John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars

Starring:Ice Cube, Jason Statham
Studio: Sony Pictures
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

Ghosts of Mars may not be one of John Carpenter's finer efforts, but you can't knock the veteran director for staying true to his roots--it's clearly a Carpenter film, reveling in its B-movie blood lust, and fueled by the director's rock & roll rebellion as well as the sex appeal of star Natasha Henstridge. This rickety sci-fi/horror hybrid recalls Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13, with various connections from throughout the director's career--for better and worse. It's the year 2176, and human colonists on Mars are controlled by a political "matronage," with women (for reasons unexplained) holding court in the capitol city of Chryse. Mars Police Force Lt. Ballard (Henstridge) has been sent to retrieve James "Desolation" Williams (Ice Cube), the planet's most notorious criminal, from a remote mining-colony prison. With her ill-fated crew, Ballard discovers that the colonists have nearly all been possessed by ancient Martian spirits bent on reclaiming the planet, turning them into an army of self-mutilating freaks suggesting an unholy union of Marilyn Manson and the sadomasochistic Cenobites from the Hellraiser films. None of this makes much sense, and the shaky alliance between cops and criminals is a predictable excuse for rampant battle scenes between surviving humans and the ghost-possessed maniacs. Exotic weaponry abounds (along with cheap special effects and some laughable dialogue), resulting in the gruesome dispatch of expendable costars Pam Grier, Joanna Cassidy, Robert Carradine, and Clea Duvall. Driven by Carpenter's synth-metal score, this violent free-for-all has a few brief highlights, but it's suspenseless and ultimately absurd. It's not much, but for loyal fans it's probably enough. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

How do you stretch twenty minutes of footage into a ninety minute movie?.......2007-06-26

Just keep repeating it over and over and over.

Note to filmakers: If your audience is too stupid to remember what happened five minutes ago, repeating it isn't going to help.

No kidding, some scenes were repeated verbatim three times...

This movie is ridiculous. That's the only word for it. The filmography is bad. Sudden jumps in movement isn't artistic, it's just a lazy way to cover a big chunk that was edited out.

The fighting is worse than the old Battlestar Galactica fighting. You can see them miss even as the enemy goes flying. People with knives in their hand and grenades on their chest resort to punching faces before they are disarmed. Perhaps most amazing of all, after the group of heros discovers there are two hundred enemy and kill thousands with bombs, grenades, many many rounds of apparently unexpendable bullets, there are still at least five hundred left to storm the train. A nuclear power plant's rods are exposed and the core exploded creating a moderate explosure with a two mile radius and no nuclear fallout???? All those people at Chernyobl and Three Mile Island must have exagerated the danger. I feel much safer now. Of course now I have live in feat that someone will throw an aluminum pie pan at me and slice off my head.

Perhaps the hardest thing to swallow, other than the acting or lack there of, is the rather convoluted explanations via a druggies bad trip of why Martian Ghosts would take the form of dried dust and wait around thousands of years to steal bodies, then act like the motorcycle gang in mad max two... I think they even borrowed their costumes. Hmmm... maybe it was the same gang, I detected some bad australian accents...

Anyway, the gist of the review, do waste your time and certainly not your money on this pretentious piece of tripe. It's so bad, it makes Vampires look good. *shudder* At least Vampires showed some boobage.

Good cheesy fun.......2006-12-09

Remember when movies were fun and didnt take themselves too seriously? This movie invites you into its world with a smile and a wink. Thats not to say its not a well crafted film I believe it is. However, Carpenter obviously had fun making it because I had fun watching it. Its up to the viewer if they're willing to shut their thoughts off and enter Carpenters world. You can nit pick if you want, but whats the point really, this film isnt about realism its about fantasy.
For me Carpenters strength is his ability to create a sense of time and place, an alternate reality if you will. This isnt a real world or even a realistic world but Carpenter invites you into it and it has a sense of place and time.
Thats where the fun comes from, the escapism, the strange setting, the slightly off key plot and dialogue.
I enjoyed it all and consider it great fun!

john carpenter's ghost of mars.......2006-08-28

This a classic John Carpender film but defentaly one that needs a sequel by him. The skill with which action mixed with heavy metal music is excellent. As far as I'm concerned everyone in this si-fi horror thriller did their job right. I could feel it ,be it , live it. It could be real. Each character brought something essential to this film. I'm not the only one that likened the martian leader to a cross between Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie. There are very powerful fight survival scenes with just enough blood and gore to freak you out and keep you on edge. Who will get possessed next? A must see. More than once to notice all of the effects, and believe me they are powerfull.
Watch it and see who lives and who dies and how.
Great work Mr. Carpender!

Bloody ,Gorey, Violent, and Alot of Fun (3.5 STARS).......2006-07-11

O.K. yes this movie is violent, bloody, gorey and a bit shallow
but not so much as to make it a bad movie (the shallow part that is). If you like the doom video games you will probaly like this. No it is not about hell invading mars but it is just as good. It is about aliens that have been released from an acient prison that can go from human to human via air currents and they start to destroy the facilities on mars and killing every thing that is breathing. in order to regain their acient home. there are a coulple of corny lines but this movie is still in the same class as Quentin Tarintino's remake of dawn of the dead. So if you want a good bloody, gorey, and violent killfest check this movie out. However I reccomend this movie for mature audiences ONLY. Because believe me this movie has earned its R rating

Wow... Carpenter has made another "zombie movie" without zombies!!! .......2006-05-08

Well... I dunno if you're a fan of Carpenter's films or not, but every fan of his work can tell you that his movies age like fine wine. If you like slam-bang action mixed with sci-fi and horror, I can recommend this movie. I'm not saying it is the best movie ever committed to film, but I will say that I enjoyed it quite a bit. It takes a while to really get moving, and I don't mean action-wise... that happens pretty quick... what I mean is conceptually, the story didn't really gel for me until about half-way through, but the time before that was spent in character development, so I can't completely shame it there.

The plot's fairly simple... in the year 2176 Earth has teraformed Mars for colonization and ore processing. They haven't worked out all the kinks and are really just kinda stumbling around in the harsh, alien environment. When a mining crew stumbles upon and ancient Martian artifact, they release the disembodied essences of the former Martians who can possess the bodies of anyone they come in contact with. The humans who are possessed by the Martians become savage, sado-masochistic beasts who mutilate their flesh and kill anyone they come in contact with.

Enter into this madness a crew of Mars police officers who are unknowingly arriving in an infected mining town to escort a prisoner from the jail to the penal facility. Poop hits fan, and the police have to forge an uneasy alliance with the criminals in the jail against the Martians.

There's some pretty good stuff about the movie: it's pretty darn violent... if you like frequent beheadings and belimbings (I made that word up!!!), you'd prolly dig this one. The makeup effects were incredible... when I say these people mutilate themselves I really mean it... we're talking screws in the face, barbed wire cutting into flesh, gashed open mouths, filed teeth... these things are scary lookin! There's one really cool scene that shows the Martians' memory of their former selves and the Mars of ages past. I really wanted to see more of that... here's hoping the buzz about Slither and its alien flashback scene lives up to the hype. And then there's the concept in and of itself: an enemy that can't be killed. You kill one of them they hop to your body and continue the fight. It's kinda staggering. Also, this movie felt like it was made in the 80's... I dunno what about it seemed that way, as the special effects were up to par for the time it was made, but it just had that flavor. It's kinda like another Carpenter film, Assault on Precinct 13. Wow... Carpenter has made another "zombie movie" without zombies!!!

What didn't work: two words: ICE CUBE. Who in their right mind ever thought that this jackass is a good actor? Oh ok... he was funny in Friday... but that's IT! Just stop now... make him go back and be a rapper... yesterday. Ugh. In my opinion he stunk up the movie royally. I could deal with everyone else in the movie, but he just... just... eeeugh. Jeez. If they wanted a tough rapper guy I'd have been happier with Coolio... at least he has fun hair! Another thing that kinda stunk was the wish in my mind that it had been a bit more violent and gory. I mean... it was ok... and by ok, I mean really good... but I dunno... I expected a LOTTA violence and gore. I think my unrated horror movie collection has me spoiled.

John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars / John Carpenter's Vampires

Average customer rating:

John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars / John Carpenter's Vampires
Starring: James Woods , Daniel Baldwin , Sheryl Lee , Thomas Ian Griffith , and Maximilian Schell
Director: John Carpenter
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Horror | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Genres | DVD | Video

( J ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
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ASIN: B00006IUGS
Release Date: 2002-10-15

Amazon.com

Ghosts of Mars
Ghosts of Mars may not be one of John Carpenter's finer efforts, but you can't knock the veteran director for staying true to his roots--it's clearly a Carpenter film, reveling in its B-movie blood lust, and fueled by the director's rock & roll rebellion as well as the sex appeal of star Natasha Henstridge. This rickety sci-fi/horror hybrid recalls Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13, with various connections from throughout the director's career--for better and worse. It's the year 2176, and human colonists on Mars are controlled by a political "matronage," with women (for reasons unexplained) holding court in the capitol city of Chryse. Mars Police Force Lt. Ballard (Henstridge) has been sent to retrieve James "Desolation" Williams (Ice Cube), the planet's most notorious criminal, from a remote mining-colony prison. With her ill-fated crew, Ballard discovers that the colonists have nearly all been possessed by ancient Martian spirits bent on reclaiming the planet, turning them into an army of self-mutilating freaks suggesting an unholy union of Marilyn Manson and the sadomasochistic Cenobites from the Hellraiser films. None of this makes much sense, and the shaky alliance between cops and criminals is a predictable excuse for rampant battle scenes between surviving humans and the ghost-possessed maniacs. Exotic weaponry abounds (along with cheap special effects and some laughable dialogue), resulting in the gruesome dispatch of expendable costars Pam Grier, Joanna Cassidy, Robert Carradine, and Clea Duvall. Driven by Carpenter's synth-metal score, this violent free-for-all has a few brief highlights, but it's suspenseless and ultimately absurd. It's not much, but for loyal fans it's probably enough. --Jeff Shannon

Vampires
Talk about an opening. The first few minutes of John Carpenter's Vampires--in which James Woods's vampire killer leads a dawn raid on a New Mexico "goon nest" of bloodsuckers--not only suggests a horror movie that will not pull any punches, it even evokes some of the more disturbing dream-memories of American Westerns. Muscular and uncompromised, the sequence suggests a new Carpenter classic unraveling before one's eyes. Well, dream on. Things don't quite work out that way, but this is still a film to reckon with. There are a few serious (and surprising) misjudgments on the director's part, particularly a mishandling of Sheryl Lee's role as a prostitute poisoned by the bite of a "master vampire" (who pretty much wiped out Woods's team of goon terminators). But aside from some weaknesses, the action is jolting, the suggested complicity of the Catholic Church in destroying monsters is provocative, and the traces of Howard Hawks's continuing influence on Carpenter's storytelling are in evidence. --Tom Keogh

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Customer Reviews:

How do you stretch twenty minutes of footage into a ninety minute movie?.......2007-06-26

Good cheesy fun.......2006-12-09

john carpenter's ghost of mars.......2006-08-28

Bloody ,Gorey, Violent, and Alot of Fun (3.5 STARS).......2006-07-11

Wow... Carpenter has made another "zombie movie" without zombies!!! .......2006-05-08

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