Subject: Review: Ghosts of Mars (2001)

From: Robin Clifford <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 02:27:12 -0000

"Ghosts of Mars"

It's 175 years into the future and Mars is colonized by over ½ million
Earthlings. To ensure order on the pioneer planet terrestrial laws apply
and are enforced vigorously by the MPF (Mars Police Force). When an
unmanned trained arrives from a far flung mining station, the only one
aboard, handcuffed, is Lt. Melanie Ballard (Natasha Henstridge), and she
has a horrifying story to tell her superiors in John Carpenter's "Ghosts of
Mars."

The lieutenant was second in command on a team sent to bring in James
"Desolation" Williams (Ice Cube), the red planet's most notorious criminal.
Desolation is being held at Shining Canyon mining station, but when the
cops arrive, they find the place deserted except for those held in the
fortified confines of the local jail. Commander Helena Braddock (Pam Grier)
splits up her crew, sending Ballard and two troopers, Kincaid and Descanso
(Clea Duvall and Liam Waite), to locate Williams. Braddock and
smart-mouthed Sergeant Jericho (Jason Statham) reconnoiter the compound and
find some of the colony's inhabitants - headless corpses hung upside down
in a gruesome, ritualistic display.

The cause of the slaughter is soon apparent when Braddock spots the
remaining miners, possessed by some force that has rendered them inhuman.
Self-mutilation is the norm for these creatures, led by a Marilyn Manson
wannabee, Big Daddy Mars (Richard Cetrone), and the creepy critters are out
for blood. The beleaguered cops and the few still-human survivors of the
colony must battle the vicious monster of Mars until the train that took
them into Shining Canyon returns. It's kill or be killed, or worse, be
possessed by the ghosts of the distant planet.

"Ghost of Mars" is meat and potatoes filmmaking. John Carpenter is known,
of late, for some truly hack work, like "Escape from LA" and the
presumptuously titles "John Carpenter's Vampires." With "Ghosts" the helmer
works from a script co-written with Larry Sulkis and tells a fairly
conventional cops against the bad guys. Setting it on Mars gives it
ready-made sci-fi status, but it is, still, a routine survival story.

Natasha Henstridge is not bad as the veteran Mars copper. She is too pretty
and well made up for the character and is too Hollywood looking, but she
acquits herself with the physical moves required.  Ice Cube has done the
same sullen tough guy character too many times and, while likable in a
punch-you-in-the-face way, it's a carbon copy perf we've seen before. Jason
Statham, with his Cockney accent and insouciant ways, makes himself notable
and should get more work after "Ghosts of Mars." Blaxploitation icon Pam
Grier is, sadly, used up very quickly and loses her head early on. Almost
everyone else is alien fodder, including the aliens.

Techs aren't as cheesy as in "Escape from LA," but there is an
artificiality to the whole thing that never lets you forget you are
watching a movie. The story goes through its paces with the requisite
explosions, machine gun fire and alien butt kicked as the steadily
dwindling number of humans try to get away from the possessing Martians.
The last moments of the end of the film give rise to the possibility of a
sequel, if the box office numbers are good. I give it a C.

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X-Language: en
X-RT-ReviewID: 246486
X-RT-TitleID: 1109551
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X-RT-RatingText: C