In the future, Mars will be a habitable planet. People will still be committing crimes, and apparently, there will still be ghosts… I guess.
In the later half of the 22nd century Mars is mostly terraformed and habitable by humans with out pressure suits and breathing apparatus. A train returns from a trip, on auto-pilot and with only one passenger. The officer onboard is sent before a council to explain her mission, and what went wrong. Officer Ballard and a small team have been tasked with going to pick up a prisoner for transport from a remote town. It should be a quick and easy mission, but turns out to be one that most of them will not return from.
Officer Ballard explains that she and her team were sent to pick up a dangerous prisoner by the name of Williams, wanted for slaughtering several people in an attempted robbery. When they reach the town where Williams is being held, Ballard and her team discover that all of the towns people are missing, and the miners have gone mad. When they find Williams, he has no info, and the only surviving Doctor explains that the miners have been possessed… possessed by ghosts… ghosts from Mars.
Ghosts of Mars is a movie about people being possessed in space, and it stars Ice Cube. From the moment that this movie starts to show you the cast, including Natasha Henstridge, Ice Cube, Pam Grier, Jason Statham, and … Robert “That guy from Revenge of the Nerds” Carradine. Yup, pretty much says it all right there. Oh and when the good doctor explains how she got to their town, she spins a tale where she arrived and crashed, in a hot air balloon. Seriously. A hot-air balloon… on Mars.
This movie is really close to just being a comedy. Even in space, Ice Cube still acts like a straight up gangsta. By the end of the movie (which attempts to set up a sequel) Ice Cube pops up brandishing a pair fo full chrome space guns. It’s hilarious. The script only adds more to the comedic timing. Possessed miners fling circular saw blades that severe limbs and even heads from great distances. I kept listening for the “Wilhelm Scream” but was disappointed that it never actually showed up.
This could be considered one of John Carpenter’s flops. I really don’t see why this movie was even made. It cost 28 million to be made, and grossed 14 million. I guess it seemed better on paper than it did actually in practice. I commend Carpenter for having the restraint to not put Ice Cube on the soundtrack, but that’s about it. There was so much padding in this film it was hilarious. The bulk of the first hour of the movie was shot two different ways inorder to be told from two different perspectives. It’s not scary, it’s not thrilling, and it isn’t suspenseful. It ends with probably the most obvious set up for a sequel that will never happen. It’s a great watch, if you want to get a bunch of friends together and watch a really dumb movie.
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