Director: John Carpenter
Starring: Natasha Henstridge, Ice Cube, Jason Statham, Clea DuVall, Pam Grier, Robert Carradine, Joanna Cassidy, Richard Cetrone
More info: IMDb
Tagline: You Don't Stand A Ghost Of A Chance
Plot: 200 years in the future a Martian police unit is dispatched to transport a dangerous prisoner from a mining outpost back to justice. But when the team arrives they find the town deserted and some of the inhabitants possessed by the former inhabitants of the planet.
My rating: 4/10 and that's generous
Will I watch it again? Hell, no.
If you told me that this was made by a first time director, I would believe you. It's hard to imagine that John Carpenter, THE John Carpenter, the man behind so many fantastic movies would be capable to making this picture. The writing at times is laughable. It was only last night that I saw this for the first time and I'm still shaking my head. Sure, the special effects are shoddy at times but that doesn't bother me because I realize a budget will only stretch so far but it's the other things that didn't have to be this way like the aforementioned dialogue. You've also got some miscasting like Pam Grier (I adore her but she didn't feel comfortable and a lot of her dialogue was just bad) and Ice Cube for starters. He'd been acting for 10 years so he's got no excuse.
The only bright spot, really was from Jason Statham. Henstrige was fine but I couldn't get past some of the ridiculous lines she had and how she carried herself in the action scenes. Oh, the action. There's one about every 5 minutes once the shit hits the fan (or so it seemed) and the heavy metal score that accompanies it made me laugh it was so repetitive. I've seen most of Carpenters directorial feature films and there's a great deal of them that I really enjoyed the hell out of. I'd like to see him get back on his game and not go out with such a whimper.
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