Ghost Town Review

[wbassett]

He sees dead people... and they annoy him!

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Actors: Ricky Gervais, Greg Kinnear, Téa Leoni, Jordan Carlos, Dequina Moore
Directors: David Koepp
Writers: David Koepp, John Kamps
Producers: Ezra Swerdlow, Gary Barber, Gavin Polone, Joseph E. Iberti, Roger Birnbaum
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Widescreen, NTSC
Language: French (Dolby Digital 5.1), English (Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
Region: Region 1
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Number of discs: 1
Rating: PG-13
Studio: Dreamworks Video
DVD Release Date: December 27, 2008
Run Time: 102 minutes


My wife and I were bored and flipping through the on demand titles. At first the description of Ghost Town sounded like cheap farce on The Sixth Sense. There is obviously a similarity in the sense Ricky Gervais' Bertram Pincus also 'sees' dead people, but it is unique enough that they actually pull it off.

One interesting departure from the typical Romantic Comedy is that Ricky Gervais isn't particularly handsome, and his character Dr. Bertram Pincus isn't particularly likeable either. In fact Pincus doesn't really like people all that much himself.

After a routine middle age medical checkup, Pincus finds out he had an adverse reaction to the anesthesia and actually died for a few minutes during the examination. Afterwards Pincus discovers he can see and talk to dead people. Seeing that Pincus doesn't even like the living all that much, he finds the dead to be even more annoying... especially since they all want something!

Ricky Gervais isn't exactly a house hold name here in the States. Before making his way into comedy he attended the London University and breezed through a degree in philosophy. Losing interest in his chosen profession, Gervais managed a few pop bands as well as a Queen tribute band. Gervais then tumbled his way into comedy.

Following that Ricky found a new job with the then fledgling and unlicenced radio station Xfm. It was here that Ricky took on a new assitant, Stephen Merchant, who would later become co-writer/director of 'The Office'.

For someone relatively new on the comedy scene, Gervias has great comedic timing. He plays Pincus to a tee, and we start off by truly despising this man. After his 'incident', we are introduced to Frank Herlihy, played by Greg Kinnear. Frank, like the other 'dead' people, wants Pincus to do something for him before he can move on to the afterlife. Frank merely wants Pincus to stop his widowed wife from marrying the 'perfect' man, who Frank insists isn't so perfect.

As the story unfolds so does an unlikely romance between Pincus and Frank's widow Gwen (played by Tea Leoni, probably best remembered from her role in Deep Impact). Slowly we begin to find out exactly what turned Pincus so sour on humanity. Gervais surprisingly pulls off this transition well and by the end of the movie I found myself actually liking this very unlikable guy.

Since this was viewed from On Demand, I can't comment on the DVD sound track, but I wouldn't expect too much seeing this is a standard fare RomCom.

All in all it was an enjoyable flick and for us guys that means we can watch this with the wife or girlfriend and actually pay attention to the movie.

I give it a solid and definitely recommend it for a nice movie night with that special someone that doesn't want to see Death Race or any of the many 'guy' flicks most of us watch!

We will be adding this one to our DVD collection.

[thewire]

I saw it on DVD but I don't recall much about the soundtrack. There was mostly dialogue and I don't remember any use of the surrounds except at the party and a few moments outside. I thought it was a well written script and although I never had a lump in my throat, it deffinitly had a classic style and atmosphere to it that made me step back and think awhile.

[Wayde]

this movie sounds interesting, I think Gervais is pretty funny.

[wbassett]

I had never seen or heard of Ricky Gervais before this, and yes he is funny and was a perfect fit for this role. It easily could have become a Simon Pegg vehicle and as much as I love his movies, he just wouldn't have been right for this one.

As for the sound track, I agree there doesn't seem to be anything spectacular about it but it also doesn't detract from the movie either.

One thing I did like was their little twist they put on why the dead were hanging around. That was a unique angle I thought.

I have a pretty extensive collection of RomComs because that's all my wife likes to watch. Some I really like, others are too over the top and sugary even she has a tough time sitting through them. Ghost Town wasn't like that.