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| Ghosts of Mars |
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  (5/10)
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Runtime: 98 m |
| Public Rating: 7.29 (7 votes) |
Director: John Carpenter |
MPAA Rating:  |
| Genre: Horror/Action |
Year: 2001 |
| Writer(s): Larry Sulkis, John Carpenter |
| Reviewed by: Arturo García Lasca |
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Once again I find myself in a possition where I don't know exactly how to critisize this film. Many people call Carpenter the "master of horror" and say his previous work was very good, etc.; but I've only seen his '98 "Vampires" and 01's "Ghosts of Mars", and neither was very good, so I, not wanting to trash Mr. Carpenter, will assume he is in a bad streak, and hope he will get this current 'slump' and make a cool horror flick.
It all starts when a train being driven by the auto-pilot arrives to a station in Mars with only one passenger, officer Melanie Ballad. Melanie then starts telling what happened in the place she and some other people priviously were, and the whole film is developed like that, in a flashback. Melanie (Natasha Henstridge) along with a group of officers that includes two rookies, Jericho (Jason Statham) and Descanso (Liam Waite), Bashira (Clea DuVall) and major Braddock (Pam Grier) are supossed to transport a dangerous prissoner charged with the murder of several people, although he says he didn't do it.
To make it quick, here's what happened next, without spoiling it, of course: They find that the station in Mars (where the prissoner is) is empty, they find some bodies, and a group of extrange looking people (a bit mutated people) are killing every human they see. They find a doctor (played by Joanna Cassidy) who has a theory about what's going on, and it seems pretty damn violent and dangerous, so they have to team up with the prissoner, James "Desolation" Williams (Ice Cube), in order to stay alive; that's where the action begins.
That's basically it. I think it could have been much better, they had enough material, but it wasn't put together in the best way. The movie is rather slow at start and it takes several minutes until something actually happens. I believe they had a nice story in mind, you don't really need an oscar-winning story to make a good horror/action flick, Mars and the Ghosts were enough, but it felt as if the film lacked both, some horror and some action.
But the action it had was OK, as in all Carpenter's films (at least the ones I've seen) the killings are always gory (not to the point where it gets disgusting) and entertaining, but the bad guys could have been better, I'd have liked to see them throwing in some funny lines in english. The acting was OK for this type of film, Ice Cube had the same facial expression all the time, that Natasha girl did a good job (just by being hot), Jason Statham was a cool -and horny- character, and I'd understand if after watching the film many people wonder why on earth Pam Grier took this role.
I expected it to be better, I don't think it's worth a recommendation.
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