Subject: Review: Ghosts of Mars (2001)

From: Jerry Saravia <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2002 23:15:58 -0000

GHOSTS OF MARS (2001)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
February 25th, 2001
RATING: 3 stars

The great John Carpenter film awaits a cinema near you. "Halloween," "Assault on
Precinct 13" and "Starman" were a few stellar examples but mostly we have been
saddled with fascinating experiments like "In The Mouth of Madness," "The Thing"
and grave disappointments like "Prince of Darkness" and "Vampires." And like it
or not, Carpenter knows how to use his resources to stir and entertain when he
does it right. "Ghosts of Mars" is no classic by any stretch of the imagination
but it is a marked improvement over "Vampires" and has some nifty ideas and fun
performances. 

Essentially a western taking place on the planet Mars, we have Lt. Melanie
Ballard (Natasha Henstridge) and other members of a police force including
Commander Helena Braddock (Pam Grier) and Bashira Kincaid (Clea Duvall) as they
travel by train to some mining colony where a supposedly notorious killer,
"Destination" Williams, is being held  (played by Ice Cube, who continues to
surprise me in every film role). Oh, lest we forget there is a male in this
small police force played by Jason Statham ("Snatch") who makes sexual remarks
to Lt. Ballard at his every convenience. Meanwhile, just as Ballard's force is
ready to take Williams and bring him to justice, a force is unleashed that
awakens Martian warriors who love to decapitate humans and shout as loudly as
Ozzy Osbourne. These ghosts have the ability of taking over the minds of the
miners on this colony and all hell breaks loose. Lots of gunfire and karate
kicks ensue. 

"Ghosts of Mars" should not be mistaken for an intellectual sci-fi film but
rather an in-your-face action melodrama with lots of special effects. One of the
best effects scenes takes place when an archaeologist, Professor Whitlock
(Joanna Cassidy), crash lands on the possessed colony in her air balloon. I also
love all the train scenes since they are the quietest scenes in the movie,
allowing us to explore the characters' personalities and interaction. For a
while, the film aims to be a character-oriented update of "Assault on Precinct
13" by way of Howard Hawks's "Rio Bravo" but when the action scenes start, they
take over the movie and become the focus. Nothing wrong with that though I never
really thought of Carpenter as an action director, despite his "Escape to New
York." His talent lies in horror and some scenes inside the mines made me jump.

On a fundamental level, "Ghosts of Mars" is lots of fun to watch and has
commanding actors at the forefront (though I found it cruel to see Duvall and
Grier given such short-shrift in their roles). Henstridge plays a woman of
authority and strong will and Ice Cube gets to show what a continuingly strong
presence he has on screen - both characters could stand on their own as the
leads of a movie. Maybe in the sequel. 

For more reviews, check out JERRY AT THE MOVIES at
http://moviething.com/members/movies/faust/JATMindex.shtml 

E-mail me with any questions, comments or general complaints at
[email-masked] or at [email-masked]

==========
X-RAMR-ID: 31146
X-Language: en
X-RT-ReviewID: 289731
X-RT-TitleID: 1109551
X-RT-SourceID: 875
X-RT-AuthorID: 1314
X-RT-RatingText: 3/4