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Ghost of Mars (2001)

 
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Bogmeister
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 21, 2019 10:18 am    Post subject: Ghost of Mars (2001) Reply with quote



In most ways, this was a rehash of previous Carpenter films and themes — the small group of short-tempered anti-heroes fighting a larger threatening force with a lot of gunplay in the tradition of a western. So, transplanting the action to Mars doesn't really lend a fresh approach to it all.

It's the year 2176 and Mars is 84% through being terraformed, so this is different from the recent spate of sci-fi pics on Mars (Mission to Mars, Red Planet) in that humans can walk around without spacesuits. For whatever reason, Carpenter has made this society a matriarchy. There are already about 640,000 colonists on Mars.

Most of the film is a flashback. Natasha Henstridge plays the lone survivor of some unknown tragedy who returns to the main city of Chryse in a train on automatic mode. She's a lieutenant in the police force, 2nd-in-command and part of a team that had been sent to a small mining town in Shining Canyon to pick up a prisoner, the infamous Desolation Williams (Ice Cube).


_____________ Ghosts of Mars (2001) - Trailer


__________



A team led by a captain (Pam Grier), Sgt. Jericho (Jason Statham), and a couple of rookies (Clea Duvall, Liam Waite) find the town to be mysteriously deserted except for Williams and a few prisoners.

They also find some bodies hanging from ceilings, as well as some heads on spikes. Eventually they learn the backstory from one of the prisoners, a manager (Joanna Cassidy) who had fled a mining operation in the next town. She'd uncovered a hidden tomb and released something which had been hibernating dormant for untold years.

It turns out to be the spirits of the Martians who had inhabited Mars before humans arrived. This usually manifests as a red mist, but (somewhat inconsistently) such evil spirits can also be invisible. They enter humans, usually through the ear, and possess them.

Based on how such possessed humans then behave, these Martians must have been truly barbaric — those possessed mutilate themselves in a perverse ritual and they're only interested in savage killing. The cops need to team up with Williams and his 3 brothers-in-arms to effect an escape.


____________ Jason Statham in Ghosts of Mars


__________


Desolation Williams is Carpenter's retread of Snake Plissken in this one, though he's not quite Plissken — and Ice Cube is not quite Kurt Russell.

Natasha Henstridge was interesting in a role which usually would have been male, and her action scenes aren't bad because she does look bigger & tougher than the usual 100 lb. females who kick ass in these sorts of films. But the tone, style, and even the musical score is often a repeat of Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13 (76), The Fog (1980), Escape From New York (1981) and a couple of others.

Some of the action set pieces are virtual remakes of such scenes in the earlier films. And it all gets repetitive by the final act.

Also, Carpenter made Duvall's character a complete fool to facilitate some plot turns, such as turning Williams loose and then killing a possessed prisoner so that Henstridge would get possessed temporarily. The story's flashback structure — including flashbacks within the main flashback, and sometimes going backwards a short ways in the story — resulted in a choppy, inelegant narrative.

BoG's Score: 6 out of 10

Ghosts of Trivia: In small roles as the train operators, Carpenter regular Peter Jason and Robert Carradine. As the chief female executive interrogating Henstridge — Rosemary Forsyth. This was a box office failure, grossing only half its budget, and Carpenter, burnt out, quit Hollywood for a decade after this.



BoG
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 21, 2019 10:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

I haven't seen this movie, and based on BoG's review, I can't say I'm very tempted to do so. Does anybody want to say something in defense of the movie that might make me more inclined to watch it? Confused

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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2020 1:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

IMDB has several interesting trivia items for this production. Very Happy
________________________________

~ In a 2011 interview, John Carpenter stated he was intentionally trying to make Ghosts Of Mars as over-the-top and tongue-in-cheek as possible.

He claimed he was trying to make a mindless and silly, yet highly entertaining and thrilling, action flick where "the universe allows its characters and plot points to be silly without being full-fledged comedies", akin to 80's movies like Commando (1985), Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985), and Predator (1987).

Looking back on the film and its criticism, he stated he was frustrated that most people thought the film was meant to be a serious horror movie, and feels that he should've made the film more openly comedic and "in on the joke", saying "...it's called Ghosts Of Mars for Christ's sake, why would people take this movie seriously?"


Note from me: I'm tempted to watch this movie and find out if "my correctly adjusted expectations" will allow me to enjoy it.

~ Much of the location shooting was done on a gypsum mine near Albuquerque, New Mexico. The gypsum, which is almost pure white, was sprayed with a biodegradable red food dye to give the appearance of a Martian landscape.

Note from me: This seems pretty clever. Very Happy

~ The script was originally written as a sequel to Escape from New York (1981)/Escape from L.A. (1996), with the character Snake Plissken as the prisoner, but Paramount wouldn't back it as such due to the financial and critical failure of EFLA. Plissken was therefore rewritten as Desolation Williams.

Note from me: Lordy me, what a name for a character@

~ In a 2006 interview, Ice Cube nominated this as the worst movie he had appeared in, calling it "unwatchable in many ways. John Carpenter really let us down with the special effects on that one - it looked like something out of a film from 1979".

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Krel
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2020 9:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Originally Jason Statham was hired to play James "Desolation" Williams, but was replaced by Ice Cube, as the studio felt J.S. was not well known enough to draw people in.

Personally, I never bought Ice Cube as a the feared Desolation Williams. To me he looked like a Teddy Bear.

I remember reading that Natasha Henstridge replaced Courtney Love after Ms. Love's boyfriend's ex-wife ran over her foot with her car, breaking it. I've also read that, that was a cover story to conceal some personal problems.

David.
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tmlindsey
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 10, 2023 4:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
I haven't seen this movie... Does anybody want to say something in defense of the movie that might make me more inclined to watch it? Confused

No.

Laughing
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