Movie reviews: “Ghosts Of Mars”

The planet Mars, which fared poorly with critics and audiences alike in its
recent film
appearances (Mars Attacks! , Mission to Mars, Red Planet) is
not doing
much better with John Carpenter’s Ghosts of Mars. “Occasionally
veering into that so-bad-it’s-good category,” Liam Lacey comments in the
Toronto Globe and Mail, “mostly Ghosts of Mars is just so
bad.” Many critics simply found the movie boring. “It’s like a zombie
picture directed by one of the undead,” Elvis Mitchell writes in the New
York Times. “We knew Mars was a dry planet, but this dry?” Jay Carr
remarks in the Boston Globe. Steven Rea in the Philadelphia
Inquirer disagrees — sort of. “While this cheesy, heavy-metal melange
of horror, space hooey and cowboy shoot-’em-ups isn’t exactly dull,” he
concludes, “it isn’t anything to write home about either. In fact, it’s
hardly worth writing a review.”