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John Carpenter's Ghosts Of Mars on DVD (2001)

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Average rating: 53%
2641210206812
2.5
from 886 members
 
Starring: Ice Cube, Natasha Henstridge, Jason Statham, Pam Grier, Joanna Cassidy, Clea Duvall
Director: John Carpenter
Studio: UCA
Run time: 94 mins
Certificate: 15
User collections: horror movies to keep you warm at night..., A FALL FROM GRACE, THE JOHN CARPENTER COLLECTION!
Genres: Horror
Languages: English
Hearing-impaired: English
Subtitles: English, German, Hindi, Turkish
Released: 25/02/2004

Brief synopsis of 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...

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Critics Reviews

Rating of 2 stars out of 5 Radio Times

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.

Time Out

Mars, 2176. Shapely cop Ballard (Henstridge) is quizzed by superiors after returning to base, apparently the sole... Read more on www.timeout.com

Halliwell's Film Guide

Quaint old-fashioned sf adventure, with a feeble premise for some unexciting action.

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Members Reviews

Reviews Voted Most Helpful

Rated - 1 starsLacklustre

Melon from East Sussex , 03/04/2004

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.

  15 out of 20 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 1 starsGreat title, Camel Plop stew film

Schnauzer from Stamford , 27/02/2005

Whatever happened to John Carpenter?

Rent 'The Thing' instead.

Utterly lacking in thrills, sick killings. Makes 'Crimewatch' seem interesting!

  2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 2 starsPretty Bloody Awful

Toejam from East london , 03/10/2004

I have really enjoyed some of carpenters work, the thing, vampires, escape from New York hell I even liked Escape for LA, but what happened here. The acting was wooden, the sets looked like they came from Doctor Who and the story was soooo lame. But it was a good way to pass a rainy saturday night because thanks to the otherreviews on the site I was prepared for it.

  2 out of 3 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 1 stars1 star is for carpenter's early genius

brian mccaig from Glasgow , 07/01/2005

I will not waste anyone's time with a lengthy critique of this bile, let's just remember the early genius of Mr Carpenter's greatest movies instead - Halloween and The Thing.

  2 out of 3 people found this review helpful
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Most Recent Reviews

Rated - 1 stars1 star is for carpenter's early genius

brian mccaig from Glasgow , 07/01/2005

I will not waste anyone's time with a lengthy critique of this bile, let's just remember the early genius of Mr Carpenter's greatest movies instead - Halloween and The Thing.

  2 out of 3 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 2 starsPretty Bloody Awful

Toejam from East london , 03/10/2004

I have really enjoyed some of carpenters work, the thing, vampires, escape from New York hell I even liked Escape for LA, but what happened here. The acting was wooden, the sets looked like they came from Doctor Who and the story was soooo lame. But it was a good way to pass a rainy saturday night because thanks to the otherreviews on the site I was prepared for it.

  2 out of 3 people found this review helpful
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