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Editorial Reviews
From John Carpenter, the master of horror behind 1998's hit John Carpenter's Vampires and classics like The Thing and Halloween, comes a sci-fi thriller full of explosive action and bone-chilling suspense. Natasha Henstridge (Species) is Melanie Ballard, a headstrong police lieutenant on Mars in the year 2025. Humans have been colonizing and mining on the red planet for some time, but when Ballard and her squad are sent to a remote region to apprehend the dangerous criminal James "Desolation" Williams, played by Ice Cube (Three Kings), they discover that he's the least of their worries. The mining operations have unleashed a deadly army of Martian spirits who take over the bodies of humans and won't stop until they destroy all invaders of their planet. With a stellar cast including Pam Grier (Jackie Brown), Jason Statham (Snatch) and Clea Duvall (The Faculty), as well as explosive special effects, John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars is an intergalactic terror fest like you've never seen.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 20 people found the following review helpful
By S. Harris
Format:DVD
It's John Carpenter, so what does everyone expect? I know what I expected, and "Ghosts of Mars" pretty much delivered. Thudding sound track, B-movie dialogue, heads on stakes, "Road Warrior" like zanies with metal sticking out of their faces stalking the "good" guys. Bring on the popcorn. Then there's a humorous twist. The "guys" in this future world live in a Matriarchy. Guys make the coffee, defer to the women, but also are told to deal with mechanical problems when they arise. (Well, at least the "breeder" - Jason Statham as Jericho - does.) Carpenter works all kinds of little jokes into the script on this wrinkle alone. Natasha Henstridge as the tough cop hero, and Ice Cube, as the con hero, are serviceable - and they know when to shoot, kick, and punch. And that's all that's needed here. I don't know who the main Martian is (he looks like Marilyn Manson in Kabuki), but he's perfect! Four stars for operating well within genre.
17 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars has pretty much everything I'm looking for in a Horror film. A barely plausible storyline, Wisconsin-French dialogue (Cheez-ay!), non-stop action, gore, eye candy (Natasha "Shoulda Got Naked Like She Did in Species" Henstridge), and a killer soundtrack.
"Whatever used to live here we woke it up."
The cast is great, Ice Cube as Desolation Williams and Mrs. Henstridge as Melanie Ballard are awesome in their roles. Pam Grier has a head supporting role, and her best line is "Who goes there?" which is a sly nod from Carpenter to his insane masterpiece The Thing (based on the story Who Goes There?).
Decapitations, body mutilations, an angry army of Martian Ghost Zombies and plenty of jolts make this a worthy 98 minute diversion. Watching this you can just tell that everyone was enjoying the hell out of making the film. Which is the best part about seeing a Carpenter movie, you know that big studio tampering was either kept to a minimum or eliminated altogether. A masterful mix of sci-fi and horror that seems destined to become a cult favorite, just like John Carpenter.
Any fan of no brainer popcorn flicks should check this movie out.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Despite the basically unexplained absurdity of the whole storyline, Ghosts of Mars is a pretty entertaining film to watch, what with all of the explosions, gun battles, decapitations, and bare-fisted brawls riding the crests of John Carpenter's hard-driving musical score. Sure, it takes a little while to put the characters in place and set the Martian scene for us, but once the gauntlet drops, it's pretty much on. You don't need a lot of character development in an action thriller like this one because you know most of the characters you meet aren't going to survive in the end, anyway. I do have to deduct some points for the whole flashback business, though. It's bad enough that the bulk of the film is presented as a flashback, but when you start putting flashbacks inside your flashbacks, I've got to stop you right there and call Shenanigans. Flashbacks within flashbacks should be the sole province of fifth-year, we've-run-out-of-ideas sit-coms.
It's the year 2176 and man has established a strong presence on Mars, setting up mining colonies all over the increasingly terra-formed planet. Society is set up along matriarchal lines, which should be interesting but isn't because the story just throws that out there and does nothing with it. It certainly does nothing to stop the practice of male sexism because Sgt. Jericho Butler (Jason Statham, who always brings plenty of action to the party) spends most of his time (when he's not fighting for his life, of course), trying to get into the 22nd century knickers of his superior officer Lt. Melanie Ballard (Natasha Henstridge). Ballard and Jericho are part of a quintet of cops dispatched to a remote post to pick up a prisoner and bring him back for trial. This isn't just any prisoner, though; no, this is the formidable Desolation Williams (Ice Cube), a dangerous but as of yet thrice-acquitted murderer now accused of slaughtering six people. When the cops arrive, they are disconcerted to find a virtual ghost town. Williams is still secured in his cell, but most everyone else in town is hanging upside down, sans head, in one building or another. We already know from the early minutes of the film that Ballard is the only person to make it back to base camp (a fact which robs the movie of a great deal of potential suspense); what we don't know is what happened out there - and that doesn't become perfectly clear until the end of the movie.
Natasha Henstridge doesn't really do a lot for me, but she was pretty good in this film (although some of the scenes wherein she shows her authority and general toughness rang a little hollow). She's not your ideal cop, and that makes her character more interesting - especially when everything hits the fan and she's forced to seriously change tactics in an attempt to survive. I thought Ice Cube was great; his is really the most interesting character in the film, and even Jason Statham can't match him in the "one tough hombre" department. For their part, the "ghosts of Mars" aren't impressive at all, and their minions (whom they "possess") look like a huge gang of WWE rejects trying to channel The Crow. They are evil and relentless (not to mention ugly), though, which pretty much guarantees that all of the fight and battle scenes are going to be fiercely waged. Their little flying body slicers are particularly effective at disarming (and sometimes even "dis-heading") their victims.
Basically, Ghosts of Mars is more of an action movie that just so happens to take place on Mars than it is a makes-you-think kind of science fiction offering. If you're not into relatively bloody action movies, you probably won't enjoy this film very much.
It's the year 2176 and man has established a strong presence on Mars, setting up mining colonies all over the increasingly terra-formed planet. Society is set up along matriarchal lines, which should be interesting but isn't because the story just throws that out there and does nothing with it. It certainly does nothing to stop the practice of male sexism because Sgt. Jericho Butler (Jason Statham, who always brings plenty of action to the party) spends most of his time (when he's not fighting for his life, of course), trying to get into the 22nd century knickers of his superior officer Lt. Melanie Ballard (Natasha Henstridge). Ballard and Jericho are part of a quintet of cops dispatched to a remote post to pick up a prisoner and bring him back for trial. This isn't just any prisoner, though; no, this is the formidable Desolation Williams (Ice Cube), a dangerous but as of yet thrice-acquitted murderer now accused of slaughtering six people. When the cops arrive, they are disconcerted to find a virtual ghost town. Williams is still secured in his cell, but most everyone else in town is hanging upside down, sans head, in one building or another. We already know from the early minutes of the film that Ballard is the only person to make it back to base camp (a fact which robs the movie of a great deal of potential suspense); what we don't know is what happened out there - and that doesn't become perfectly clear until the end of the movie.
Natasha Henstridge doesn't really do a lot for me, but she was pretty good in this film (although some of the scenes wherein she shows her authority and general toughness rang a little hollow). She's not your ideal cop, and that makes her character more interesting - especially when everything hits the fan and she's forced to seriously change tactics in an attempt to survive. I thought Ice Cube was great; his is really the most interesting character in the film, and even Jason Statham can't match him in the "one tough hombre" department. For their part, the "ghosts of Mars" aren't impressive at all, and their minions (whom they "possess") look like a huge gang of WWE rejects trying to channel The Crow. They are evil and relentless (not to mention ugly), though, which pretty much guarantees that all of the fight and battle scenes are going to be fiercely waged. Their little flying body slicers are particularly effective at disarming (and sometimes even "dis-heading") their victims.
Basically, Ghosts of Mars is more of an action movie that just so happens to take place on Mars than it is a makes-you-think kind of science fiction offering. If you're not into relatively bloody action movies, you probably won't enjoy this film very much.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Sci-Fi
We really enjoyed this movie. You have a large variety of now top actors & some old ones with a few sprinkled in. Read more
Published 5 days ago by Debra Eileen Hurst
5.0 out of 5 stars
great si fy
great movie, the actors are great and the special effects are awsome. the movie is great on my 500 watt stero
Published 25 days ago by mitchell
2.0 out of 5 stars
Good? Bad? It's John Carpenter so take your pick
It's a fine line when deciding which John Carpenter movies are bad or good. I've seen most of his movies, and there's a fun mix of both elements to most of them, with the "bad"... Read more
Published 1 month ago by T. Obermiller
2.0 out of 5 stars
Tool concert on Mars
If Marilyn Manson and Gwar fans held a Tool concert on Mars, and it was turned into a made-for-Syfy movie, you would have "Ghosts of Mars". Read more
Published 4 months ago by R. Beach
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent "C" movie.
My wife and I found it boring when we saw it in the theatre. But it's better on the small screen, so that I have done a wargame based upon it.
Published 5 months ago by Ken Hafer
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Must SEE if you like "BAD" futuristic sci-fi movies
I enjoy Jason Statham and Ice Cube movies. Them together along with Natasha Henstridge(from Species) and Pam Grier(Jackie Brown) in this Road Warriors meets Dawn of the Dead bloody... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Joy
3.0 out of 5 stars
Zombies on Mars?
I had heard of this movie for some time and saw it for the first time last night. The movie was both interesting and disappointing; interesting in the sense that I was curious what... Read more
Published 9 months ago by David Bower
5.0 out of 5 stars
Scary Gory Fun!
John Carpenter delivers another scary gory film with a cheese factor but is still fun enough to qualify as B movie matierial! Read more
Published 10 months ago by Dj Swizzy
2.0 out of 5 stars
I have to be honest. This movie was horrible.
When I watched this movie I was in the mood to watch a movie with good acting and good action sequences, I got bad acting and lame action sequences.
Published 10 months ago by riptorn
5.0 out of 5 stars
Too terrible NOT to watch
This is the BEST budget flick I have ever seen. Merely because the amount of money that they clearly saved in the production of this movie is imminent by such a horrendous set and... Read more
Published 10 months ago by CountryGirl
