John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars

Rating:
Summary: HORRIBLE
Review: This movie is the absolute WORST movie I have seen all summer. Over half the audience walked out within the first 30 minutes. If you are thinking of watching this movie, DON'T. Horrible acting, fight scenes, concepts, everything.

Rating:
Summary: You Will LOVE This Movie If...
Review: 1 - You are a male between the ages of 8 and 13 2 - Your view of sophisticated entertainment reaches a zenith with the likes of bad comic books 3 - You own the soundtrack to every John Carpenter movie Otherwise, forget it. Everything about this movie is lousy, with the possible exception of the "landscape" of Mars (if you can call it that). The plot (No, I don't think that word applies either.) involves a police force going to transfer a dangerous prisoner (Ice Cube) back to court from a detention area. The detention area has been overrun by people who have been possessed by evil Martian spirits. If you can come up with this story (or one nearly as good), you can write a John Carpenter script. John Carpenter never made great movies, but he made some pretty good ones: 'Halloween,' 'Starman,' even 'The Thing' was pretty good. Those movies had some stories and characters that you could actually believe in, and sometimes some okay dialogue. If you're expecting that from 'Ghosts of Mars,' forget all about it. I felt like I was looking at a bad comic book with one-dimensional characters in ridiculous situations. If you go to see it, leave your mind at home. You won't have much of one left otherwise.

Rating:
Summary: Great for any J.C. fan, but other's might give it "one star"
Review: This movie has action, gore, and terrible dialogue. I LOVE IT! This is a John Carpenter movie. It has some of the paranoia of "The Thing" mixed with the cheesy dialogue of "Escape from LA" and "Vampires", and the styling of a Marilyn Manson video. The movie is terribly good. If you didn't like "Vampires", then you probably won't like this. (The last line of dialogue is so painful, that only the strongest stomachs will be able to handle it.) If you get John Carpenter's style and humor that he's had the past ten years, you might really enjoy Ghost on Mars Ice Cube was great. He needs to be the next Kurt Russell. This is just dumb fun. Like "Prince of Darkness", only not as sinister. Don't take the film too seriously, and you might like it. I did!

Rating:
Summary: Great for any J.C. fan, but other's might give it "one star"
Review: This movie has action, gore, and terrible dialogue. I LOVE IT! This is a John Carpenter movie. It's like the paranoia of "The Thing" mixed with the cheesy dialogue of "Escape from LA" and "Vampires", and the styling of a Marilyn Manson video. The movie is terribly good. If you didn't like "Vampires", then you probably won't like this. (The last line of dialogue is so painful, that only the strongest stomachs will be able to handle it.) If you get John Carpenter's style and humor that he's had the past ten years, you might really enjoy Ghost on Mars. Ice Cube was great. He needs to be the next Kurt Russell. This is just dumb fun. Like "Prince of Darkness", only not as sinister. Don't take the film too seriously, and you might like it. I did!

Rating:
Summary: Action, Violence, Comedy make Ghosts one of Carpenters Best!
Review: Before I start I cannot stress enough the importance of not listening to "professional" critics about any films of the horror genre, and especially Carpenter`s films. He is my all-time favorite director so of course I went and saw this film against the consent of the "critics", 3 times already. This film has it all, the sexy Natasha Henstridge, the regular Carpenter patented anti-hero Ice Cube, and a very funny and cool Jason Stratham. This film has tons of over the top gore, moreso than Vampires. Big Daddy Mars is the coolest bad guy ever in a film with his huge body, mangled face, and sharpened teeth. The action scenes are incredibly fast-paced gunfights with lots of blood, guts and explosions and to accompany these over-the-top battles is a great heavy-metal score composed by John Carpenter and Anthrax to add more energy to the already explosive scene. The zombie-like ghosts look incredibly cool with all types of decorative nails and metallic pieces pushed into their faces and bodies. the makeup is absolutely incredible for what it is. Also there is no cheesy drawn out "noooooo" deaths in the film when the characters get rubbed out, the other characters move on. And the ending is great being somewhat downbeat but positive at the same time. The acting is far better than reviewed by the likes of terrible newspapers as USA Today. Carpenter made an action/sci-fi/horror movie for people to enjoy, he wasn`t trying to win an oscar. Possibly being his last film as he has planned to retire, I say this is a film of his, right up there with Big Trouble in Little China and the Thing. Being one of his best films by my standards, a horror/scifi lover I say screw the critics and see this one if you want a fun time, and are a action/horror film lover. Good Job Carpenter!

Rating:
Summary: Ghosts of Mars:coming to video very, very soon
Review: The premise is interesting: The previous inhabitants of mars didn't die out, they merely went dormant, and the humans terraforming has given them the environment they need to rise up once more. Unfortunately there are a bunch of developments that seem to contradict the premise, and are never explained. 1: In a flashback, the martians are vaguely humanoid: I can see dormant bacteria, but not dormant bipeds. 2: We changed our minds. The martians aren't dormant, they're really just locked underground, behind a door buried under layers of natural rock. 3: The martians, in the present day form, are no longer bipeds, they just look like red mist. This transformation is never explained, in fact, nothing of the martian culture is ever revealed, although a propensity for violence is suggested. The social life of the martians seems to involve self-mutilation, a lot of shouting and chanting, and mindless feeding-frenzy style killing of colonists. The hand to hand combat was pretty good, but the martians come off as so mindless and with such pitiful kung fu skills compared to the colonists, its not really satisfying. The martians fight like ( and look like ) bad b-movie zombies: brainless, relentless, and uncoordinated.

Rating:
Summary: Carpenter fans beware
Review: I just got back from seeing Ghosts of Mars at my local theater. Unfortunately. I am all but convinced that John Carpenter has totally lost the film making skill that once established him as the true "master of terror". This film has few interesting moments and I actually started to fall asleep a couple of times. Let me start by commenting on the only thing I enjoyed during this 90 minute attrocity. I enjoyed seeing Carpenter return to his roots in the form of stalking camera shots similar to those he used in his utter masterpiece Halloween. The posession theme prominent in the plot combined with the POV/stalking camera shots reminded me alot of Sam Raimi's classic Evil Dead series (only nowhere near as great). The rest of the movie, however, is a (thankfully) short and dissapointing effort. There was one scene where Desolation (Ice Cube) wasn't sure if Natasha Henridge was possessed or not. This, I felt, was a strong nod to Carpenter's 1982 remake of THE THING, and I wonder if the screenplay for "Ghosts" was nothing more than an intended THING sequel that carpenter ended up scrapping and piecing together again in the form of GHOSTS OF MARS to pay the rent. Ice Cube is horrible and the dialogue is even worse. Hopefully us horror fans will have something to look forward to in the upcoming genre films Jeepers Creepers, From Hell, House of 1000 Corpses, Halloween 8, Soul Survivors, Brotherhood of the Wolf, and Jason X.

Rating:
Summary: COME ON!
Review: whats wrong with some of you ppl?. what did you expect? its a JOHN CARPENTER movie...you cant take it seriously!! all these bad reviews everywhere...all dissecting and nitpicking at details. PLEASE!! this movie was FUN.so what if a few things didnt make a whole lotta sense? he's not making Shindlers List here. his movies arent made to be analyzed (excapt maybe THE THING) they're made to passthe time and entertain you for 2 hrs. Look at most of his other movies. sure, they all have some 'cheesy' aspects..but thats his style. if youlike John Carpenter movies, then you should enjoy this one. his real fans will 'get it' even if most snobby movie-critic wannabe's DONT

Rating:
Summary: Cool!!
Review: I just Saw this movie and it is the best movie i've seen all year in theaters, I liked it alot becausee i'm a John Carpenter fan but even if I wasnt I would have still liked it. This movie succesfully combines sc-fi,horror, and action to create a movie that you just cant stop watching. Even though John Carpenters movies have been panned for the last couple years dont listen to the critics exceptt for me! this is a great movie.

Rating:
Summary: Not For Everyone
Review: I saw this movie the day it came out, I was let down a little but not much. I have high expectations for Carpenters films but this one really wasnt nething great. The cast was not very fit for the part. Ice Cube was good mainly because i like him in all his movies, but Natasha Henstridge was not very good at all. Other than being gorgeous she ins't a very good actress, I think they should have kept Courtney Love in the movie. The plot was different form the other mars movies that have come out lately but it had elements of his other movies, like Assault on presicnt 13. But all in all it was good the action was good the possesed people were great and the leader was good but they should have explained him more. For the most part the characters were unlikeable and due to the beginning of the film you can tell who survives. All in all a good movie, but those who are looking for something mind-blowing look elsewhere.