The Ghost Writer - John Harwood

JOHN CARPENTER'S BOLLOCKS

Advantages: It ends - mercifully
Disadvantages: It starts - regrettably

; The Thing, Hallowe’en and Escape From L.A. were all great movies. It came as something of a shock to me, therefore, to watch such a dreadful pile of rubbish as Ghosts of Mars – John Carpenter must be truly insane to attach his name to this crud. Right from the outset, the warning signs were there – the film had that cheap, B movie feel to it, and as time wore on, and the budget diminished, things just went from bad to worse. The premise of the film is entirely wasted. The film suggests that a former race of Martians have continued to inhabit the planet in spirit form – when the miners started digging, they awakened the spirits and became possessed. As with any respectable possession, this of course, leads to the humans to become quite mad, and to start cutting off and wearing one another’s faces – literally ...

LostWitness 03.06.2002 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of John Carpenter's Ghosts Of Mars (DVD)

John Carpenter's Final Insult

Advantages: see review
Disadvantages: see review

Ghosts of Mars(or "John Carpenter's" Ghosts of Mars as he would obviously prefer it titled) is a movie which for me at least hammers home the final nail in the coffin of one of horror's most widely respected directors. This guy has effectively done nothing which could be considered even slightly above B-movie fare since the 80s and in fact, when you think about it, the movies he is still churning out these days still resemble the 80s stuff. Halloween was a great movie, The Thing was a great movie, Escape From New York was watchable but cannibalised ideas from his previous 80s movie Escape From L.A. and these are what established him as a great director - everything he has made since screams otherwise. Ghost of Mars is a horrible piece of film making set in a matriarchal future. A mining operation on Mars unearths the aforementioned ...

wampyrii 23.10.2001 · Read full review
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Review of John Carpenter's Ghosts Of Mars (DVD)

Ghost Writer

Advantages: Well made, well acted, great modern, topical show
Disadvantages: Has it's limitations

effects sequences but I suppose this could turn a few people off who could see it as a poor relation to higher budget shows. So far the first two series have spanned 16 episodes between them resulting in a high quality content. However with a longer third series under way and a fourth series already commissioned, higher audience figures could put pressure on quality levels and the writers. Personally I really like Spooks, it’s classy, cutting edge, even dynamic, certainly one of the better shows from the BBC in recent times. Each episode is a combination of frantic pacing, intelligent and entertaining storylines, realistic and intriguing finales usually with a twist or two thrown in for good measures. The show does have its faults though, so far the stories centre on the spooks themselves with hardly any time being centred ...

WormThatTurned 25.10.2004 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Spooks