MovieChat Forums > Ghosts of Mars (2001) Discussion > The last tolerable John Carpenter movie

The last tolerable John Carpenter movie

posted 3 years ago by [deleted]
7 replies | jump to latest

It's not great, but it's clearly a John Carpenter movie, unlike The Ward, which was just like every other 'identity- oriented movie of the early 2000s.

[–] PrimeMinisterX (8859) 3 years ago

I'm sure your statement is true but it feels a lot less impactful knowing that he's only made one movie since Ghosts of Mars. I guess you could turn it around and say: He's only made one bad film since Ghosts of Mars.

I remember going to see GoM in the theater. It was okay. Certainly watchable and interesting. It didn't deserve to be the box office failure that it was.

[–] [deleted] 3 years ago

True. It's amazingly disappointing that we've only gotten one JC movie since Ghosts of Mars. I mean, he can do what he wants, but I have no idea why he wouldn't try to make another movie.

[–] PrimeMinisterX (8859) 3 years ago

I recall seeing an interview with him where he said he was sick of the bullshit that surrounds getting a movie made (especially dealing with studios).

I think he may have also said that he was having some serious issues with his eyesight, or at least was at the time he did that interview.

[–] [deleted] 3 years ago

I'm sure he's not wrong about the bullshit getting a movie made. I've also been told he's happy getting stoned and playing video games. He gave us a handful of awesome movies, so I guess that's good enough.

[–] Enigmaticocean77 (2490) 3 years ago

This movie isn't very good, but it has atmosphere, and it is fun. It's also a part of the Planet Mars craze that was going on around the time. The Mars rover had just landed, and pictures of Mars were all over the papers, on the news and in magazines. I believe that there was this movie, Red Planet (Val Kilmer), Mission To Mars (Gary Sinise) and the short lived Showtime series Total Recall (which is very underrated- it was like a Blade Runner TV series, only set on Mars). Are there any others that I am leaving out?

[–] [deleted] 3 years ago

I do remember the Mars craze. I didn't realize it was because of the rover.

[–] Enigmaticocean77 (2490) 3 years ago

The rover landed in 1997, Species 2 came out in 1998, Escape from Mars (TV mini series) came out in 1999, Total Recall 2070 (Showtime TV series) came out in 1999, Mission to Mars came out in 2000, Red Planet came out in 2001, Ghosts of Mars came out in 2001. Below is a list of movies that are set on Mars.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_set_on_Mars

The list isn't that long, but it does appear that the most activity for movies (based upon a trip to Mars) was after the original Mars Rover had landed in 1997. None of them performed very well at the box office. Mission to Mars was the only one to make even a slight profit.

I haven't seen any of them in a long time. I'll have to have myself a trip to Mars movie marathon some time. I'm fairly sure that I will enjoy Ghosts of Mars the most.