Posted by tourdemars to Entertainment at August 16, 2001 12:00 PM

It’s bad form for a movie critic to review an audience. Especially at a free screening of a movie where the audience has no vested interest, because you expect a certain amount of restlessness among the masses. However, with "John Carpenter’s Ghosts Of Mars," I’m making an exception as I counted no less than 20 people walking out of the theater 30 minutes into the film. With mutilations and decapitations filling the screen every five minutes, it’s a small wonder why. With "Ghosts Of Mars," which resembles warmed over episodes of "The Twilight Zone" and outtakes from "Escape From New York," it seems Carpenter attempted to recapture both of those elements. Unfortunately, he just ended up with a horrible gross out film that a first year film student could easily improve upon. In Carpenter's defense, while walking out of the theater I heard a young man say, "Dude, that film was awesome." That comment made me stop and think. Maybe Carpenter hasn’t lost the elements of his earlier films after all. Forget about art. The man knows the business of movie making and how to make a fast buck from the audience he’s aiming for.