Review by Dan Taylor
It
takes a special kind of director to create
an homage to himself. But that's pretty
much what John Carpenter has done with GHOSTS
OF MARS, also known as JOHN CARPENTER'S
GHOSTS OF MARS, but writing that just seems
tacky.
Carpenter, of course, is the
man who has helmed such classics in the
horror, sci-fi, and action genres as HALLOWEEN,
THE THING, THEY LIVE, ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK,
etc. His recent efforts have been spotty
at best, with the dreary PRINCE OF DARKNESS,
the silly ESCAPE FROM LA, and the rousing
but somewhat un-Carpenteresque VAMPYRES.
With GHOSTS OF MARS it's nice to see the
ol' master hitting his stride again.
Set on a dusty, red-tinged
Martian outpost, GOM picks up elements from
flicks throughout JC's career, including
the son of a bitch with a soul (ESCAPE FROM
NEW YORK), the jail under siege (ASSAULT
ON PRECINCT 13), the ticking bomb (also
ESCAPE), and the sneaky, invisible villain
that takes possession of the group members
(PRINCE OF DARKNESS). Rapper Ice Cube gets
top-billed as "Desolation" Williams,
a prisoner awaiting transfer who must decide
if he's gonna side with the cops in order
to have a fighting chance. Natasha Henstridge
(SPECIES, MAXIMUM
RISK) is the Mars Police Force cop who
relates the flick's framework story after
she's discovered unconscious and handcuffed
on an abandoned freight train. Everybody
else is FDA (Future Dead of America, or
should that be Mars?), but we have fun getting
there.
Yes, GHOSTS OF MARS is a check
your brain at the door action-sci-fi flick
loaded with hand-to-hand combat, a bushelful
of decapitations and assorted hackings.
Yes, it's essentially a futuristic western
set on Mars. And just what the hell is wrong
with that?
Given my choice of rappers
I'd probably rather have seen Ice-T in the
lead role (Cube comes off as a bit cherubic
and stiff early on), but the former NWA
member warms up to the role as the flick
progresses and has fun – along with
the audience – in the last 20 minutes.
In a summer filled with surprises
(FAST AND THE FURIOUS, CATS
& DOGS) and stupendous disappointments
(THE OTHERS, PLANET OF THE APES), GHOSTS
OF MARS is a welcome, message-free way to
spend an evening.
