Ghosts of Mars Reviews

Even though the reviews were pretty poor concerning this flick, since it was directed by John Carpenter, I thought I should check it out anyway. Unfortunately, I would have to agree with the reviews as it is, in my opinion, the worst movie directed by Carpenter in his otherwise illustrious career. From time to time, I came accross some viewers who thinks it is an underrated gem and they are entitled to their own taste but, honestly, I didn't find much to enjoy here. Ok, there was a decent cast (Natasha Henstridge, Ice Cube, Jason Statham, Clea DuVall, Pam Grier, Joanna Cassidy) and the concept had some potential but that's about it. It didn't look good but since it is a B feature, I guess it is inherent to this genre but I thought the story was just really generic and, honestly, it was really tedious to watch. For Carpenter, it was the second disappointing feature in a row (it followed the also terrible 'Vampires'), it was a huge blow for his career and it took him 9 years to make another movie. To conclude, it was rather disappointing and it is not really worth a look, even if you are interested in John Carpenter's work.

A lot of people diss on Ghosts of Mars. Yes, it is a lesser Carpenter, but even a lesser Carpenter is better than a lot of other movies out there of the same ilk. The movie moves at a brisk clip, Nasthasha Henstridge is a reasonable lead and any movie with Pam Grier is usually worth a look.

A very loose sci-fi remake of Attack on Precinct 13 (1976), this movie predates the current zombie cycle (the martian possessed humans might as well be fast zombies). Would make a good a good double feature with Assault on Precinct 13 (duh) or Resident Evil (2002).