GHOSTS OF MARS

Director John Carpenter returns to his slash-and-squirt roots with this Martian horror thriller. On the surface it's derivative of many a deep-space chiller (think Alien 3, Event Horizon, and Supernova), but it's really a retooling of his 1976 cult classic, Assault on Precinct 13.

The year is 2176, and Mars has been turned into an atmospherically correct mining colony. Lieutenant Melanie Ballard (Natasha Henstridge, who does the Sigourney Weaver bit in her undies and tiny tank T) leads a crew of rogue and rookie cops on an extradition mission to extract notorious murderer James "Desolation" Williams (Ice Cube) from a remote outpost. When they arrive, they find all the inhabitants either missing or butchered in the most unspeakable fashion; yet hanging tight in lock-up are Desolation and a few other wayward souls. In a flash, cops and cons are thrown together as a ghoulish horde of miners turned punk-rock marauders launch a gory and never-ending onslaught. How and why the sadistic berserkers came to be is pure cockamamie, but that doesn't detract from the campy fun of seeing Henstridge's babe commando hold Ice Cube's bristling thug under her thumb while doing battle with the minions of a bloodthirsty incarnation. At the Apple Valley, Entertainment, Flagship, Hoyts, Showcase, and Tri-Boro cinemas.