john carpenter's ghosts of mars ( 2001 ) ice cube , natasha henstridge , jason statham , pam grier , clea duvall , joanna cassidy , liam waite , wanda dejesus , duane davis , lobo sebastian , rodney a . grant , robert carradine , peter jason . music by john carpenter . written by larry sulkis and john carpenter . directed by john carpenter . 98 minutes . rated r , 1 star ( out of five stars ) review by ed johnson-ott , nuvo newsweekly www . nuvo . net archive reviews at <a href= " http : //reviews . imdb . com/reviewsby ? edward + johnson-ott " >http : //reviews . imdb . com/reviewsby ? edward + johnson-ott</a> to receive reviews by e-mail at no charge , send subscription requests to <a href= " mailto : ejohnsonott@prodigy . net " >ejohnsonott@prodigy . net</a> or e-mail <a href= " mailto : ejohnsonott-subscribe@onelist . com " >ejohnsonott-subscribe@onelist . com</a> with the word " subscribe " in the subject line . beware of movies with the director's name in the title . take " john carpenter's ghosts of mars " ( please ) . if the carpenter brand name wasn't superglued to the title , this embarrassment would surely have bypassed theaters entirely and gone straight to its proper home on the usa network . and i would have been spared a headache . the latest from the director of " starman , " " halloween " and " escape from new york " is a lousy western all gussied up to look like a futuristic horror flick . the production is set on mars in 2176 , where humanity looks for relief from the overpopulation strangling their home world . six hundred and forty thousand people in a matriarchal society live and work at outposts all over the red planet , terra-forming to make it more hospitable for future generations . a matriarchal society . terra-forming . sounds pretty intriguing , eh ? well , don't get your hopes up . 
