This is topic Ghosts of Mars in forum Film Handlers' Movie Reviews at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
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Posted by Don Anderson (Member # 397) on 08-24-2001, 07:55 PM:
Oh Boy, what a dog! This has to be John Carpenters worst film ever. But then, has he made anything decent in the past 10 years? Lots of blood, severed heads/hands/arms, dumb plot and LOUSY acting. Ice Cube was terrible. Cheap looking sets too! And to think we passed on Bubble Boy for this one! Gee, I wonder why they took soooo long to distribute this dog. Took close to 1 1/2 years, right?????Two severed thumbs down on this trash!
Posted by Michael Brown (Member # 890) on 09-29-2001, 02:19 PM:
Sound mix was nice, but everything else was pretty terrible.
Posted by Michael Barry (Member # 237) on 10-23-2001, 10:33 AM:
I am looking forward to seeing this on Friday. I will update this post then! 
I never saw a JC movie I didn't like.
Posted by Brad Haven (Member # 954) on 10-25-2001, 08:04 AM:
i really enjoyed ghosts of mars , but it certainly wasn't a good film.
natasha henstridge wasn't too bad, pam grier was dreadfull along with the rest of the cast. carpenter's images were very strong and lasting . it was just a good bit of fun!
Posted by Christopher Santapaola (Member # 1015) on 10-28-2001, 10:51 PM:
I just wanted to say I have to agree with the majority. This movie should be buried in an unmarked grave and forgoten about forever. It made jeepers creepers look like a piece of film perfection. Sorry but john carpenter has lost his mind. He should has killed when he could and spared us the pain of seeing it.
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-Life is but a walking shadow, a poor player that walks, and struts its hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot. Full of sound and fury signifying nothing.
Posted by Daniel Boisson (Member # 1027) on 10-28-2001, 11:57 PM:
it reminded me of a bad, low bugdet 80s movie that goes directly to video, bypassing theatres. ------------------
...My brain's always wrapped...
Posted by Mike Schindler (Member # 1309) on 07-24-2002, 12:39 AM:
This movie kicks so much ass, it's not even funny.
Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 07-24-2002, 08:50 PM:
After seeing "Ghosts of Mars" it's impossible to explain how "The Thing" and "Escape From New York" could possibly have been made by the same guy. Maybe John Carpenter should retire.
Posted by Mike Schindler (Member # 1309) on 07-25-2002, 01:13 AM:
Why does everybody hate this movie so much? How is it different from any other film that Carpenter has made? It's so cool! It's got people getting limbs chopped off by flying objects! It's got Pam Grier's head on a steak! What more could you want?I think that this film fits in well with the rest of Carpenter's work. It works especially well when thought of as the third picture in a trilogy with ESCAPE FROM L.A. and VAMPIRES. All three are westerns. ESCAPE FROM L.A. is the Leone movie, VAMPIRES is the Peckinpah movie, and GHOSTS OF MARS is the Hawks movie.
Natasha Henstridge and Ice Cube work well in the lead roles. I love the look of the film. And I love how politically incorrect the film's message of "drugs are good" is.
Posted by Dave Williams (Member # 299) on 12-31-2002, 02:52 AM:
I have waited far too long to review this movie, primarily because I wanted to watch this one about thirty times to see if I can tell why people think this movie is so bad.
At first look, this movie really was confusing, probably why it was taken for bad.
SPOILERS AHEAD...
This film is told by one person, explaining why her entire team and a miners camp are all missing or dead, and how she got out alive. It is told in standard police officer report form, which is technically not very exciting.
In fact it takes nearly forty minutes before you really get a handle as to what the hell is going on. You are in fact the one bieng told the report, so really you should be confused, and bewildered.
This is standard John Carpenter material, and I tend to actually understand this stuff. I have been a student of this master for years, all the way back to Attack on Precinct 13. SEE THAT MOVIE and you will get a real handle on the rest of his work.
This is truly just a wonderful B grade horror story, done in cops meets western meets star trek style. Its fun if you want it to be, or its horrible if you chose it to be.
But I loved this movie.
Dave
Posted by Geoffrey Weiss (Member # 882) on 12-31-2002, 10:19 AM:
I just bought this one on DVD. I saw it at a second-run house a enjoyed it because I went in with no expectation that it would be any good. That's probably the key.
In fact, it was probably the best movie of that year to take a 15-year-old adolescent boy to. The heavy metal music ... the spurting blood ... the hacked off limbs ... the body modification (God help us if scarification becomes the next hot trend among young people after tatoos and piercings) I think it's a movie that touches the adolescent boy in all of us.
Seriously, I found it to be totally adequate as eye/ear candy. And, refreshingly, not pretending to be more than it is, which has become a huge problem in Hollywood these days. Example: I don't consider Billy Bob Thornton's zombified performance in "Monster's Ball" to convey some kind of inner turmoil or depth on his part. Just because the character is emotionally shut down doesn't mean that I want to watch him drift along for two hours with no expression on his face.