| John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars | | Cast : | Natasha Henstridge, Ice Cube, Pam Grier | | Director : | John Carpenter | | Studio : | Columbia Tri-Star | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | August 24, 2001 | | DVD Released Date : | March 01, 2005 | | Language : | French (Dubbed), English (Dubbed), French (Subtitled), English (Subtitled), English (Original Language), French (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 01, 2005 | | Summary | One of his best films | Content
 | I really enjoyed this film. It's violent and original. Like I said, it's one of Carpenter's best movies after Vampires.
The costumes are brilliant and the actors stick perfectly to their roles (special mention for Jason Statham who i like much )
If you like scary movies and action movies this film is for you. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 25, 2005 | | Summary | Simply evidence that Ebert no longer watches the movies he reviews. | Content
| That Ebert gave this horrible movie a thumbs-up is court-presentable evidence that he didn't even watch it. This is a horrible movie. Cheap sets, poor lighting, unrealistic costumes, and I just named its "good" points. The acting in this movie was as bad as the dialogue. None of these actors or actresses really should work again ... or at least until they've gone through acting school again. As for the plot, it isn't even laughable. It is just a groan fest. This is Carpenter's first movie after ten years and it just proves that making a good movie isn't like riding a bicycle. You do forget how to do it. John Carpenter definitely did. Do not buy this DVD. Do not rent it. Do not even borrow it from your public library for free. If the rating system could allow negative numbers, I'd give this movie -5. It isn't as bad as Battlefield Earth, but it isn't that far behind either. |
| Rating | | | Date | November 19, 2004 | | Summary | One of John Carpenter's Worst | Content
| There is'nt much to write for this film,other than it was really,really bad.There was nothing scarry in this film,the script,sets&effects were complete S$@!?*&%#!>!.In the end,you had people dressed in S&M gear babbling at the top of their lungs like infants(supposidy it was an ancien martian language)and that was laughable on it's own.This film is so bad,it does'nt even deserve a star,the scale should be going in the negative direction.I don't know what Pam Grier was doing in this film,or Jason Strathom other than to polish up their resumes&make some easy money.If you want to see some great John Carpenter films,see the original Freddy Kruger,or the remake of The Thing.This is one I'm sure John Carpenter is wishing did'nt bear his name,or was ever made. |
| Rating | | | Date | October 12, 2004 | | Summary | Marilyn Manson the obvious inspiration | Content
| After taking forever and a day, going through 400+ DVDs, trying not to stop Indiana Jones going in the DVD player, and wanting to drag the person off to bed and not to sleep, I decided on this. Why? Simply because it had a reasonably good cast. Natasha Henstridge (now dating UK singer Darius, the lucky girl), Ice Cube, Bruce Willis lookalike Jason Statham, Clea DuVall, and Pam Grier.
The main cast are after the bad murderer played by Ice Cube. On Mars. Of course. In the far off future. For some strange reason, Pam Grier's character is the only one who's qualified for want of a better word to go after this guy. The rest of her crew include a pill-popper, the new guy who fancies his chances with the pill popper, and TweedleDee & TweedleDum rookies.
The movie's told completely in flashback, with flashbacks in flashbacks - confusing? Not really. There are some other strange bits in the movie, like it's never explained why exactly the ghosts are ghosts, who have all previously starred in Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video. And their leader's inspiration is Marilyn Manson. It uses the old cliche that the ghosts can take over people's bodies, except in the cool way you see a red mist going towards them when it wants to take them over.
With so many "zombie" movies around at the moment (Shaun of the Dead, Dawn of the Dead remake etc), it's strange to watch this. There's a whole hooha from other reviewers about how John Carpenter has done better films yadeyadeyada. Have I ever seen John Carpenter movie apart from this? If I have, then I can't remember it. Will I be interested in seeing any others? Will they explain exactly why the 'ghosts' suddenly went mad? Will Clea Duvall actually smile in any of her roles? And why doesn't Jason Stratham get his kit off? This is an OK movie, apart from the lack of explanation about the ghosts. It's not good, and it's not particularly bad either, just incredibly slow at points. See if you want to. |
| Rating | | | Date | September 06, 2004 | | Summary | Another Sadly Disappointing New Carpenter | Content
| Alas, this is another woefully disappointing recent movie by the once so great Carpenter. What Carpenter was once so good at was narrative rhythm and here it's all gone. The script makes this almost inevitable, constantly bogging down in nested flashbacks to flashbacks, constantly telling us what happened last when we want to know what happens next. And plenty else is wrong. The design for one thing, a particularly uninteresting example of the point-a-camera-at-desert-landscapes-with-a-heavy-red-filter approach to representing Mars. And then there is the casting. Pam Grier is completely miscast as a tough cop. Clea DuVall is given nothing whatever to do except look photogenic. Ice Cube is out of his rather limited depth as `Desolation' Williams, the macho prisoner who echoes the Napoleon Wilson character in `Precinct 13'. And surely surely Carpenter had seen `Species' and noticed that Natasha Henstridge, however striking to look at, couldn't act her way out of a paper bag. The completely silly and not remotely frightening Martians are the final nail in the coffin of this depressingly lacklustre movie. |
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