Mars, which fared poorly with critics and audiences alike in its recent film appearances (Mars Attacks!, Mission to Mars, Red Planet) is not doing much better with John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars. "Occasionally veering into that so-bad-it's-good category," Liam Lacey comments in the Toronto Globe and Mail, "mostly Ghosts of Mars is just so bad." Many critics simply found the movie boring. "It's like a zombie picture directed by one of the undead," Elvis Mitchell writes in the New York Times. "We knew Mars was a dry planet, but this dry?" Jay Carr remarks in the Boston Globe. Steven Rea in the Philadelphia Inquirer disagrees -- sort of. "While this cheesy, heavy-metal melange of horror, space hooey and cowboy shoot-'em-ups isn't exactly dull," he concludes, "it isn't anything to write home about either. In fact, it's hardly worth writing a review."