Ghost Town
By paranominal
Published: November 28, 2009
Tagged with: Activist, Amazon, Bertram, Bill Campbell, Dentist, Gaggle, Ghost Town, Ghosts, Greg Kinnear, Gwen, Home Video Release, Misanthropic, Paramount Home, Patter, Product Description, Restless Spirits, Ricky, Ricky Gervais, TéA Leoni, Unfinished Business
I can’t believe I wasted time with this movie.
32 people rated 5 stars. Let’s count how many ghost are in the movie.
Please, try harder next time.
Rating: 1 / 5
This movie was listed as a comedy. I kept waiting….but nothing was funny. The movie was boring. The story line was dull. I gave up 2/3 of the way in. What a waste of time.
Rating: 2 / 5
Version: U.S.A / DreamWorks / Region A, B, C
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
MPEG-4 AVC BD-50 / High Profile 4.1
Running time: 1:42:17
Movie size: 30,79 GB
Disc size: 38,35 GB
Total bit rate: 40.14 Mbps
Average video bit rate: 31.85 Mbps
Dolby TrueHD Audio English 3248 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 3248 kbps / 24-bit (AC3 Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps)
Dolby Digital Audio French 640 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps
Dolby Digital Audio Spanish 640 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps
Dolby Digital Audio English 224 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 224 kbps
Subtitles: English SDH / French / Spanish / Portuguese
Number of chapters: 12
#Commentary by David Koepp and Ricky Gervais
#3 making of featurettes (HD)
Rating: 3 / 5
It seems we’ve seen every type of ghost film there possibly could be and that’s why Ghost Town doesn’t seem to be venturing into any uncharted waters. This film lacks the romantic premise of Ghost where the murdered lover returns to simultaneously tie things up with the love of his life and solve his own murder. This film is not some zombie film where the undead return to wreak havoc on the living. No, here we have those who have died with little [or big] things that are bothering them and they seek some resolve.
A sarcastic, misanthropic dentist named Bertram Pincus [British funnyman Ricky Gervais] technically died on the operating table for seven minutes and suddenly sees dead people everywhere! And they are talking to him endlessly. This is certainly not an original or funny premise. It feels like we’ve seen it all before somewhere though I cannot immediately put my finger on it.
A ruthless cheater Frank Herlihy [the affable, cute Greg Kinnear] was engaged to Gwen [the even more adorable and talented Tea Leoni]. Now he sees she is engaged to another and he wants that broken off and he thinks that Bertram can make it happen. Frank is determined that Gwen never marries this new guy. Why? I guess even in death he wants her to be miserable. So Frank feeds Bertram material that only Frank and Gwen would know and bing, bang, soon Gwen and Bertram are friends and hitting it off. Gwen seems motivated and open-minded while Pincus is just annoyed at everyone and everything the majority of the time.
Ghost Town moves at an excruciatingly slow pace and is as enjoyable as having a cavity filled. It is a shame because Gervais, Leoni and Kinnear should be working with much better material.
Rating: 2 / 5
Now I have to admit something first, I hate Ricky Gervais. There’s no other comedian in the world that I think could be more overrated than Gervais, so with that I tried to stay away from this film as long as I could. Unfortunately I got dragged into watching it yesterday and I must say it’s simply annoying and typical of my opinion of Gervais’ previous work. I guess in a way one of the prime reasons for me hating this film, is that Gervais seems to play himself throughout. I may be on my own here but I just don’t see what other people see in Gervais and his work. He’s just not funny to me and in my opinion he predictably fell flat in this film.
Ghost Town sees dental surgeon Dr. Bertram Pincus going into hospital for a colonoscopy only to find out that he was dead for 7 minutes in the theatre during the procedure. As a result of this he can now see and communicate with the Ghost inhabitants of New York. Enter Greg Kinnears character Frank Helihy who pesters him into breaking up the impending marriage of his widow Gwen (Tea Leoni). What leads is a rom com with quite an annoyingly predictable reasult.
I suppose a good reviewer would look for the good points of this movie and focus on them as a way of advertising the thing. I guess one good point would be the small role of Indian comedian Aasif Mandvi as Dr. Pincus dentist colleague. I’m a big fan of Mandvi’s and I was quite pleasantly surprised to see him appear basically out of nowhere.
I would honestly not recommend this film to anyone, Gervais is as terrible and annoying as always and I just found the film insufferable.
Rating: 2 / 5