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Alphabet Killer, The Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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Ghost Town
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MPAA RATING: PG-13 for some strong language, sexual humor and drug references
Starring Ricky Gervais, Greg Kinnear, Kristen Wiig, Tea Leoni, and Billy Campbell
Bertram Pincus is a man whose skills leave much to be desired. When Pincus dies unexpectedly, but miraculously revived after seven minutes, he wakes up to discover that he now has the annoying ability to see ghosts. Even worse, they all want something from him, particutarly Frank Herlihy who pesters him into breaking up the impending marriage of his widow Gwen. That puts Pincus squarely in the middle of a triangle with spirited results. (Paramount Pictures/Dreamworks Pictures)
| GENRE(S): | Comedy | Fantasy | Romance |
| WRITTEN BY: |
David Koepp
John Kamps |
| DIRECTED BY: | David Koepp |
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: December 23, 2008 Theatrical: September 19, 2008 |
| RUNNING TIME: | 102 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: | USA |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
The average user rating for this movie is 7.9 (out of 10) based on 41 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Matthew W. gave it an8:
A genine funny and touching movie. The chmistry between gervais and Kristen Wilg felt genuine and you really wanted to root for him as the underdog. There are parts that drag on but the ending is certainly worth sitting through them. I give it a 8/10 and a absolute winner for a date movie.Worth a DVD rental for sure.
Jay H. gave it a7:
Ricky Gervais gives a great and touching performance, Tea Leoni is a delight as well. Very good writing and direction, fine score. A very entertaining and touching film.
Ben H. gave it a9:
Ricky Gervais is great and everyone should take the time to see this movie and all of his work
Harold G. gave it a9:
I was totally blown away by the ending of the film. I didn't expect he'll get hit by the bus.It kept me guessing a second there.What now!haha! I was moved by the film especially about the Einstein part. Really good insight.Using John Mayer's song at the credits was also a big plus to the film. It really suits the emotion portrayed by the film. Very good.
Allan P. gave it a1:
Very poor, old fashioned, boring and crucially, UNFUNNY. I didn't laugh once - and I had seen all the mildly amusing bits in the trailer. Getting really bored of Ricky Gervais now too. Stick to writing Ricky!
Mark B. gave it a9:
Screenwriter (and sometime director) David Koepp not only makes amends for his beyond-pedestrian work on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and demonstates a comic facility that nobody would've previously credited him for, but has crafted a thoroughly charming, touching and frequently uproariously funny supernatural comedy-romance that can stand proudly with many of the classic fantasies of yesteryear, as an Ebenezer Scrooge-like misanthrope is reformed by ghosts--or, to put it another way, a Tin Man gets a heart. British character comic Ricky Gervais is an acquired taste I haven't acquired until now (I couldn't get through Extras, and vastly prefer Steve Carell's Americanization of The Office) but he's a real treat to watch her as the world's meanest (and most miserable) man, a loner who dislikes his fellow humans so much that he seems to have chosen the profession of dentistry for the express purpose of getting paid to make them squirm and suffer. The movie's opening half hour (during which Koepp displays a peculiar but real talent for transforming inanimate objects into hilarious supporting players) in which Gervais temporarily dies on the operating table during minor surgery, an event that enables him to see and communicate with dead people, comprises the most consistently amusing 30 minutes seen onscreen this year, with special props going to Kirsten Wiig, who plays an overly lawsuit-conscious doctor/ hospital administrator and who -- here as in last year's Knocked Up -- manages to make sheer, aself-serving duplicity seem almost adorable. And speaking of huggable actresses, Tea Leoni, playing a winsome, soon-to-be-married archaeologist whose dead husband (Greg Kinnear at his caddish best) employs Gervais to break up the engagement, is as usual wonderfully natural and appealing. A modern-day Carole Lombard equivalent, Leoni may not be able to buy a box office hit with someone else's money, but like Lombard she unerringly blends razor-sharp comic timing with effortless on-screen warmth; she's simultaneously glamorous and down to earth. (In 2004 Leoni delivered what was perhaps the decade's most underrated comic performance; many viewers and critics hated her as Adam Sandler's perpetually driven, insecure high-maintenance wife in James L. Brooks' Spanglish, but I spent most of the picture wanting to put my arm around her and tell her that everything would turn out OK and that she didn't have to try so darn hard.) The best movies of ANY genre, including the least strictly realistic ones (horror, SF, fantasy--and romantic comedies) almost unanimously display or reveal truthful insights about human nature, and one of the elements that makes Ghost Town so special is that Leoni's intended is not at all a bad guy or a buffoon, but the movie knows that in choosing him, Leoni is overcompensating for what a heel Kinnear was, but that to be truly happy Leoni needs a good person who's also a lot of fun to be with, and shouldn't have to choose between one or the other. If Ghost Town has any flaws at all, it's that it focuses on its central quadrangle -- compelling as it is -- at the expense of the OTHER ghosts' needs, which in some cases are even more vital (the stuffed squirrel scene late in the picture is not only incredibly moving, but yields some truly stunning character revelations). Perhaps all will be revealed in the deleted scenes portion of the DVD, but just what was it that the naked dead guy wanted Gervais to do anyway?
Laura F gave it a10:
This movie was stunning. It causes you to shed buckets of tears - whether because you're laughing your face off or because of the touching humanity portrayed in the characters.
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