Rating: 
Summary: Atrocious,...absolutely atrocious
Review: My title kind of gives away where this review is going as the first 5 minutes of the movie set the tone for what has to be one of the most unbearably terrible films in 10 years. The plot is pointless really, but even worse is the directorial style. It's not that I dont understand the "B-movie campy" atmosphere he is setting here, but with 28 million you would figure Carpenter would do a bit better job. The costumes and characters were weak and weakly written respectively. Even though the characters all pretty much have to die, it seems like they go out of their way to make it happen as opposed to being the logical progression of the plot. ("Let's go back, we own this planet now", or something to that effect.) Someone before mentioned this being "inspired" directing?!? Inspired by a 4 year old on ridalin maybe. The visual feel could have been helped with using a red tinted lens to give the planet that "Mars, red planet look" For effective use of the method see "Traffic" and even the uninspired "Mission to Mars" but none of this was to be,...the directing is beyond subpar, the plot's B-Movie appeal is lost on everyone but a few viewers and John Carpenter. Either make the movie funny, or dramatic. the actors aren't good enough, the directing isn't good enough for them to balance the two. Waste not your time or money unless this is supposed to be a gag gift,...and even then you're better off with something else,...the laughs will be had by the guy selling you the video, not by whoever you get this for.
Rating:
Summary: This is B movie material.
Review: This movie was one of the worst movies I have ever seen. The acting is horrible; Natasha Henstridge is monotonous and her face doesn't change at all while she acts, and none of the other characters are convincing at all. The movie is very annoying with the countless flashbacks. The set looks fake. The plot is confusing and scattered. I guess I'd say get it if you are a hardcore John Carpenter fan; I'm not, and if the rest of his movies are anything like this, I never will be.
Rating:
Summary: The Ghosts Of Carpenter
Review: I made it through an hour of this movie, but could go no further. Reasons? The script and dialogue seem to have been written by a seventh grader. Godawful, anonymous heavy metal music explodes from the soundtrack at all times. It contains relentless, repulsive, hideous gore - apparently an attempt to induce as much vomiting as possible from the folks who actually paid money to view this film. To what group of humans this movie would appeal, I can't imagine, but if they exist, they surely wouldn't be too far off from the mindless, violent zombies in the film. What sane person would enjoy watching scene after scene of heads and other body parts being chopped off, people being shot and in pain, and the so-called acting of Ice Cube? This is the type of movie that inspires lunatics to go on shooting sprees, and even worse, more rappers to think about acting careers. John Carpenter peaked in 1978 with Halloween, and has been going steadily downhill ever since. It's getting so bad that his name in a movie's title is now synonymous with "big budget bomb". How can a man, who showed so much directing talent with Halloween, spend the next 20 years making totally incompetent movies that appear to be geared only towards the psychopaths and/or high-schoolers in our society? (the answer's in the next paragraph). There he was in '78, displaying his brilliant cinematography and particularly lighting and musical skills, and now here he is making grade Z, straight-to-video bombs of ultraviolence choreographed to heavy metal. Wow, what a transformation - one that fascinates me because it's been so consistent. Even when he has a good idea ("They Live"), he can't resist screwing those up too - in that one, by casting a wrestler in the lead role who can't act. He seems admirably determined to ruin his own movies, especially with his casting choices. Gotta give him credit - he tries so hard to wreck his films, and he's succeeded every single time since Halloween. "Ghosts Of Mars" is a total failure, and is riddled with every horror/sci-fi cliche you can find in Ebert's Little Movie Glossary. I might expect this out of a first-time director, but not a vet like Carpenter. It's hard to come up with any other conclusion than to realize he stopped caring about quality in 1978, and decided to condescend to the idiots in the world who demand crap like this, and who presumably yell and cheer wildly during such scenes as Ice Cube running around with guns in both hands shooting zombies and shouting profane cliches. In other words, $$$. It's a shame to see $28 mil wasted on this garbage, presumably spent getting some 'talented' person to make a LOT of real-looking decapitated heads. It's an even bigger shame to see Pam Grier in a film like this, after it looked like she was having a comeback with "Jackie Brown". Only two positive things I can say about this movie: Natasha Henstridge is a hottie and can act a little, and the special effects are excellent, but for $28 mil, they should be.
Rating:
Summary: Too bad they don't have a 1/2 star
Review: I eagerly sat down to watch this last night only to be utterly amazed at how bad this flick was. I have enjoyed some of Carpenter's work in the past but this blows. Main premise of the story... A 'spirit' lives on the planet, takes over bodies, Road warrior style, the good guys battle and run away alot. This WILL be on mystery science theater one day.
Rating: 
Summary: John Carpender is back at it!
Review: Truly the movie isn't bad and not nessassarly one of Carpender's better movies. The flashbacks got annoying and sometimes this movie does get too hokey to the fact where it doesn't make any sense,but its fun and entertaining so its a great renter.
Rating: 
Summary: A hard and fun space western - Carpenter all over!
Review: Shamefully and unfairly calumniated, denigrated, insulted, disgraced, depreciated by a mob of blind journalists, critics and public viewers fond of, if not obsessed with neatness, clichés and deja-vu in movies, afraid of everything new, creative and non-conformist, unable to analyse correctly and understand... the last Carpenter release, his rejoicing "Ghosts of Mars" is a rare piece of work we unfortunately no more have the courage to make and face these days. 'For them, we are the invaders...'
What did you expect? "Total Recall" n° 2? "Species" n° 3? Another teen movie? In case you forgot, Big John Carpenter is an independent artist, a rebel and he makes his films the way he wants them to be made, keeping all the usual Hollywood stuff away. In "Ghosts of Mars" like in most of his previous films, no stupid sentimental scene, no cheap love story, no body-builded superstar like Schwarzenegger for bumping off all the bad guys one after another (and no super female to back him up) and of course for triumphing in the end, no heavy, exhausting special effects, no honeyed music... in two words, not any of all the conventions always desired by the brainless but too demanding riff-raff (critics included). This film must be seen as a real action movie, and the hell with the established criterions! "Ghosts of Mars" is first the proof that Carpenter is no more influenced by the others; he's now influenced only by himself, his own work. The Shining Canyon siege reminds us of the ones in "Assault on Precinct 13" and also "Prince of Darkness", the possession theme takes us back to "The Thing", the fighting scenes, to "Big Trouble in Little China" and Big Daddy Mars is very close to Blake in "The Fog" and the chilling bum played by rocker Alice Cooper in "Prince of Darkness". The only outside influence is Cyril Endfield's "Zulu", about the Martians and their methods, mutilating the human bodies they took possession of - not mutilating themselves; of course, they're already dead! -, acting like a savage tribe (what's all that stuff about Marilyn Manson??? For Christ Sake! this is ridiculous!). There's also some of "The Exorcist", and the scene where Henstridge manages to get rid of the ghost inside her, thanks to the dope she's addicted to, may give us a solution to demon possession. Instead of kicking...in real life, Carpenter does it in his movies. He always did so far and there's no reason he doesn't do it again. Despite some senseless elements in the script - we don't really understand why the ghosts of Mars can't get through the doors and walls, and why the human characters, after escaping from hell, come back to it right away, in order to try to blow up the whole place and the ghosts with it, with an atomic bomb (the problem is, you can't kill what's already dead) -, the movie manages to work. One of the most important things is the political background which is still here, as visible as it was before, and Carpenter didn't take gloves for nothing, especially not for the Mars planet itself - a dark mining colony, soon becoming some kind of a hell, and reminding us Manhattan transformed as an outdoor prison hell in "Escape from New York", for the two main characters (the one is a gang leader, the other, a drug addict), for the society of the earth, settled on Mars - a matriarchal society, ruled by women (why not? It's very envisageable, and doesn't need any explanation), and for his country's history: the ghosts can be easily compared with the American Indians. Using the hard way, Carpenter reminds us that Mars is, for the mankind, just another territory to be conquered, whatever the price (one more general slaughter?), doing it again, 21 years after "The Fog" which has a similar message about the past. 'It's not their planet any more', Melanie Ballard says. Finally, there were in this movie all the elements leading to its (unfair but foreseeable) critical and public failure. All the more because, probably for the first time since "Johnny Guitar" (forget about the "Alien" series), it's a woman who got the first role in a high-grade action movie. And as we know, the audience is filled with machos... About the actors, we'll notice the good performance of very (too?) pretty Natasha Henstridge, here in the role of a strong (and of course sexually attractive) woman, far from all the conventions in force in Hollywood. For once, she doesn't strip - why should she, Bruce? It's not in her contract, and besides the role wasn't written for her - even macho Jason Statham can't make her! - and she really ACTS! At LAST! Ice Cube makes it rather well in a Plissken-looking role (like Plissken and 'Napoleon' Wilson in "Assault on Precinct 13", James 'Desolation' Williams doesn't believe in anything but staying alive), and Pam Grier ("Coffy", "Jackie Brown"), back with Big John five years after "Escape from L.A.", and Joanna Cassidy ("Blade Runner", "Who framed Roger Rabbit?") make diverting appearances. The result is a hell of a sci-fi movie, managing to cleverly mix many genres (action, horror, western, comedy of manners...) with quite little money; a movie to be taken at the third degree and consumed like good source water: with no moderation. Just try, you'll see, it's very easy...
Rating:
Summary: WHY?
Review: Just because a movie stinks, is no reason not to watch it. Some movies you watch BECAUSE they stink. This is one of them. Nothing in this movie makes sense. No, no - NOTHING! Mars is ruled by a matriarchy. WHY? A man cuts off his own thumb. WHY? The entire movie is told in multiple flashbacks. WHY? There are flashbacks within flashbacks...WITHIN FLASHBACKS! WHY? Natasha Henstridge stars - and DOESN'T STRIP! WHY? Henstridge is a lawman - er, "person" - who allies herself with a notorious criminal...even AFTER the mutual threat they're fighting is over! WHY? ICE CUBE! ON MARS!! WHY? Jailbreakers get themselves locked in the same cell as the guy they're trying to bust out! WHY?? Joanna Cassidy in a hot-air balloon - ON MARS!! WHY??? Aeons-old Martian gas makes men into ooga-chaka zombies, who grunt to "I Can't Stop This Feeling, Deep Inside of Me"!! WHY?!? The Martian zombies dress for a Kiss video - ON MARS!! WHY!?! The good guys escape, only to rush back into the jaws of certain doom - FOR NO GOOD REASON!!! WHY!!! You might get the impression I hate this movie. I don't. I actually love it. It's one of my personal favorites. I honestly couldn't stop cat-calling it out loud at the theater - and I NEVER cat-call movies (at least, in public). But that's exactly why you have to see this movie. It's just UNGODLY fun. This is THE perfect movie, for your own Friday night Mystery Science Theater party. It's as bad as Battlefield Earth, but much more gorgeously produced, and much, MUCH funnier. Don't sit there, wondering WHY? Buy it, and find out. You'll watch it over and over again, marveling with each new viewing at the unbelievable WHYS??? you missed on your previous viewings. Hey, if nothing else, Clea Duvall gets her head cut off. If that ain't worth the price of admission, I don't know what is.
Rating:
Summary: Jon Carpenter's Dynamite Hit
Review: i have to say that "ghosts of mars" was too me worth the time to watch. i really enjoyed the plot, and the picture has a lot of action-very violent but i did enjoy it. it received good reviews by movie critics ebert and roeper. i think mr carpenter still has his magic and it blossomed in this one (ghost of mars). i recommend this film to mature adults. excellent
Rating:
Summary: It's Cheap! It's Trashy!! Funny the same way as "Anaconda"
Review: Remember that terrible film "Anaconda"? Yeah, that one with hammy actors including Angelina's dad, and a big, bad snake with a leading lady Ms. Lopez. Let's forget that "Ghosts of the Mars" is directed by John Carpenter, and think this way. Take out Ms. Lopez (cos she is now doing a bigger film), and throw in Natasha "Spieces" Henstrige there as an investigator on the Mars, who has to transport Ice Cube (who was also in that jungle), a supposed murderer. But as she and her crew (including members with politically correct ethnic and sexual diversion) are attacked by the Goth ghosts that crawl like monkeys, Henstrige's heroine knows that the only way to survive is to make a dubious pact with Ice Cube and his men. See? This is not a genuine horror film; nor it's a sci-fi thriller. This is rather a new version of western films that is set on the Mars in the future, with "Stagecoach" situation. And westerns are made within comparatively lower budgets, as you know. Try to think that way; otherwise, you'll be hugely disappointed with this cheap-looking, trashy, apparently sci-fi film. The land looks as if shot with a tons of red-colored earth (it's the Mars, you see!), but it is obvious that the place is somewhere in New Mexico. And the actors look tired (probably it's too hot there), but the loud music (including that of the Anthrax) will batter your nerves, trying to cheer up their spirits. And to make the earth redder, the zombies attack the actors in a "Starship Troopers" way, chopping their bodies into pieces. Frankly, the editing is so poor that sometimes you cannot tell what is going on, and the acting is less than average. The names of the players are fairly impressive -- besides Ice Cube and Natasha Henstrige, you got Clea Duvall, Jason Statham, Joanna Cassidy, and even Pam Grier. But their roles are all unmemorable, especially that of Pam Grier is too lamentable. I don't say much about the plot because there is little of that, but it is certain that the overuse of flashbacks is draining the momentum of the film considerably, letting us know the end of the story earlier than the film should do. As an entertainment, this film has some charm of watching midnight TV program with 6-packed beer. If you accept its trashy charm as it is, you will enjoy it. However, if you want something really scary or with style, like "Halloween," you don't look at this one.
Rating:
Summary: AVERAGE SHOOT EM' UP SCI-FI
Review: People on Mars are taken over by ghosts, which make them mean and hungry for blood. A good shoot-em-up sci-fi movie with attractive women and bulky men. Nothing too exciting in this movie although it has lots of blood and gore. If you like this movie, try Resident Evil, which has the same type of story line... blood and lots of dismemberment. Not really for children.
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