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John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars

John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars

List Price: $14.94
Your Price: $13.45
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: The angry red planet.
Review: I would have to say this is NOT John Carpenter's best work, and I've been an admirer of his films ever since Escape From N.Y. It has a good cast, but they have all been in much better movies (check out Species, Three Kings or Jackie Brown). I didn't feel like I was seeing anything new, just action cliches--lots of decapitations, stuntmen jumping in front of explosions, and gunplay galore, to a thrash-metal soundtrack.

Nothing makes a whole lot of sense or is explained very well. Some kind of dormant lifeform that looks like a cloud of red smoke (but at times is invisible apparently) has been awakened and has the power to possess people, who then become face-painted savages who look vaguely like the original slayer from the Buffy series. Where did they get the swords and spears and decapitating frisbees? If Mars has been terra-formed and has atmosphere, why is it dark all the time?

Anyway, I recommend it only if you're a hardcore J.C. fan, or if you just never met a shoot-em-up you didn't like. The quality of the DVD itself is excellent. Also, if you're a fan of the band Anthrax, you can see clips of them recording the soundtrack in the studio on the extra feature "Scoring Ghosts of Mars".

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: HORRIBLE
Review: i rented this movie with my mom cause it sounded cool but we started watching it the movie had no plot or suspense and you couldnt listen 5 seconds before you heard the f-word.it was so stupid and not scary i didnt even watch half of this movie.so unless you wanna hear ice cubes limited vocabulary i dont recomend this movie to anyone

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Slow start but worth the wait
Review: While this movie starts out slow, interviewing the lone survivor. It builds the suspence and then busts out into a great fire-fight; against my personal favorites...evil aliens that want to eat your face. The martians are very evil looking think bikers meet Cpt. Howdy. Remember in space people who are screaming can't hear you scream.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: After a Long Wait, Carpenter Delivers
Review: The hard truth is that it's been tough to be a John Carpenter fan for the past decade or so.

Sure we remember that this the guy who gave us such classics as "Assault on Precinct 13," "Halloween," "Escape From New York," and "The Thing." Even his box office disappointments("Big Trouble In Little China", "They Live") were still better and more interesting than just about anything else to hit multiplex screens during his glory years of the mid-seventies through eighties.

But by the early 1990s, Carpenter hit a slump that saw him cranking out one schlock film after another. Think of "In the Mouth of Madness" or "Vampires."

For this reason, I was more than a little skeptical when "Ghosts of Mars" hit theaters last summer. Even aside from J.C.'s recent track record, the film seemed a pastiche of other pop culture sources like "Pitch Black," Ray Bradbury's "The Martian Chronicles, and even Carpenter's own "Precinct 13." But my curiosity got the better of me and I decided to take a chance.

My verdict? Forget all the negative hype about this film. It's the movie Carpenter fans have been waiting for.

Granted the film isn't the least bit scary. It also doesn't ponder any weighty philosophical or political questions, like some of Carpenter's earlier films. What it does offer however is a thoroughly entertaining sci-fi action pic that delivers plenty of ass-kickin' action with Carpenter's trademark cynicism thrown in to boot.

I won't rehash the plot, since odds are you've already read the summary above. Instead, I'll focus on some other things I liked about this film, like the cast. I'll believe Ice Cube is a great actor when I see him convincingly play a brain surgeon, a priest, or something other than another variation of the same scowling bad ass he played in his debut film, "Boyz In the Hood" years ago. Still when a scowling badass is what you want, this rapper is your man and his persona(he basically plays himself in every movie) serves him well here.

As for Natasha Henstridge, no matter what she does she'll probably always be thought of as "The babe from the 'Species' movies." But the script smartly plays off her "hottie" status, by having her cop deftly fend off sexual advances from both her female commanding officer(Pam Grier) and her fellow officer(Jason Statham). She's smart as a whip and tough as nails.

The supporting cast, is also full of interesting picks, Statham and Clea Duvall are two of my favorite character actors and 70s-film goddess Grier is always fun to watch though I wish she had more to do here.

Also worth noting is the action. It's been years, since Carpenter did a balls-out action film, and it looks like this script really got his juices flowing. The action scenes here just flat out rock.

Lastly, though the film's overall storyline is nothing special or inventive it's biggest asset is that it does succeed in drawing the viewer in. After watching this movie, I found myself wanting to know more about these characters, about the true nature of the film's "Martians," and about the matriarchal human society that came to rule the red planet.

Though the film's dissappointing performance at the box offices puts the prospects of a sequel in doubt, I have to say it would be more than a little interesting to revisit the characters and story elements introduced here.

I only saw the film in the theatre so I cannot comment on the DVD release. However, the extras listed here pretty much guarantees that I will buy it at some point in the near future although I have only one quibble: Why no Ice Cube commentary?

Bottom line though, this movie is really a must for JC fans and anyone who likes the sci-fi action genre. John Carpenter is back and back in fine form.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Hopefully, this will gain a big following in the future.
Review: Most of John Carpenter's movies aren't well received initially, but have eventually gone on to a higher status. I think the same will be said for Ghosts of Mars, an action-packed thriller set on the red planet. Basically, it's about a group of cops who team up with criminals to take on hundreds of martian-possessed zombies. There's action and gore galore, a lot of good humor. Best part is probably the big battle in the center of the town. Definitely the weakest aspects are the cheesy CGI and the heavy metal soundtrack. Otherwise, this is Carpenter's best since In the Mouth of Madness.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This movie kicks ASS!
Review: This movie is the best movie! I give it 5 stars because i saw it when it went to theatres and i loved it!
My favourite part was when they all ran into the street and they shot them all. My stupid sister was afraid of it though!
They are gonna make a 2nd one and i know cuz at the end there is the ghosts and ice cube hands the girl a gun and says "time to stay alive!"

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Not Garbage
Review: Many dont appreciate the true beauty of this film. I would call it nothing less than a spectacular movie. Natasha Hendridge and Ice Cube were trully the perfect pick to portray the characters. The world needed this film. COnsidereing, that the time while it was in theatres, there was Tomb Raiders and Pearl Harbor, this trully magnificent film is great. Maybe John Carpenter should have considered letting more of the semi main characters live. You really dont know who the main characters were until the very end. I suggest buying this movie. Even after the 10th time you ve seen it, its just as good as the first.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: WTF?????????????????????
Review: Glad I RENTED this steaming pile! How can a studio make money on this tripe????????????

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Would someone please get John Carpenter a BRAIN???
Review: This is probably the dumbest, most idiotic attempt at a Sci-fi movie in the last 10 years. To start, the script is stupid: every major decision that could cause the characters trouble is usually made as a device to keep the plot (as little as there is!!!) going. How little? Well, just imagine a five minute plotline padded into 90 minutes. I regret this movie stole this time from my life!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Is it possible to give less than one star?
Review: When I bought this I knew it was going to be bad. I was hoping for Night of the Living Dead II bad or The People Under the Stairs bad. You know, the cheesy scary flick that is still great because of the humor or just being so bad it's good. Well unfortunately this movie is not so bad it's good and it isn't humorous, although it is laughable. This movie gets my stinker of the year. Every year there is one movie in my collection that I'm ashamed to admit I've watched it and even more so to admit that I own it. Well for 2001 Ghosts of Mars is it.

The special effects are a joke. In fact there really aren't any. A couple of explosions and that's about it. The fight scenes are photographed poorly. You can see punches being thrown and passing by a face by more than a foot. The sound is absolutely horrible. I can't even recall a movie where the sound track was noticeable. It's generally just something that goes along with the movie. Only when it is extremely bad does it stick out in my mind. My wife even commented on it while we were watching the movie. The sound track resembles a 13 year old metal head that just learned a riff on his guitar and plays it over and over 24 hours a day. It is very bad. The sound quality is bad. Speech is so low it is almost inaudible in many parts but doesn't matter because they aren't saying anything worth listening to anyway. If the sound is turned up to the point speech is understandable as soon as somebody opens a door or fires a gun, the neighbors will be calling the cops on you. The sound was poorly engineered to say the least.

In a nut shell this movie just plain stinks. It isn't scary. It isn't suspenseful. It isn't humorous. The bottom line; it isn't entertaining - at all. Life is too short. Do yourself a favor and miss this incredibly weak excuse for a movie.


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