminiscent of Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13 — itself a homage to Howard Hawks's classic 1959 western Rio Bravo. There are moments of tension thanks to the director's self-penned soundtrack and the rusty-red hues in which everything is bathed. But there are no real surprises here, leaving only regrets that such a talented director is responsible.
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Mars, 2176. Shapely cop Ballard (Henstridge) is quizzed by superiors after returning to base, apparently the sole... read more on Time Out
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Most helpful member's review
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17 out of 22 people found this review helpful
Lacklustre
Once upon a time John Carpenter was the coolest thriller director on the planet. 'Assault on Precinct 13', 'Halloween', 'Escape from New York'. Then came 1982 and he got his biggest budget and made his masterpiece, 'The Thing'. Unfortunately 1982 was the year of 'E.T.' and dark SF was no mans land, so like 'Blade Runner' Carpenter's piece de resistance was roundly damned (although later hailed by the same critics and audiences who shunned it at the time). More unfortunately Carpenter seems to have taken the drubbing to heart as he hasn't made anything half as good since.
I keep on hoping that the next Carpenter release will be a return to form. After all, he's always rehashing the same siege plotline of Howard Hawks' 'Rio Grande', but this is his worst yet. It looks more like an episode of 'Battlestar Galactica' than a cinema release, stinking of TV movie cheapness and lack of imagination, featuring flat lighting, slack editing, state of yesterdays art effects, and stilted acting from a talented cast, who have all been better elsewhere, but here just seem to have given up even trying to make a good movie. Ice Cube's final shot cheesy stare into camera lens is the turd on the icing.
At times this is so bad it actually makes your eyes hurt. -
Most recent members' review
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2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
Great title, Camel Plop stew film
Whatever happened to John Carpenter?
Rent 'The Thing' instead.
Utterly lacking in thrills, sick killings. Makes 'Crimewatch' seem interesting! -
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John Carpenter's Ghosts Of Mars - BLU-RAY Version
From director John Carpenter comes a sci-fi thriller full of explosive action and bone-chilling suspense that recalls such earlier Carpenter classics as Assault On Precinct 13 and The Thing. Natasha Henstridge is Melanie Ballard, a headstrong police lieutenant on Mars in the year 2025. Humans have ...
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- John Carpenter's Ghosts Of Mars
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From director John Carpenter comes a sci-fi thriller full of explosive action and bone-chilling suspense that recalls such earlier Carpenter classics as Assault On Precinct 13 and The Thing. Natasha ... -