Ghosts Of Mars (15) 98mins - 2 out of 5

B-grade movies either end up as cult classics or unmitigated flops, writes Steven Shukor.

Ghosts of Mars is more than likely a candidate for the latter.

It's Mars, 2176 AD. Clusters of human colonies are living and working at far flung outposts all over the red planet, mining it for its abundant resources. But one of those operations releases a long-dormant Martian civilisation which starts taking over the bodies of human intruders.

Five cops, led by Helena (played by the buxom Pam Grier), are on a mission to transport prisoner James Desolation' Williams, the planet's most notorious criminal, to stand trial.

There is little meat to dig into in the first half-hour except for a few one-liners, funny only because they are incongruous.

Helena remonstrates her subaltern, Lieutenant Melanie Ballard (Natasha Henstridge) for being high while on duty.

Caressing, somewhat ambiguously, Lt Ballard's shoulder, Helena, her abundant attributes held at bay in a tightly fitted leather uniform, says: "I am going to need you as straight as possible."

"You don't have to worry about that, I'm straighter than you think," was Ballard's curt retort.

With exchanges like these, I was half expecting Grier to burst out at some stage with "You're under arrest, Sugar".

But no sooner than the thought was formed, it was dashed when fellow-cop Jericho Butler (Jason Statham) discovers her bloody head on a stake beside dozens of other similarly decapitated humans.

All hell has broken loose, prompting Jericho to alert his companions with typical British understatement: "We have got a situation."

The mining town they have reached has been overtaken by Martians and their mission turns into a battle of survival.

The heavy-metal ambience is reflected in the original score, which is suffocating and unrelenting. The action culminates with a bloody shoot-em-up as the humans try to escape.

What makes a B-movie a cult classic is that its flaws become inseparable from the film's artistic creation. The problem with Ghosts of Mars is precisely that it founders on its flaws.

* Out tomorrow

November 28, 2001 16:00